I wanted to see Grand Budapest Hotel but unfortunately, the sucky mall only screens it twice in the evenings. With no other choice, Lorenz and I sat down to the first show of the latest Johnny Depp flick.

So here’s my round up of Wally Pfister (notably known for being the cinematographer for Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster hits – Inception, The Prestige, The Dark Knight)’s directorial debut, Transcendence.

Please note that there may be spoilers. Read at your own risk.

THE STORY:

Will (Johnny Depp – Alice In Wonderland) and Evelyn (Rebecca Hall – Iron Man 3) Caster are a married couple researching on Artificial Intelligence, interested to see just how far it can go, although for slightly different reasons. Will, the quintessential scientist, is “seeking to understand how the world works”, while his wife is “seeking to make the world better” through A. I. Part of their quest is their best friend Max Waters (Paul Bettany – Priest) and Joseph Tagger (Morgan Freeman – Lego Movie) who both end up crushed when Will becomes the subject of R. I. F. T. (Revolutionary Independence From Technology), a hyper-intelligent terrorist group who disagrees with their very mission. They believe that trying to create a sentient artificial intelligence is an attempt to “create God” and will diminish humanity’s ability to become human.

They shoot Will with a bullet laced with a radioactive chemical that will ensure his death in less than a month. Evelyn, distraught over the possibility of losing her husband forever, decides to enlist Max’s help in uploading Will’s consciousness into the A. I. program they’ve been working on.

THE GOOD:

1. Paul Bettany was a joy to watch. This dude really commits, you know? Even with the silliest roles, he digs deep to show to us a three dimensional character.
2. Rebecca Hall. As far as leading ladies go, she’s a good choice because even though she’s extremely beautiful, she’s still extremely likable and you would buy that she’s a genius scientist. You understand it organically that she’s doing all of this because she’s a wife who can’t get over the death of her husband.
3. The CGI was fantastic, especially the nanotechs.
4. This shot of Cillian Murphy. He was totally underused in this film, just like Morgan Freeman, and in retrospect I’m thinking that he only signed on as a favor to a friend.

THE BAD:

1. Johnny Depp. He was very bleh in this film. I guess he shines in the outright crazy roles, yes? The cray-cray of Will was at best very subdued and that type of crazy just isn’t up Depp’s ballpark.
2. Rebecca Hall’s white shirt that just refused to get dirty. I’m putting it here by request (here ‘ya go, Lorenz!) but once it was mentioned to me, it literally was the only thing I saw onscreen. That shirt must be made out of the same stuff that Megan Fox’s pants were made of in Transformers 2.
3. The opening of the film. It basically gave away how it would all end, thereby robbing it of any chance to be the tiniest bit suspenseful.

THE UGLY:

1. The lack of backstory on R. I. F. T.. Because the initial attack was so severe and so extreme, I was waiting for an explanation as to why they would put that much effort to defeat a threat that hasn’t even come to full fruition yet. How did the organization come to be? What was their proof that the Artificial Intelligence would eventually become an unstoppable monster? It was very hard to sympathize to their cause because even though you eventually learn that yeah, they turned out to be right, in the back of your head you know that that’s not good enough of a reason to kill all those people and still leave the big shots alive and kicking.
2. The lack of suspense. It became evident that this was a debut film of director Wally Pfister because the supposed suspenseful scenes were a bore. It’s a shame because there were at least a couple of scenes that could’ve been really memorable, had they been set up properly (the warehouse scene where Evelyn was racing to upload Will online, R. I. F. T.’s initial attack to Brightwood). As it is, it felt like the film was going through the paces.

All in all Transcendence is an okay film. It had good intentions, the plot was solid enough to be interesting and the cast mostly gave good performances. It was just failed by an inexperienced director who (I felt) rushed through some of the sequences that, had they been handled properly, could’ve propelled the movie to something great.

THE VERDICT: 6.5/10. Probably better if seen on cable.

*All photos are lifted from the film’s IMDB page.