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The Elusive Samurai Review

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It’s time for one of those series that takes place in the really old days of constant warfare and strife. It does still have that Shonen boost though so you can expect a whole lot of big fight scenes all the way through. In theory his could have been really good but the author goes too far into trying to get some hyper realism here while at the same time also bringing in weird supernatural elements. Basically if the series could fall into some kind of hole, it did. This title hits every snag possible and definitely ends up being a title that I would not recommend.

The series begins with Tokiyuki’s family being murdered by Takauji. He runs the whole clan out of the village and assumes a position of political power. Tokiyuki aims to get revenge and restore his clan’s honor but it won’t be easy. Takauji isn’t just the most powerful man on the planet, he is also possessed by a literal demon. This demon allows him to break the minds of his opponents and perform a lot of miracles that are not humanly possible. Tokiyuki will need to take a slow burn approach on this, one that will take many years. Even if it takes his whole life, Tokiyuki will never give up!

This title made it all the way to 25 volumes which is really impressive. I should also mention that there are a ton of time skips within the series but the artist goes out of his way to make sure that none of the character designs change. So when you’re binging this visually, you don’t have to worry about the characters constantly changing even if it does mean that it can be easy to forget just how old they are.

I’ve got more negatives than positives for this series so lets go into the good things first. The artwork is pretty good. While it is often used for really explicit visuals that get crazy, the actual quality is really high up. You’re not going to see a whole lot of titles that can keep up with this one in the long term.

I’d also say that the fight scenes can be really solid. Usually they tend to get ruined by going way too far but the initial clashes are always great. There is also a lot of strategy in the battles and the army fights are done well. It may not be on the level of something like Bleach or Kenshin when it comes to the sword fights but on the whole the fights can be good.

Now on the issues, well of course first we have the ultra violence. This series just tries to push the envelope as far as possible to the point of just being super excessive. People die in all kinds of imaginative ways and in this kind of series you’re really hoping that the first blow destroys you. If you live then things are going to get many times worse for you. The constant bloodshed may remind you why the villains have to be stopped but it doesn’t help that Tokiyuki’s group has a lot of crazies as well.

I feel like there is some kind of narrative hidden within the series about how psychos will take advantage of war to legally murder people. It’s the kind of grim plot that would be right up this title’s alley. There are some good characters here but the cast as a whole is definitely one of the weaker ones. Then of course we also have a considerable amount of animal violence. It just keeps on coming and a ton of horses die throughout. It’s part of why I usually shy away from the old war titles because often times the horses are going to be casualties. Definitely ends up being a real downer.

Another issue is the crude visuals here. It’s sort of like crude humor but not really because these scenes are in no way meant to be funny. Instead it just shows you how far Takauji has fallen. His spit has mind control properties within it and this is used several times. There are so many scenes that will just have you gagging here. Yes, we do have the fart bombs from one of the ninja so there is full on crude humor here as well. Mix it all together and this is a title you won’t be forgetting but certainly not for good reasons. You won’t be able to go a volume without something messed up happening.

There’s an audience for this of course like with good ole Chainsawman which always sounds crazy in the worst ways but generally this is definitely going to be a flop for me. Your strengths as a series would have to be absolutely incredible to overcome all of this. Since the setting isn’t really my thing and the title is too down to earth for crazy DBZ style fights, the situation was not exactly in its favor. That said, the series is so messed up that it is hard to picture any change in situation really working to its favor.

Tokiyuki is definitely a weird main character with how much he loves to be chased. The guy gets all excited about it and especially enjoys when the stakes are life and death. I guess you gotta follow your passions and all. By the end of the series he is known as a really good commander and got a lot of big wins. I dare say the ending will end up being disappointing with how it all plays out but the author was more or less trying to follow the plot of the real events. I’d say he just did it with broad strokes.

Tokiyuki also showed some indecision in the series with how he could not pick one heroine. Whenever that happens it definitely makes you shake your head. I know things were different back then but it’s not the biggest consolation that you can have. Even by the end of the series Tokiyuki isn’t the strongest fighter but his speed really comes in handy. He is able to really hold his own just thanks to that attribute. It’s why I always say that speed is so important. I never ended up becoming a big fan of this guy but at least he did have some solid moments in the series.

