#680 – Transcendence (2014)

Transcendence (2014)

Film review #680

Director: Wally Pfister

SYNOPSIS: Artificial Intelligence researcher Will Caster is shot by an anti-technology terror group. Given only a month to live, his wife Evelyn makes a desperate attempt with the A.I. they have been working on to upload Will’s consciousness when he dies. When they succeed, the A.I. Will asks to be connected to the internet, and starts to rapidly evolve with access to an unlimited amount of data and information…

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Transcendence is a 2014 sci-fi film. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) and his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) are at the forefront of a project to develop a genuine Artificial Intelligence, which draws the attention of an anti-technology group. Will is shot with a polonium-laced bullet, which gives him severe radiation poisoning and a month or so to live. In desperation, his wife plans to upload his consciousness to their A.I. project, despite hesitations from their friend Max (Paul Bettany). The upload succeeds and Will, now a fully fledged A.I., wants to be connected to the internet and expand his horizons. The story of the film is your typical cautionary tale of Artificial Intelligence going too far too fast, coupled with a romance drama between the husband and wife leads. The thing which stands out for me is that the film never really sets out one side or the other as the heroes or villains of the story, and as such you’re constantly oscillating between who is wrong or right. This is a double-edged sword: on one hand, as a viewer you’re never quite settled into who plays what typical role, and have to remain open to all of the different viewpoints that do not cleanly resolve themselves into right or wrong actions. On the other, this makes the film very muddled with a lack of direction or purpose. While it is possible to pull of the former, this film ultimately falls into the latter; the lack of direction and flow means that the film doesn’t really build up to anything, and any kind of pacing is constantly thrown off by big leaps of time passing and different characters changing their positions with little warning.

While the focus is on the perils of artificial intelligence and all it entails, the film doesn’t really offer any new ideas or viewpoints that make it stand out from the very familiar sci-fi set-up. There just seems to be something missing with the relationship between Will and Evelyn that isn’t properly explored to service as a basis for the film to develop either; baby which I mean you could forgive the more typical stuff if it had a unique personal drama and characters, but that’s sorely lacking too. By the time the film enters its climax after nearly two hours, the film has turned to very typical sci-fi shlock (and I like typical sci-fi shlock) with nanomachines controlling people and such, and a rather awkward confrontation that doesn’t really provide much of a resolution. All this stuff just distracts from the characters and makes the plot feel very generic. This film has a good, recognisable cast, but it just feels like they don’t really have any material to work with, and their inclusion feels like a waste. Director Wally Pfister’s directorial debut has made a film with some style and clearly taking inspiration from Christopher Nolan, whom he has previously worked under, but a really washy script that doesn’t grip any of it’s idea or characters well enough to develop them into something profound or impactful by the time of the climax takes the two hour runtime feel like a lot of waste. Transcendence has some expertise behind it and exhibits some style, but even the weak ideas that are explored are drowned out by typical sci-fi tropes that prevent either some profound position on the subject matter, or a meaningful relationship between the characters to emerge, resulting in a less than profound experience.