Weak

Rating: 6/10 (13 January 2015)

It's sad to see Besson sort of losing it. There's a footlooseness in Lucy that reminds you of his early stuff: But his early stuff is more enjoyable. It's hard to pin down exactly why. But I'll try.
Lucy loses it because it's just plain weak. The premise and setup is morally hazy. It just doesn't compute, in the sense of metabolizing into compelling development. I think that, as time goes by, I have less and less patience for hyperbolic, action-flick, urban fairy tale-style "evil"; and this flick's setup sequences establish exactly that. Sorry, but I guess I prefer human-dimensioned evil in my urban fairy tales, unless you're pointing the projectile over the wall of my credulity and firing all rockets, like, say, Robert Rodriguez, or a lot of fantasy/sci-fi (like Guardians of the Galaxy).
To me the whole sideshow involving Freeman and his coterie was an attempt to gussy the proceedings up with a Greek chorus. It was supposed to add theoretical rigor/gravitas, but just winds up coming off like cheap VO exposition of dubious scientific provenance, writ large.
There is a mythic element, and it's the ongoing play on the concept of a young woman moving toward an inadvertent, human-manufactured goddesshood, a la Dr. Manhattan. OK, that's sort of cool, and the film does deliver something compelling on that myth. It redeems the flick a little. But it still doesn't feel like enough. It's not an adequate basis for a 90-minute sitting.
In general, I found the film weak, and weakness in a film irritates me.
I can't recommend it.