As for the final boss Takauji, he has a large presence throughout the series. His crazy gimmick is that he likes to pretend to panic and act like a coward when he is secretly at the top of the foodchain. This guy has plans without plans and so the heroes always have to try and keep their guards up. The series gives him a bit of a cop out by the end although there is a qualifier to it so I appreciated that. I certainly didn’t like Takauji even as a villain because he was too all over the place but I can definitely say that I respected his power. You could throw the whole main cast at him and 9 times out of 10 he would defeat them.

They were all normal humans going up against someone who could take on whole armies with his willpower alone. The series wrote itself into a bit of a hole with how strong they made him. Even by the end a lot of plot armor was needed but the series did try here. None of the other villains ever get close to this guy’s level but that’s always how it was going to be. The series really revolves around Tokiyuki and Takauji, with all the side characters doing their best to help out.

Yorishige serves as the mentor role for the lead. He has the ability to see the future and even has vague cosmic powers. This guy really ends up bailing Tokiyuki out of trouble on more than one occasion. Without him, things would have certainly been darker. While he technically misses out on a good chunk of the series, he remained as one of the more memorable characters. Naturally the series couldn’t resist making him a bit weird as well and the jokes there tend to get old quick. This isn’t really a series that is going to leave you laughing the whole time.

Shizuku takes over as the cosmic fighter for the second half of the series. She is in a tough spot though because she is supposed to try and remain emotionless and ready for any challenge. At the same time she fell in love with Tokiyuki so that makes it difficult for her to live up to this. It would have been good if she could have been more honest about her feelings at an earlier point but better late than never. She is one of the supporting characters who actually ended up being fun all the way through.

Nezu is also a solid character and the main muscle of the army. He is a total prodigy who has been able to fight at a high level ever since he was a child. He is fairly young for a good portion of the first arcs after all and only gets stronger from there. His weakness is in his physical strength which makes sense. He has biological limits no matter how skilled his actual swordplay was. This guy just has no real asterisks, no annoying gimmicks that hurt him or anything like that. So that really helped put a feather in his cap.

Ayako is a strong heroine and I mean that quite literally as the series shows her raw power to be downright inhuman. She can be a bit more awkward than some of the other characters but always tries her best. She is another character who likes Tokiyuki which is something she has to deal with while still entering the front lines every time. I thought she was a pretty solid character in the end. Out of the 3 main heroines she would technically be in last but at least it’s fairly relative.

Genba is a thief who helps Tokiyuki quite a lot throughout the series. He always likes to hide his true expertise under a mask of jokes and comedy. A fairly effective strategy if you ask me. That being said, he could get a bit old at times. Usually it feels like he is just buying time for the main characters to get ready. He’s super useful in a war and someone that you want on your team but as a character he is far from being one of the more entertaining ones.

Fubuki has to be one of the more tragic characters. He goes through a whole lot of strife and turmoil at every corner. The poor guy had to be experimented on and basically had his mind broken. Sure he gets to finally be himself at the very end but you wouldn’t want to have to go through that for any price. The villains who messed with even try to have a mini redemption arc. Not to turn good but basically saying “No hard feelings right?”. The whole thing is swept under the rug way too quickly. I did think that he was a really fun character though. The heroes had desperately needed another fighter in the group as well.

Natsu is Genba’s partner in the story. Initially she was a spy for the villain side but finally came around and became one of the better ninja in the group. By the time she joins it is fairly deep into the series though so I wouldn’t be expecting her to be getting a huge role or anything like that. Still, no complaints on this end. I’d say she was one of the stronger supporting characters.

Shina had a really tough time of things as she took on some fierce injuries. Eventually she was able to fight again with the help of some sword legs. It’s hard to imagine just how difficult it would be to walk around like that but she actually managed to pull it off. Her role isn’t super large but she does end up being a fun character as well. Finally we have Mima who join in as one of the main heroines. The fact that she can actually fight is a big W although she naturally gets weaker the instant that she becomes a good guy. It just seems to be something that happens inevitably to characters when they switch sides. She is also forced to share Tokiyuki which is not exactly a great honor. Either you are the only special one or you’re just another one of the allies.

Tadayoshi is Takuji’s brother and ends up being one of the biggest villains. He may not have a demon power at his disposal or a great amount of physical strength in general but makes up for it with intelligence and strategy. He is always doing his best to stay two steps ahead and is the one guy that Takuji actually listens to. Deep down Tadayoshi knows that he could be betrayed at any moment though. His loyalty runs deep in spite of this.

Sadamune is a villain with incredible archery abilities. His eyes also let him see a great deal in an instant. The villains all seem to have super abilities like this but this is probably the most tame one. Yes, being able to see well is really useful but it’s not on the same level as super strength or anything like that. This guy actually had a real large amount of respect for the main character. They may have been enemies but sometimes you just like to find a strong rival.

