Dear Christ

Rating: Null/10 (30 July 2014)

I thought the commercials on TV for this made it look pretty good. When the reviews came in, I sort of lowered my expectations. Nothing could prepare me for how bad this truly was. From the beginning, it seems like the director is intent on overwhelming us with transitions and cuts from the present to all of these "evolution" shots that, instead of feeling creative or intellectual, just feel incredibly stupid. And I'm not one to throw the word "stupid" around, but... I don't know how else to describe how obnoxious and annoying I found the film from the get go. I don't care how scientifically accurate this is, no. I just care that the dialogue and directing really range from mediocre to atrocious. There are a few decent scenes, but few and far in between. The car chase is an example, like if it was a scene taken from another actually-decent action flick. I will say that the second half is at least a bit better than the first.
Scarlett Johansson has been on a roll lately, and I'm a fan of her. But the reason it took me so long to warm up to her is because while I generally like her very much in her more subdued, quiet or more natural roles (Lost in Translation, Under the Skin) she has the tendency to just not be as convincing in more melodramatic, showier roles. Oh yes, she's pretty bad once her character here gets her powers, totally unconvincing at playing the emotionless aspect. She's supposed to play Lucy as if she has no emotions, but instead it comes across as her trying desperately to convince us that she has no emotions. But before Lucy gets her powers, she's also pretty bad, totally unconvincing and probably more laughably bad when she's trying to play a woman with fear for her life. What a misfire of a performance, although the girl tries hard enough and isn't nearly as obnoxious and as downright ugly as the film around her.