Deja vu much? After watching Lucy, with Scarlett Johansson as the title character, I feel like I’ve seen this before…oh yeah, Limitless! Except Lucy is not nearly as good, or believable. (Some spoilers in this review, so consider yourself warned.)

The whole movie is based on a myth that humans only use ten percent of their brains, which is untrue, but it makes for a standard plot device in science fiction movies. While it would be easy to overlook this stale plot device, there is a line between entertaining and ridiculous.

Lucy, played by Scarlett Johansson, gets mixed up with the Korean Mafia while studying abroad. Her boyfriend, who is the one involved with the mafia, is supposed to deliver a suitcase to the boss, but he isn’t on the best terms with him, so he tried convincing Lucy to do it instead. After she refused several times, he handcuffed Lucy to the suitcase, forcing her to deliver it. She gets kidnapped by the Koreans and the contents of the suitcase are revealed; drugs (gasp!).  But not your typical drugs – cocaine, heroin, or marijuana – it’s CPH4, a drug that can supposedly unlock parts of the brain that humans normally cannot use. A small pouch of drugs is then surgically inserted within her abdomen and she becomes a drug mule. Of course she gets kicked in the stomach, causing the drug bag to tear open, allowing the contents of the drugs to leak into her bloodstream. Lucy then becomes a she-god while she figures out what to do with now omniscient self. She reaches out to Professor Norman (Morgan Freeman) and tells him about what happened to her and what she plans to do with her newly found knowledge.

And that’s it. There is no major challenge she has to face, nor an opponent she must defeat.  We just watch her gradually lose her humanity and turn into a supercomputer (literally). While I like the idea of this film, it lacks development. It seems like the film is simply meant to show off the flashy action scenes and visual effects (though it does this quite well).

Unlike Limitless, Lucy is far more implausible and crosses the line to ridiculous. Not to mention there really isn’t much to the story or the people. The characters were so one dimensional, it was difficult to relate or feel anything for them. We don’t know much about Norman, the Korean drug cartel, or even Lucy for that matter! Prior to her incident with the drug cartel, she’s a party girl who’s studying abroad and then, the next thing you know, she’s this indestructible being with superhuman abilities. Professor Norman doesn’t appear very long in the movie, I would say approximately ten minutes to fifteen minutes total.

Johansson is amazing when it comes to being powerful, strong, and serious; as for fear and happiness, well it’s not very believable. When she is first kidnapped and she is pleading to be set free, her heavy breathing and far too expressive face were quite comical. She overdid the fear and made it unbelievable.

At times, I couldn’t watch the movie with a straight face during serious scenes. Lucy had telekinesis and was able to create invisible force fields. She was also able to make her enemies fly up into the ceiling, but it just looked funny. They were noticeably lifted with suspenders so it looked cheap.

All in all, the faulty premise, the lack of conflict, the underdeveloped characters, and the bad acting all cause me to rate Lucy a 3 out of 5. The action scenes, Computer Generated Imagery (CGI), and special effects get 4 out of 5. If you were hoping to see Scarlett Johansson running around in tight clothing while beating up bad guys, you’re better off watching The Avengers. Or if you were hoping to have a more believable and better thought out storyline, then Limitless is for you.