Interestingly the heroes also had an expert archer in Kitabatake. This guy could definitely hold his own and was a real inspirational figure on the hero side. I can’t say that I abided his methods though. He essentially believed that might makes right. As long as his men were taking their opponents down, it was not a problem that they were all so murderous the whole time. I fundamentally tend to disagree with this even in the context of war. In particular there was one berserker on his team who was always itching to murder people as violently as possible.

You always want to be careful that you aren’t becoming as bad as the villains. Granted, in this series that would be really difficult. You have a horse monster who is super crazy and then Nagao who was basically an emotionless killing machine. The villains had lots of crazies among their roster although surprisingly they didn’t tend to kill each other off too often. Their underlings though? Yeah they tend to dry in droves throughout this series! It is definitely not the kind of position you want to have here because odds are that you won’t survive it. One villain even starts throwing his own minions at the heroes like rockets.

There are more characters but this handles most of the main ones. The series does involve a lot of nonstop battles amidst the war so you’d think that would make it an instant winner. Instead it reminds you why a series still needs to succeed in the fundamentals. If you abandon those then you really don’t have a chance. I will always give the series credit for lasting so long but ultimately it is going to be near the bottom of the Shonen Jump barrel.

Overall, The Elusive Samurai was not the next Kenshin. If you want a good sword series in the modern day then I hear that Kagurabachi is really good. Otherwise you just need to wait until the next Bleach sequel comes out. The anime could elevate this series by toning things down. It seemed like season 1 was content to go hard but some of the stuff in the manga is so intense that you assume it has to be toned down somewhat. I suppose we’ll find out one way or the other as things move forward.

Overall 2/10

Inside Daisy Clover Review

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This film I technically saw almost a month ago but it’s time to finally look at one of those films that tries to tell you not to become a famous actress. At the very least it reminds you not to trust random people who may not have your best interests at heart. Inside Daisy Clover is an annoying film where the main character makes every mistake possible so there’s a rather depressing atmosphere around at all times. The film never really gets any better either…so you can tell this is not one I would recommend.

The movie starts by showing us that Daisy’s got a pretty rough life at the moment. Her father ran off a long time ago and her sister quickly escaped as well. Her mother lives in a broken down trailer but doesn’t really want to change her lifestyle. As a result Daisy works at a little record company where she is constantly harassed by one of her supposed friends. When she is able to potentially get work as an actress she quickly ditches this place as fast as possible. Raymond will be her boss now and he only has 3 rules, 1. Nobody must ever find out about Daisy’s past, 2. No affairs with local actor Wade, and 3. She must do whatever he says in order to make the films a masterpiece. Can Daisy do this?

Well, right away Daisy begins to have an affair with Wade who convinces her to go visit her mother at the asylum and then they skip a conference so the rules are out the window. Part of the problem with Daisy is she is portrayed as a little naïve most of the time. She is very quick to believe that Wade actually cares for her despite the guy’s rep as a flirt who has an affair with everyone. Here’s my problem, why would you think that you’re different? If someone’s already betrayed 6-10 people, why not mess with one more?

He pulls this off more than once and each time Daisy thinks that things might be different. Deciding to get married was also one of those scenes where you just shake your head. Then she rebounds into a romance with Raymond who we find out is definitely not a good guy. He even starts to get violent when she is sick in bed with some trauma over the whole thing. The end of the film is in theory trying to put Daisy in a happier spot after hitting rock bottom but things are definitely not going to be easy for her considering all of the burned bridges everywhere.

The issue is that Daisy just isn’t likable right from the start. She didn’t have the best upbringing so you’re not surprised to see her acting out but you kind of hopes that during the film she would have been able to change herself. Unfortunately that just wasn’t to be. It goes without saying that all of the other characters are bad though. Yes, you won’t find a single good character here which is really unfortunate.

Her childhood friend basically just wants to fool around with her and can’t keep his mind on anything else. Wade is much the same way as he goes around the country having affairs. Raymond is completely focused on making a lot of money and will use anyone to get it such as poor Daisy. His wife is a drunk who knows what is going on but can’t do anything about it so she just keeps on drinking. Daisy’s mother burns her house down and always acts irresponsibly. I guess you could say Daisy’s sister was reasonable but even for her the film hinted she was only around for the money.

