This is notably the first entry in this series so far where the only real reason to watch the film in question is Scarlett's performance.

The premise that Lucy is built around is dumb as Hell. It's best to acknowledge that up front and go into it understanding that the ridiculous pseudo-science that drives its plot is going to require a heavy suspension of disbelief. The movie makes this somewhat difficult, however, as it dedicates a good chunk of its runtime to expositional exploration of the oft misunderstood “you only use 10% of your brain” concept. Flowery prose and well-utilized stock footage don't compensate for the fact that the lecture given by Morgan Freeman's Professor Norman that serves as a framing device for the narrative sounds like the pontifications of a college freshman describing the first time they did DMT.

However, as previously stated, what is really on display here is another instance of Scarlett Johansson's oddly specific skill at depicting a human being who is not a human being. As the drug that catalyzes her transformation works its way further and further into her system, Lucy's cognitive and perceptive capabilities increase to the point that she starts to become detached from the world and from her own humanity--the more superhuman her physiology becomes, the less human her behavior is, and watching Johansson portray this gradual transition is captivating. Some of the best parts of the movie are the several long, unbroken shots of Lucy's face as she delivers monologues; her facial expressions and verbal modulations becoming mesmerizing in their subtlety and intensity.

The film as a whole, I think, would have benefitted from Luc Besson playing more to his well-documented strengths in creating scintillating, visually intense action narratives with just a little more going on under the surface than is typical of such fare, rather than leaning so hard on the scientifically introspective philosophical angle in a largely failed attempt to make Lucy more serious. The result comes across much like a dynamic, globetrotting sci-fi action film inescapably trapped within a dubiously researched clickbait article on human evolution.