Technology gone mild.
The H-Bomb: Scientist Will Caster (Johnny Depp) is on the brink of creating a revolutionary new kind of artificial intelligence, one that can fuse a human mind with a computer. His work has raised the ire of anti-techie nuts of the world, who believe his work is “going to far.” One such zealot (played by Lukas Haas, the Amish kid from Witness) decides to take action by shooting Caster at a conference. Turns out, Caster’s shooting was part of a coordinated attack against A.I. researchers across the country, which included bombings and even a mass poisoning.
Caster survives the shooting, but as it happens, the bullet was radioactive, and he only has a few weeks to live. So, instead of spending his last days lying about and watching himself rot away, Caster enlists his wife/colleague, Evelyn (Rebecca Hall), and fellow A.I. researcher Max Waters (Paul Bettany), to help upload his own consciousness onto a super computer he designed. Even though Max has very strong misgivings over the potential dangers, not to mention general ethical concerns, he reluctantly agrees to assist Caster in carrying out his dying wish. The upload is successful, as it seems Caster has been resurrected in program form.
Upon gaining this new found consciousness, Caster requests to be hooked in to the Internet. Since that could potentially give Caster access to any network and database on the planet, and grant him all sorts of unchecked powers, Max backs out. But Evelyn, being the faithful wife, believes that this is her husband in this machine and grants his request. Once that happens, Caster starts to spread through cyberspace and grow into the very monster the anti-techies were afraid of (sorry, I’m a technological idiot, and Morgan Freeman can explain this shit better than I can).
Speaking of Morgan Freeman, he’s on hand as a government scientist who once worked with Caster, but fears what he could become. Naturally, the worst case scenario comes to pass, as Caster taps into every system on the planet, becoming all seeing, all knowing… all powerful. He’s now a threat to everyone and everything, and the government must team up with the anti-tech terrorists, and Morgan Freeman, to figure out a way to stop him… if it’s not too late.
Just to state this up front, Transcendence is not the piece of shit that some critics would have you believe. Is it some kind of misunderstood masterpiece? No, not at all, but it’s not a train wreck, either. As I’m sure most of you have heard, Transcendence is the directorial debut of Academy Award winning cinematographer, Wally Pfister, who’s been Christopher Nolan’s DP of choice from Memento all the way through to The Dark Knight Rises. Working from a script by Jack Paglen, Pfister’s debut feature boasts a strong visual style and an ambitious narrative that deals with real themes and ideas of man overstepping his bounds and technology running amok.
Now, for those who are used to their science fiction consisting of little more than CGI robots mashing senselessly into each other, the amount of thought put into Transcendence may be too much to wrap their tiny minds around, but do these check-your-brain-at-the-door types really make up the majority of the movie going public nowadays? Perhaps, given Nolan’s involvement (as executive producer), people were expecting another Inception? Well, to be clear on that point: Transcendence is no Inception. It’s not an action film, at all. It’s a plot driven affair that is very much on the talky side. For that reason, many found it underwhelming, even boring. I did not. For me, it’s concept is both scary and relevant, and for the most part, I was with it.
I must stress, though, that the film is far from perfect. The tech-heavy exposition gets a bit tiring, the numerous debates over whether or not this A.I. is really Caster, or something else, get a little repetitive, and the climax, while providing plenty of explosions, does lack energy and excitement. Instead of seeing Caster gradually spreading through cyberspace and gaining power, which would be interesting, the film instead establishes that he’s online, and then jumps ahead two years to when he has pretty much become omnipresent. And the way in which Caster manifests in the physical world, through human drones, is downright silly, and belongs in a schlockier sci-fi flick.
The acting is overall pretty strong, though Cillian Murphy and Kate Mara, as an FBI Agent and a tech terrorist, are pretty much wasted, and Morgan Freeman is basically playing Morgan Freeman. Depp, abandoning his typical goofball theatrics, is decent, if perhaps a bit too understated, as Caster. It’s appropriate when he’s playing the computerized version of himself, but the human Caster could have been punched up a tad in the personality department. Bettany is quite good as an early voice of reason, though his transition from computer geek to gun wielding revolutionary is less than convincing.
The real star of Transcendence is Rebecca Hall. Depp may be top billed, but the film centers mainly around Evelyn, how she becomes her husband’s enabler, and how she remains loyal to him, even after it’s obvious what a threat he’s become. What’s missing is a reason as to why she is so loyal to him. We only know that Evelyn and Caster are so deeply in love because the dialogue straight up tells us that they are, rather than giving us a sense of that through their interactions and chemistry. That, however, is the fault of the writing, not of Hall. She conveys her sense of commitment to Caster quite well, and she does a lot more to make me care about Evelyn than the script did. Hall is definitely a movie star in the making, though this is not the movie that’s going to make her into one.
Bear in mind, I am in the minority here, but all things considered, Transcendence is not half bad. The latter half of the film really could have used a shot of adrenaline, and it would have been nice if screenwriter Paglan had bothered to give these people personalities. That said, I believe it’s entirely undeserving of the critical drubbing it’s received. Again, the film is not without flaws, and it’s definitely not a mind blowing action spectacle, but it’s not the dull, dreary slog that many have accused it of being. Perhaps the negative word of mouth worked in favor of Transcendence, as I was expecting it to be a massive disasterpiece. Instead, I found Pfister’s feature debut to be a smart, if a bit anemic, thriller with a disturbingly plausible idea at its core.