A film can only be as good as its cast and this cast as abysmal. The writing is also not that impressive as the film just tries to make things as depressing as possible throughout. Daisy never manages to catch a break or she just keeps on digging a deeper hole for herself. Even the film bits aren’t particularly interesting. The only scene that I thought was at least a little effective was when she was in the studio and had to keep on doing a retake for the same song over and over again.

Raymond didn’t look very smart here since he should have known that she was close to a breakdown but decided to continue anyway. Well, that’s why he ended up with this result. We kept changing camera perspectives from inside the recording booth to outside where it is completely sound proof so it was an interesting parallel. It’s almost directed like a bit of a horror scene which was pretty cool. Not the kind of scene that can save a film of course but at least it’s one that I certainly remembered.

One of the general morals here seems to be that being an actress is never worth it. You’ll inevitably end up in a bad setting with people trying to trick you and the money drying up right away. That seems to be how all of these films end at least although you hope if Daisy had at least not fallen for Wade then maybe she would have been able to succeed on her own. It’s unlikely but you never know.

Overall, Inside Daisy Clover was a pretty bad film. The movie is going for a rather gritty vibe from the start with how her town seems rather town down and even the glitzy world of Hollywood seems rather darker than usual. Just take a look at the place she auditions when you watch the movie. It’s a dark hole in the wall with only one functioning light. Everything seems shady and run down in this world so good luck finding any place that looks okay except for Raymond’s mansion which is spooky in itself. I think doing a film about how horrible a career acting is will always be a difficult task because you have to make everything seem as dark and unpleasant as possible but then that means you probably won’t have any likable characters or you would have to bump them off. I’m sure some would do a better job than Inside Daisy Clover though so definitely pass this one by and look for something better. Maybe check out Singing in the Rain for how this should be done but in a more positive light.

Overall 3/10

Attack on Titan: No Regrets Review

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It’s time to look at another Attack on Titan OVA. I read the manga version of this one a while back so I basically knew what to expect. I definitely considered it to be one of the better spinoffs and it did a good job of making Levi a good character. The main series disregards that of course as it makes everyone compromised by the end, but that’s why prequels can be cool sometimes. The OVA is divided into two episodes with the first one being really good and the second one pretty bad. The mix makes for an outcome that you’d probably expect from the franchise.

The story starts with a girl named Isabel running from shady fellows who are unnecessarily gritty as always. Levi stops them and the guys retreat. Isabel realizes that learning how to fight would be pretty useful here so she joins the group and becomes one of the team. The other member being Furlan. She gets the hang of things rather quickly. Unfortunately, one of Levi’s comrades is taken to a hospital and held as a hostage so he and his team are forced to join the Survey Corps to murder the commander Erwin to help a corrupt politician escape persecution. Can they accomplish the task before they are eaten by titans?

The first episode is pretty fun. It still gritty in some aspects, but there aren’t any titans running around. It’s just Levi and the others trying to survive the slums. Levi’s a pretty stand up guy who looks out for his comrades and he gets a lot of respect around the place. He’s the kind of heroic main character that you’d expect to find in a Shonen. He goes through with the scheme to get Erwin because if he doesn’t his friend will be in trouble. He’s just a great all around lead and he also knows how to fight. His 3D Vertical maneuvering abilities are second to none.

Furlan is a good second in command. He doesn’t have much character except that he is always ready to help Levi and also stands up against injustice. That’s good enough for me. Finally, Isabel is a chipper young cadet who is eager to help out. Her first scene has her protecting a bird which is a great start and it even gets to live which makes the whole thing even better. The dynamic between the three characters is pretty fun and that probably would have made for a pretty fun show on its own. I had no real complaints with the first episode. The animation was sharp and the soundtrack was good. The ending could have even worked as an ending since it shows how he joins the corps.

The second episode is where it all goes downhill. The first half wasn’t bad as we see the characters excel in the Titan hunting practice. Levi may use an unorthadox grip, but it gets the job done. The other members may not like it, but as long as he gets results they can’t do much about it. They still plan to destroy Erwin, but there aren’t really any openings for them to accomplish this. The guy is like a stone wall that blocks everyone off. Finally, they get their chance on a titan hunt when the rain gets extra thick. Levi goes ahead to take Erwin down, but as he leaves a titan murders all of his friends so he murders it as well. In despair, he decides to follow Erwin’s cause so that his life can now have meaning.

