Writing and Directing Could have Benefittted from Brain Enhancement

Rating: 6/10 (31 July 2014)

For me this movie failed to deliver on several levels. It was neither as smart and slick as the brain enhancement movie Limitless nor as in-your- face kick-butt, (and slick) as Resident Evil's superbabe Alice. The opening scenes in which Lucy is being coerced by her loser boyfriend into making a questionable delivery, becomes annoying and tedious instead of building tension. The director uses cutaway scenes to wild animals stalking their prey to (hint, hint, nudge, nudge) suggest what is fixing to happen to Lucy--as if we couldn't figure that out for ourselves. Even the scenes in which our superbad drug lord forces Lucy to be a mule for his high tech drugs were slow and unconvincing. Morgan Freeman's brain utilization lectures were long-drawn and unimpressive as well. For such a short movie, there was a lot of waiting-to-get-on-with-it moments.
That being said, if you can make it through the slow, uninspiring beginnings, the movie does improve after Lucy's brain enhancement begins. For a 3:00 matinée showing the theater was surprisingly crowded, and the movie did manage to elicit a number of chuckles and laugh out loud reactions from the audience. There was a lot of whispered discussion going on as well, so maybe others were finding the movie more enjoyable than I. I found the subject matter intriguing but the delivery lacking focus and direction. See it if you have nothing better to do, but I recommend seeing it without great expectation. I give it a 6 out of 10. Could have (and should have)been much better.