Wasted potential

Rating: 6/10 (24 August 2014)

Lucy is gorgeously shot, well acted and rattles along nicely for the first two thirds of the film. There's nothing new here, but it revels in how over the top it is. There is some character development, questions asked about the nature of humanity and a healthy dose of humour.
Unfortunately as the film progresses to its natural conclusion, far too much effort is expended on the special effects and little on plot development. Whilst the ending is in line with the progress of the film, that does not make for an interesting story. A twist would have maintained interest, or perhaps less time on how the last 30% of unlocking of potential develops and more time on post 100% potential.
Beyond a certain point Lucy herself ceases to become interesting - she's essentially untouchable due to her enhanced abilities, and the tension derives from the normal humans protecting her development. The final fire fight is insufficiently ridiculous - it needed to reach the heights of Desperado rather than remaining loosely grounded in reality, or retaining some vulnerability of the main character as per the similarly over the top The Fifth Element.
It's probably worth seeing once, but it's not a buy on Bluray. I'd rate the not entirely dissimilar Transcendence above this and friends have mentioned that Limitless is a better and more realistic implementation of the same idea.