Transcendence Review
By David Kempler
Bug Infested Computer Program
Wally Pfister, the cinematographer of
The Dark Knight Rises, makes his directorial debut with "Transcendence", a sci-fi flick whose message is that technology isn't really all that great, and it just may turn out to be the final undoing of the entire planet.
Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) and his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) are on the cutting edge of creating artificial intelligence. There are many scientists trying to get there, but Caster is the brightest of the bright.
At a conference, while Caster gives a presentation to a rapt audience, other computer scientists working on the same project are simultaneously murdered by explosions in their labs. There is a terrorist group that is bent on stopping this research because they think it will lead to destruction. The terrorists are the bad guys, as they usually tend to be, but even though we know they are perpetrating heinous crimes, it is not that tough to figure out that maybe they are not the bad guys. That is the primary problem of "Transcendence". I can't remember a single moment when I was fooled by the plot. It always went where it was programmed to go, like any well-written computer program.
Soon after word reaches Caster and his group of the attacks on his fellow scientists, Caster is shot, but he survives the shooting. Back home after being released from the hospital, Caster gets very sick. The bullet he took was radioactive and he will be dead soon. Evelyn and their best friend, fellow researcher Max Waters (Paul Bettany), after a lot of hand-wringing finally settle on a solution to their dilemma. They will try and upload Caster's mind into the computer before he dies and attempt truly artificial intelligence.
They fail in their quest and realize that the experiment has failed and they disconnect the computer, but at the very last second, Caster communicates with them by typing a message on the screen. Tears of joy and hugging follow. I mean between Evelyn and Max. Caster can't hug from wherever he is.
Caster directs Evelyn to build a gigantic computer facility outside a tiny town in the middle of the desert. While the building of the facility takes place, the terrorists are desperately searching for them to stop them. Will the facility go live before the terrorists get there? Will Dr. Caster be the greatest thing to ever happen, or will he be a horror, the likes of which we have never seen? The tension would be unbearable, I suppose, if there was any tension.
"Transcendence" is a very good-looking film. The performances are good enough, but the story is so predictable that I can't imagine anyone not seeing what is coming way before it happens. Then there is the problem of one of the main characters changing their personality in a way that makes no sense right at the climax. "Transcendence" is okay as far as mediocre sci-fi goes, but its name is awfully inaccurate. It is far from excellent and it is very limited in scope.
