Lucy

It's a shame but Lucy has to go down as a disappointment.

Taking cues from Luc Besson's masterpiece: Leon we get the awesome female heroine (played perfectly by Scarlett Johansson) and the gangster baddie but, what starts off as a strong pseudo-superhero movie with an academic twist, soon spirals off into highbrow existentialism.

The trailer shows the titular Lucy using her increased brain capacity to change her appearance, throw baddies around corridors and scare dogs but these scenes you've already watched are all you get in the film of her powers.

The ending is just not the payoff you expect, especially after Leon's "this is for Matilda", but there are still some nice Besson touches.

The cutaways to nature to give an extra dimension to scenes is nice, as are the special effects.

Morgan Freeman's professor is excellent, as is Johansson's Lucy, and there is a great film in here somewhere struggling to get out amidst the arty ramblings.

Worth seeing for the middle part of the film but not as good as it could have been.

3 stars ***