Plot holes and weak attempts at profundity utterly destroyed this film.

Rating: 2/10 (27 July 2014)

As a forewarning, this review contains spoilers, so be aware.
I went into Lucy without significant expectations. While I was aware that the science the film is based on has been thoroughly debunked, I was willing to suspend disbelief in order to appreciate the speculative, science-fictional nature of it. For a variety of reasons, this film spectacularly failed to interest me, much less impress me. It shattered what minimal expectations I did have and left me feeling repelled and disappointed.
Firstly, I had trouble stomaching the constant striving for profundity that Lucy as a film attempted. It was as though the film was made to be thought-provoking and deep, yet the statements made, the understandings expressed, were so basic and superficial as to seem almost patronizing. At one point Lucy states that humans have dumbed down the workings of reality and the universe in order to comprehend it. It was framed so that it sounded like a significant revelation, as though it had never been understood before. But isn't that blatantly obvious? We're human. We have limitations. And pointing out those limitations does not a profound statement make.
Another significant problem I had with the film was the character of Lucy as a whole, and the significant plot holes that cropped up because of her godly abilities. While I appreciate the reasons for making her become a seemingly emotionless robot of a person, I can't find it in myself to be interested in a character who can do anything with impunity. From the time that she is on the flight to Paris, the film could have lasted 10 or 15 minutes and eliminated all the plot holes and senseless developments. She could have landed in Paris and collected the drug while outright killing the gangsters instead of just suspending them in midair while she collected the drugs for whatever reason (hint: it was just to manufacture drama and a weak, violent climax.)
When she is at the college with Professor Norman and the other professors, she asks Pierre Del Rio (the French law enforcement guy) to secure the area, because she needed to concentrate on what she was doing. By this time, I believe she was already at 50 or 60% capacity, and was able to control and manipulate multiple people at once, create invisible walls, and physically see and manipulate information. Why, then, did she not just dispose of the interference herself? Why was being able to focus a concern for her? Surely if she was able to do all those amazing things, she was also capable of multitasking.
The very beginning of the film up until Lucy is exposed to the drug is alright- Scarlett Johansson's acting is solid, and the scenes flow well. Judging by the first 15 minutes, it's decent, so it's doubly unfortunate that the film takes such a nose dive later on.
Ultimately, I think Lucy had potential, but not very much. It's a very difficult task to take a character, give them the powers of a god, and then expect a very human plot to seem realistic, much less compelling. I can appreciate the attempt to tell such a story, but it was horribly executed and I would not see the film again.