I like Luc Besson’s work. His films tend to be slick, pretty to look at, throw in some fun effects, and usually attract solid actors to the project. Lucy is no different, and lets Scarlett Johansson take the titular role in a science fiction-tinged action movie.

Lucy (Johansson) is betrayed into being a drug mule by a guy she’s seizing, and finds herself carrying a super-powerful drug for a Korean gang. When she’s assaulted, the package, sued inside her, ruptures, and causes an overdose which activates her brain, raising it above the 10% the rest of the world uses.

She’s evolving quickly, becoming incredibly powerful, able to control her entire body, electrical fields, and even people. She plans to hunt down the rest of the drug to get it before it hits the street, and ingest herself, before it’s too late.

She’s evolving incredibly quickly, and maybe not live more than 24 hours.

She reaches out to a neurological scientist, Norman (Morgan Freeman), and promises to share what she’s learned about human evolution, and so much more with him. She also pairs up with French cop Pierre Del Rio (Amr Waked) who works to stop the gang that is determined to hunt down and kill her.

Johansson is charming, and settles easily into the action role. She’s captivating, but the film is way too short, and doesn’t develop its characters and narrative. It doesn’t even hit the 90 minute length, and that’s too bad, because it could have been a much more engaging film.

There just isn’t enough time to see what is happening to Lucy, and it rushes too quickly, not letting her enjoy the moment, or exploring all the possibilities of what such an evolution could mean for humanity.

There’s a bit of a 2001 ending to things, as Lucy breaks the spatial/temporal barrier, and evolves into something more than human as the credits roll. It’s fun, but a little more narrative development could have made this one incredibly enjoyable.

Freeman isn’t given enough to do, he gives a lot of exposition, but doesn’t have much to do beyond that. Johansson is charming, and wonderful, and Besson has a great eye for visual style, but I just didn’t get into as much as I would have liked.

There wasn’t enough going on. It wasn’t rushed, just too damned short to do anything but gloss over everything that was happening.

It could have been more.