Maybe if Besson had taken some of the drug, he would've come up with a better movie

Rating: 1/10 (29 May 2015)

Well, I have to say I came to this movie expecting the worst, and yet still ended up being disappointed. Even nearly a week after watching the movie, I'm still seething from its stupidity. I'll just highlight some of the things that drove me mad. I'm sure I will not be able to cover everything that was wrong with this movie: 1: for some reason, Besson thinks it is smart to splice in scenes of animals while Scarlet and her boyfriend are arguing about her acting as his replacement in an yet undisclosed errand. The message Besson wanted to convey is that Scarlet was walking into a trap (as if we couldn't figure that out on our own). Since we had earlier heard Morgan Freeman talk about the human potential, evolution, and Lucy, the scenes of cheetahs and gazelles were appropriate. The scene of a mouse approaching a trap was definitely not! It stood out like a sore thumb. I mean do we really need so much foreshadowing? Well, given how dumb the movie is, I can understand Besson thinking the average viewer would have an IQ in the single digits.
2: Many commenters have already pointed out the 10% brain myth that I won't delve any deeper here. Read the other comments or look it up on Wikipedia (or a regular encyclopedia if you so prefer).
3: I was especially disappointed in seeing Morgan Freeman in this role. I mean, did we really need a professor explaining some pseudoscience to a packed classroom? What is that supposed to achieve? Give credibility to the premise of the movie?
4: Scarlett's cells in one scene literally try to escape the inhospitable environment she creates when she sips alcohol (although she was using some 40% of her brain by then. So much for smart). She tries to trap them with her hands... feel free to cry here.
5: After the contents of the bag of drugs seep into Johansson's abdomen, she begins to convulse. That includes her defying gravity and sticking to the ceiling. Her eyes turn blue as well...
6: Although Johannson is in Paris when she begins her travels through time, she suddenly moves to New York to complete her journey. Were the producers too lazy to reconstruct Paris through the ages? However, in order to make a point, Lucy meets a CGI 'Lucy' (as in the Australopithecus fossil) although the latter was discovered in Ethiopia.
7: Scarlet Johannson is racing against time in order to transmit all the knowledge she accumulates to Freeman before she 'dies'. However, after she vanishes into thin air, Johansson is able to communicate with the French police officer through his phone, writing: "I am everywhere". If she is indeed everywhere and able to control matter, why the rush? She could've communicated with Freeman through whatever medium she chose after she had achieved omnipresence.
8: I found Scarlet's phone call to her mother especially laughable. She calls her mother to say: 'I can feel everything'. And her mother does not find that weird at all! There are many, many, more offenses this train wreck of a movie makes, but I'm getting a headache thinking about them again. It was bad enough I had to watch it once; I don't want to relive it again. Just avoid at all costs. Or, if you can borrow a copy for free, watch it with some friends (preferably biologists) and have a good laugh. Johansson's acting skills (and morals) have been taking a hit lately. I also am deeply disappointed in Morgan Freeman. Luc Besson, on the other hand, has always been bad. Maybe not this bad, but bad...