Erwin’s not very sympathetic to the whole situation as the show portrays him as a guy who’s been around the block many times. None of this is as a surprise to him anymore and he’s made of sterner stuff. He’s willing to cross any line if it means defeating the Titan so he’s not really a hero. He just aligns himself on the same side as the main characters. He’s not my kind of character, but he’s certainly someone who’s useful to have on your side. At least he saw through Levi’s plan the whole time so he’s fairly cautious. It makes sense to be suspicious when the characters were caught so easily. I like to think Levi would have defeated Erwin in a fair fight.

What hurts the second episode is naturally how super violent and dark it is. The animation uses a detailed style to try and make the deaths as graphic as possible. You see the spine and body parts as their remains are found. It’s definitely super done and likewise with Levi’s fight against the Titan as he keeps on slashing it over and over to take his rage out on it. I would have preferred the light novel approach where Titans just turn to steam and don’t really bleed. Those were the good ole days.

Levi was still a great character of course as avenging his comrades is the first thing he should do and he did abandon the mission to check on their safety right away. It’s like Spider-Man’s origin story as his choice ultimately decided their fate. He couldn’t do everything, but the overall message of the OVA was good. You can’t regret your choices when you don’t know what outcomes they will bring. Some choices lead to positive outcomes and some don’t. As long as the decision itself was good, then you shouldn’t actually have any regrets. Levi’s reasoning for joining Erwin wasn’t bad either. I definitely think part of it was helping to avoid what happened to his friends to anyone else. Who wouldn’t want to stop the Titans after that?

What makes it more painful for him is that he warned his teammates not to come. Their skills aren’t at the same level as his so it makes sense that it would be dangerous for them. Still, it’s not as if he could have stopped them from coming in the end so what’s done is done. It’s a pretty sad ending to the OVA and I would have preferred the first one, but it shows why Levi is so cold to everyone.

As I mentioned earlier, the graphics are really good. All of the character models are really high quality and the fight scenes are smooth. The Survey Corps battle with Levi squad is definitely the best part of the whole thing. The animation and directing did a good job of showcasing their speed without getting distracted or spinning around in an attempt to look good. Some anime try to do that to be clever, but it’s a cop out. The soundtrack is also great as it grabs a lot of the good themes from the anime and plugs them in. The fun techno theme is always a fun addition and I’ll never forget it from the very first Attack on Titan episode. It was a good way to start the series….for an instant.

Overall, No Regrets had a solid beginning, but a weak ending. It’s a little too dark/gritty/tragic at the end which brings down the score considerably. That’s why Attack on Titan will always be limited since it always goes down when the Titans appear, but a series without Titans would be a completely different show. Still, it definitely has an interesting premise and I’d probably recommend checking it out over the main show. If you like the OVA then you should go ahead and watch it. The intro is included here and some quick exposition so you’ll know what’s happening from the get go. I have another OVA coming up and it has the potential to be the best yet as we return to the main cast. It’s hard to say which ending was more tragic and mean spirited, this one or Ilse’s Notebook. I dare say it would be the latter since Ilse was by herself and pretty much defenseless while at least Isabel and Furlan had each other, but it’s close. Hopefully the next one has a happier ending so it can end the OVA on a solid note.

Overall 4/10

Lucy Review

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This review is of the edited TV-14 version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would likely be a lot more negative.

It’s time for one of those films that you know is going to be bad from the get go. That being said, you always end up being curious on just how bad it could be. Lucy lives up to the expectations and then some as it gets real gritty right from the get go. It also gets pretty abstract and meta by the end as well so you can make your own theories at the end. It’s essentially a poor man’s Salt, but with added sci-fi powers.

The film starts off with Lucy being tricked by her beer buddy. He handcuffs her to a suspicious package that he was carrying since he knows that he’ll be murdered if he actually makes it to the destination. He figures that maybe they’ll go easy on Lucy and in a sense he’s right. The Yakuza syndicate decides to spare Lucy as they surgically implant her with drugs to take across the country. The beer buddy is shot to death anyway so he couldn’t find a way out in the end. Along the way, the drugs end up breaking out of their bag so Lucy gains super human abilities. She can now manipulate time, has super strength, telepathy, telekinesis, and a bunch of other stuff. She is effectively all powerful now and decides that she will use these abilities to beat people up and find the truth to the universe. Can she do all of this without instantly abusing her powers? Afraid not

The film can’t seem to decide if Lucy is downright evil at times or if she is only evil because she believes that she is above everyone. Regardless, you see her mowing everyone down in some moments and then in others she’ll suddenly become more of a pacifist. She shoots one guy who was having an operation since she claimed that he was going to die someday anyway…but she still murdered that innocent civilian. Then…she decides to spare the main villain. She just stabs him a few times before leaving and this allows him to make a comeback and murder a bunch of cops and hospital workers before the heroes bring him down. Of all the people to let live…she chose the main villain. It does make you wonder.

