Better viewed as philosophy than "science"

Rating: 5/10 (8 February 2015)

Lucy has its flaws. A lot of them as a matter of fact. It sets itself up to be a great sci-fi action film, but after half an hour, ends up taking the worst aspects of gratuitous action scenes and mixing it with Space Odessey philosophy. It has a habit of switching between the philosophy and action in a whiplash inducing manner, during which the characters remain startlingly undeveloped. And frankly, I'd argue that another flaw is not using Scarlett Johansson to her full potential in either acting or action.
But like a lot of things, if you step back and recognize it for what it is, that this as a bunch of what-if-ing half dressed up in badly researched science parading around as an action blockbuster? It's actually not that bad. Not great mind you, but dismiss the science and approach it as a "What if we could increase our brain's capacity? What would that mean for us as humans?" sort of thing and you begin to recognize that it actually has some good moments and interesting thoughts.
It's a well-budgeted movie of its time, and has some great shots and pretty moments. The music has its moments too, although it is mostly standard. Most the action scenes are very well-done, although there was one towards the end that struck me as cool in theory but a bit goofy in practice.
While I would not recommend paying money specifically to see this film, I do think it is worth a watch.