Transcendence (2014)

• Year: 2014
• Released: 18 Apr 2014
• Country: United Kingdom, China, United States
• Adwords: 3 wins & 5 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2209764/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/Transcendence
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/transcendence
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: PG-13
• Genre: Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
• Runtime: 119 min
• Writer: Jack Paglen
• Director: Wally Pfister
• Cast: Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Morgan Freeman
• Keywords: love, scientist, artificial intelligence, terrorism, technology,

	6.2/10
	42/100

Transcendence Storyline

A brilliant innovator in the field of Artificial Intelligence becomes the bridge in the gap between man and machine in this Sci-Fi thriller starring Johnny Depp. His entire career, Dr. Will Caster (Depp) has been working toward one goal — to create a machine possessing the entire spectrum of human emotions, and the collective intelligence of every person who has ever lived. But while Dr. Caster’s unorthodox experiments have made him famous in scientific circles, a radical anti-tech group known as Rift is determined to stop him at all costs. In the midst of an attack on A.I. labs across the United States, one Rift agent manages to shoot Dr. Caster with a radioactive bullet, ensuring his death. Little did Rift realize that their efforts to destroy Dr. Caster would only make him stronger than they ever could have imagined, because before he dies, his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and best friend Max (Paul Bettany) successfully transfer Dr. Caster’s consciousness into a computer, where his hunger for knowledge and power transforms him into an unstoppable force of sentient energy inhabiting every computer and electrical system on the planet.

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Transcendence Movie Reviews

Creating God and in our own image

Transcendence is one of those films that will really get the gray matter churning over its implications. Hard to believe but Johnny Depp the kid from Crybaby who later became Captain Jack Sparrow is now a scientist exploring creating artificial life that is not carbon based.

Those Captain Jack Sparrow films bring in the money for the poke allowing Depp to essay an incredible array of parts. He can certainly add his role here to that list.

Depp, his wife Rebecca Hall and best friend Paul Bettany are all researchers into computer science. They’ve got nothing less than the creation of self aware artificial intelligence as their goal. But there’s a group of terrorists out there, not unlike extreme right to lifers who are so adamantly against this direction of science that they’re killing all who are involved.

Depp is wounded, but his wounds will prove fatal as they’ve been administered with bullets containing radium poisoning. Knowing his physical body is dying, Depp gets his mind transferred into the super computer of his design. He also has a holograph image projected mostly for his wife whom he still loves despite his existence in cyber space.

After that Depp know just human intelligence in a computer starts doing some amazing things. People who are frightened easily want to bring the supercomputer of Depp down.

Is this indeed the nature of God? A reasonable theory. Is what he does the nature of healing our environmentally wounded planet? Could be.

Depp has a most difficult role to deal with, his character has been artificially enhanced so he’s beyond human kind. But he still has some human feelings. Has in fact he made himself God and has dominion over all living things on planet earth.

There was a film in the Seventies called Colossus The Forbin Project which also dealt with two super computers who take over dominion of life on earth. But those two didn’t have the human face of Johnny Depp. Nor was the science sufficiently evolved.

I think there was an inside joke here when Morgan Freeman was cast as a scientist. If you’ll remember he played God in a film once himself.

Transcendence is a fine film with credit going to its producers and star for bringing us a film that will be making you think weeks after seeing it.

Better than expected…

I wasn’t expecting to like TRANSCENDENCE very much, and that was based on the plot summary alone. Johnny Depp as a computer genius whose mind is uploaded into a computer? It sounds like an old-fashioned and predictable kind of story, one of those ones that require a huge suspension of disbelief and test the acting performances of those involved. Having just finished, I was pleasantly surprised by the movie, which is no masterpiece but is pretty interesting and good in places.

I’m not a fan of Depp and never have been, but you’re not supposed to like his character here so that doesn’t matter too much. The computer stuff is more interesting and the film incorporates some CGI effects work that was later borrowed for the villain in TERMINATOR GENISYS. Of course it all gets over the top and rather unbelievable, and that old cliché of fixing things with a computer virus is wheeled out once more (remember INDEPENDENCE DAY?).

Still, I liked the direction and cinematography makes for a bright and colourful movie, better than the usual grey and dreary offerings. The supporting cast is excellent and includes Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Paul Bettany, Kate Mara, Cole Hauser, and Xander Berkeley. They’re all fine if underutilised a bit. The one who stands out like a sore thumb is Rebecca Hall; nothing wrong with her acting, but her character is one of the dumbest ever which makes her a truly despicable protagonist. I don’t mind characters acting ruthlessly or with moral ambiguity in films but when they act really dumb then I can’t help but feel that it’s the scriptwriter at fault.

doesn’t really work

Max Waters (Paul Bettany) lives in a world where electronics don’t function anymore. Five years earlier, he is hoping to cure diseases with the help of Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) and his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) who are researching Artificial Intelligence. Joseph Tagger (Morgan Freeman) leads a government group in Livermore. Bree (Kate Mara) is part of an anti-technology terrorist group that launches simultaneous attacks on AI scientists. Joseph loses his team and Will is shot. FBI Agent Buchanan (Cillian Murphy) investigates the attacks and Will’s PINN Project. Will is mortally wounded from radiation poisoning by the bullet. Evelyn convinces Max to help her download Will’s brain into the PINN computer before he dies. Bree kidnaps Max to help her group take down Evelyn after she unleashed Will into the world.

This movie works at times. Sometimes it almost works as a thriller. A lot of times, it kind of works as a horror movie. It’s taking on a lot of big subjects and I really want it to be better. Coming into this with so many bad comments, I was initially pleasantly surprised by its watchability. It has some elements of horror in the middle but the movie struggles in the last act. It would also be great to find a lead to follow. Rebecca Hall would be the natural lead for a good horror movie. However the movie tries to be too much. It just doesn’t really work.