Though the title implies it’ll offer a Peanuts spinoff about the world’s most famous fussbudget, instead, 2014’s Lucy delivers a sci-fi action flick. From noted filmmaker Luc Besson, this one looks at what one person achieves when she can tap her full cognitive capacity.

Set in Taiwan, the American Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) agrees to deliver a briefcase to Mr. Jang (Min-sik Choi). However, this goes south and her boyfriend Richard (Pilou Asbæk) winds up dead.

Lucy learns that the briefcase contains a remarkable synthetic drug that allows the user to tap the entire potential of his/her brain. When Lucy becomes injected with this substance, she develops superior mental and physical capabilities and she uses these to exact revenge on Mr. Jang and others who harmed her.

Even though I've enjoyed a bunch of Luc Besson movies over the years, I resisted seeing Lucy theatrically because it just looked dopey. The trailers left me with the impression that it would deliver a silly affair without the action impact I’d desire.

However, it got pretty good reviews, so that influenced me. With the knowledge of that praise, I gave it a shot.

Ugh. This turned into a bad decision, as I genuinely disliked the movie when I viewed it on the big screen in 2014.

Six years later, I thought I’d try again. I still have enough respect for Besson from his 1990s run that I thought perhaps I judged Lucy too hastily and harshly in 2014.

Ugh again – I got it right the first time.

Lucy goes awry in so many ways that I can’t even figure out where to start, so I’ll go with the opening scene. It hearkens back to prehistoric humans in a way that vaguely echoes 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The film does so in a condescending manner, though, as it uses the juxtaposition of past and present to tell us how modern humans bungled our evolutionary gift. From there, it pursues one pretentious, silly notion after another.

Poor Morgan Freeman finds himself stuck with lines such as “are humans concerned more with having than being?” Poor Scarlett Johansson mainly just acts robotic and kicks butt.

At least the latter allows the movie its occasional glimmer of life, as Besson still knows how to stage an action scene. Unfortunately, he buries these under so much idiocy that they lose effectiveness.

Lucy abounds with ridiculous symbolism, such as our lead character’s name. It’d be fine if Besson chose “Lucy” as a subtle nod toward the woman defined as the first human, but he can’t leave well enough alone.

Rather than make this an Easter egg for clever viewers, Besson shoves the reference in our face. He explicitly alludes to Prehistoric Lucy to ensure everyone gets his hamfisted imagery.

It gets no better from there, as Besson tosses out tons of inane symbolism. For instance, when Lucy goes into Mr. Choi’s building, we see shots like a mouse near a trap and a cheetah that stalks prey.

Yikes! Besson imbues the movie with tons of pseudo-intellectual notions that come across as immature and telegraphed. Besson desperately seeks to deliver intelligent social commentary but instead he leaves us with tedious pretensions.

The script itself seems flawed, as it suffers from clunky exposition and enormous plot holes. The fantasy side of the movie feels more and more idiotic as it goes.

And then there’s the CG effects, which look consistently awful. Whenever the film goes that way, the terrible imagery becomes a distraction.

Besson’s movies always came with their flaws, but at least efforts like The Fifth Element and Leon compensated with interesting characters and coherent stories. Lucy fails in almost all possible ways.

Lucy appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a strong transfer.

Sharpness worked fine, with virtually no softness on display. This meant the vast majority of the film was accurate and well-defined.

I saw no signs of jaggies or moiré effects, and the film lacked edge haloes or print flaws.

If you suspected Lucy would come with the modern standard teal and orange palette, you’ll get what you expected. I’d like to see action flicks dispense with those conceits, but given their restraints, they looked appropriate here.

Blacks came across nicely, as dark tones were deep and rich, without any muddiness or problems. In addition, low-light shots gave us smooth, clear visuals. All in all, this became a pleasing presentation.

I also felt happy with the solid DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Lucy. The mix offered plenty of opportunities for lively auditory information, and it took good advantage of these.

With plenty of action beats, the mix filled the speakers on a frequent basis. The track placed information in logical spots and blended all the channels in a smooth, compelling manner.

Audio quality was also positive. Music sounded lively and full, while effects delivered accurate material. Those elements showed nice clarity and kick, with tight low-end.

Speech remained easily intelligible and usually natural, though some lines suffered from awkward looping. For instance, the opening conversation between Lucy and Richard displayed a weird echo that sounded “canned”. Despite these minor issues, this remained a lively mix overall.

We find two featurettes, and The Evolution of Lucy goes for 16 minutes, 14 seconds. It presents comments from writer/director Luc Besson, Professor of Neurology Yves Agid, 1st AD David Chang, producer Virginie Besson-Silla, and actors Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Amr Waked and Choi Min-sik.

“Evolution” examines story/characters, cast and performances, stunts/action, sets and locations, and scientific concepts in the film. It never becomes a great “making of” program, but it does a fairly efficient job.

Cerebral Capacity runs 10 minutes, four seconds and brings notes from Besson, Freeman, Agid, and Duke Institute for Brain Science Professor Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy.

In this piece, we get some thoughts about the science behind the movie’s concepts. It offers decent observations but doesn’t seem especially insightful.

The disc opens with ads for Scorpion King 4, A Walk Among the Tombstones, Get On Up, Kill the Messenger, Dragonheart 3, The Man With the Iron Fists 2, Nightcrawler and Continuum.

In addition, Previews adds promos for The Bourne Legacy, Scarface, Contraband, Safe House, Oblivion, Van Helsing, Side Effects and Serenity. Ni trailer for Lucy appears here.

Back in 2014, Lucy made a lot of money and received generally good reviews. I can’t figure out why it enjoyed any enthusiasm, as I think it delivers an idiotic, pretentious experience with few positives. The Blu-ray boasts excellent visuals, mostly good audio and minor bonus materials. Lucy stinks.