Transcendence - The Critics hate this movie because it makes you think…

Critics and some wannabe critics lashed out at this movie and nearly every review l read gave it a bad write up and l guess part of them is the reason l have for liking it. l went in still intrigued but not expecting too much. I was pleasantly surprised with it, it kept my attention and it made me think and l like movies that do that. l knew l really liked it when, by the time l was home, l was still questioning parts of the movie and its characters. 

Johnny Depp plays our lead Will Castor, an artificial intelligence researcher who aims to build a self-aware sentient machine with all the knowledge in the world along with a full range of emotions aka PINN (we never find out what this stands for but l came up with Personal Intelligence Neural Network….works for me!). Things start to go wrong when RIFT, an anti-technology organization shoots him – the shot doesn’t kill him but the bullet is laced with radiation poisoning and inevitably he dies thus bringing us to his wife and friend connecting him to PINN in attempt to save him mind and memories.  

There’s no shortage of A.I movies – PINN to a degree reminded me of the A.I. in I, Robot - V.I.K.I there was also just recently the more sensitive movie “Her” and Shodan from System Shock – who we know had evil intentions.  While l enjoyed these movies l think Transcendence itself was more thought provoking questioning how far technology has already come and what is ahead of us in the future.

The movie is directed by Wally Pfister who is Christopher Nolan’s favourite cinematographer (with good reason) and at times l could see a bit of Nolan’s directing but maybe that was just me. The movie looked good at all times, there are some beautiful visuals throughout the movie thanks to the cinematographer Jess hall who uses some truly beautiful shots of nature while still giving us that futuristic feel. The only issue l had with the movie in general was at times it felt a little disjointed and slow in places, that being said this is the first script we have seen from Jack Paglen and as first time writer it’s not bad as such, just a little unevenly paced in places. 

Johnny Depp as always gives a great performance (although it was slightly odd not seeing him in the usual make up normally required for his chosen roles). He plays the part Castor convincingly which wasn’t as easy as you might think. Rebecca Hall plays Evelyn Castor (Will’s wife) and has most of the screen time, she plays her character extremely well and holds her own against Depp and Freeman.   Morgan Freeman and Paul Bettany also have roles in the movie both of who play them well, although l would have liked to have seen more of Morgan Freeman. Cillian Murphy plays our FBI agent and at times I found he fell a bit flat that being said he has little screen time and it doesn't affect the movie.

I can understand people not liking this movie it’s not for everyone.  l would put is as a scif-fi thriller and if you not interested in technology and what it is possibly capable of in the future you’re probably going to get bored with it, there are a few action scenes but not enough for those simply looking for an action flick. There also isn’t a clear person or side to root for as such. There are no “good guy’s vs bad guys”. In this respect it is very nebulous, which is what leaves you with your questions, would you be part of RIFT or would be working alongside Will Castor?  A few reviews l read felt that Will Castor was in fact the villain of the movie, l personally didn’t see that, he was the first A.I. with emotion – and being inside a computer that never turns off is going to give you a lot of power and a lot of time to think of new ideas.  So – how far do you go and do some of your positives for mankind eventually turn around and become negatives? What happens when these ideas become a reality?