Movies always have been a product of their time, a reflection of what is going on in the world in which we are living. With programs like Siri and Cortana we can now talk to our phones and they will answer our questions. We are slowly moving to a situation in which computers are getting “smarter”. Of course that also brings the fear that they will eventually see us as a threat and terminate us or simply ignore us. This has been the basis for the Terminator movies, but also recent films like The Machine and even Her. Transcendence gives the concept its own spin and looks at artificial intelligence in the form of Johnny Depp.
Depp is Dr. Will Caster, a prominent scientist in the field of artificial intelligence who is about to make his big breakthrough. There are some groups though who see his research as a huge threat to society and are willing to do anything to stop that progress simply because the implications could be too grave. The price Caster and his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) have to pay is huge when it appears that Will won’t be living very long. Evelyn decides to make a copy of his brains and transfer the data to a computer, hoping to be able to keep him alive that way. The question is whether what’s in the computer will still be the same Will or if he will be a new life form which might have a big impact on humanity.
The questions this movie poses are interesting, but unfortunately the execution of the story isn’t always strong enough, especially if you know a little bit about IT. Then it becomes quite clear that some technical points are unrealistic or a simple shortcut was taken. The characters in the movie unfortunately don’t all get enough screen time (especially the group who is trying to stop Will Caster) which results in a story which is mostly told from one side and doesn’t get really thrilling during its running time, even when Will’s powers are increasing. The ending of the movie is disappointing and illogical. Transcendence isn’t a completely failure, but when it comes to movies about artificial intelligence, the ones I mentioned earlier are better than this one.
Interesting that some people compare this to The Machine (which was made with a tiny fraction of its budget) so I hope more people are gonna check that one out instead. I haven’t seen this yet but I still might rent it just to see how bad it is.
Well, since it also has AI it is understandable even though they are very different. Good to check it out, but it doesn’t hold a candle to The Machine, which I thought was a lot better.
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