Also, the problem with the film is that Lucy is too powerful. She can do anything, but still makes the humans run to the front lines. When the mobsters are after her, she sends a few agents to stop them. A lot of these men die in the line of duty while she is busy talking to scientists and making her own computer. She could have just taken them all down with a wave of her hand and then gone back to the computer. Apparently it just wasn’t worth the effort since she is so far above being human now. In case you couldn’t tell, I didn’t like the character. Lucy’s not even sure what her personality is so it switches constantly during the movie. She also lost most of her personality anyway by the end of the film since apparently having all of the powers in the universe gives you a jaded view of the rest of the world. I suppose that’s fair, but it’d be nice if she wasn’t so boring about it.

Aside from that, lets talk about why the film isn’t good. It really all boils down to the fact that the film is super violent. It goes to extreme lengths the whole time which is why the film was quite far away from getting the PG-13 rating. You’ve got a lot of people shot pointblank in the film, surgeries being performed, and naturally some pretty shifty villains who only have pleasure on their minds. It makes for a pretty hard to watch combo as the film never really lets up on this. There are no happy scenes in the entire film. Sure, Hollywood crams in one of the most sudden and irrelevant kisses in all of cinema just so the film could have that element in there, but it’s just a dreary film the whole time. Lucy treats all of the characters like her pawns and she spends most of her screen time dancing around the real questions or waiting to be asked a decent one. The “experts” are pretty annoying since they don’t ask anything meaningful either. It felt like they were extremely slow on the uptake considering that they’re supposed to be the brightest bulbs out there.

The only good scene in the film was probably the montage where we got to see the cops catch all of the kidnapped people at the airport. One of them wisely tried to evade the police, but it was all for naught. That being said, the film didn’t want us to think that it lost its edge so immediately afterwards, the cops decided to leave these people by themselves. Effectively they did that anyway as they left one or two cops, but they were easily taken down by the Yakuza. I don’t know what the plan was there, but it was pretty bad and naturally they were murdered once again in a gruesome fashion.

Lucy’s climax decides to get even more messed up as we find out that she sacrificed all of those lives for a flash drive. I’m not sure if that’s a good deal and I was half expecting the scientists to chuck it in the trash. They’d have some kind of excuse like “Humanity’s not ready for it yet” and then the film would end with the revelation that nothing was accomplished in the film’s duration. Kind of a sobering thought isn’t it? The visuals were pretty nice as Lucy gained dark matter abilities and started to run wild, but it still didn’t really amount to much in the end. It’s a problem that a lot of horror films have as well. If the villain is all powerful and the humans are ordinary mortals…then it’s not going to be very interesting. The sides are so unbalanced that there can be no fights, only massacres. You always want to have a well matched battle or at least one where the opposing side can realistically fight back.

Lucy is all style and no substance. You’ll be hard pressed to find a film more devoid of entertainment than this one. Just keep in mind the fact that there are no happy scenes in the entire film. The whole thing…it’s all extremely serious business as everyone speaks in an emotionless, monotone voice. The cast is super small as well which is probably for the best since more characters wouldn’t necessarily help matters at all. The film would just need a complete re-write to be even semi decent. I’d also say to switch out the main actress since she always seems to play the exact same character and that’s not what Lucy needs. Lucy should have focused on the fact that she got cool powers and came to terms with them to fight an alien invasion. Not getting all powerful in an instant and then getting bored with it all. It’s too much in too short of a time span. The final twist of Lucy actually being an ape was also just a face palm moment.

Overall, Lucy’s not a good film. You’ll know this within the first 10 minutes of the film and it never goes up from there. The visuals can be fun when they aren’t being used for gratuitous violence but that’s hardly enough to keep your interest. Lucy uses her powers in the most inefficient ways possible and she has no empathy for anyone. She may know a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean the data is worth everyone dying for. I’d recommend watching something that has cool action scenes while not getting too dark. Check out Man of Steel. It’s also pretty serious with almost no comedy moments, but it still keeps the atmosphere light enough for you to have some fun with it. It also benefits from having a better cast. After all, Lucy is basically the only real character here. The cop and the scientist do much aside from being around for the facial expressions and “epic” camera zoom-ins.

Overall 1/10