“Transcendence” wants to be thoughtful popcorn entertainment about the nature of the relationship between man and technology, but it boils down to one non-techie concept: it’s hard to keep a good man down. Too bad the same was true of the movie’s gawd-awful script.
The “man” in this case is Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp), the world’s foremost researcher in the field of artificial intelligence. He’s been working to create a sentient machine that combines the collective intelligence of every human who’s ever lived with a full range of emotions, but still has a lot of ground to cover.
Will’s work has drawn the attention of R.I.F.T., an anti-tech group that sends one of its members to fire a radiation-laced bullet into his abdomen to allow him to die slowly.While R.I.F.T.’s reasons for taking this route as opposed to killing him outright are unclear, blurry motivations run rampant in “Transcendence,” as characters frequently switch allegiances with no explanation other than it moves the story forward.
Will is married to Evelyn, who comes up with what she believes is a great idea: upload Will’s consciousness to the computer he’s built before he dies. The moment when she first mentions the idea to Will’s best friend, Max, highlights the awkward nature in which many scenes in “Transcendence” play out. I’m paraphrasing, but it comes across like, “Oh, hey, we could upload his brain to his computer, and he’d be fine.”
They succeed, of course, and once online, Will propagates onto the Internet and begins the process of evolving mankind. With his mind tapped into the power of the world’s most powerful computer, the sky’s the limit, and in time, he makes breakthroughs in nanotechnology that allow him to perform what seem like miracles. All the while, Max stands on the sidelines hissing, “That’s not Will!”
“Transcendence” is the kind of movie that invites unflattering analysis while you’re watching it. For starters, Depp is usually fun to watch, but his work on the film comes across as lazy, like he’s just practicing his lines and didn’t hear the director say, “Action!” The rest of the cast does decent work, which is surprising, giving the amount of stunt work they were required to do. Of course, most of the stunts involved jumping through plot holes so huge, they’re like portals to another movie that makes even less sense.
An example: the FBI assigns an agent to the search for R.I.F.T. early on, but after Will becomes a threat to mankind, the agency doesn’t devote more resources to the case. Rather, their man on the ground inexplicably teams up with R.I.F.T., a terrorist organization, to take Will out. Would it not have been easier for the guy to call headquarters and say, “Hey, this thing is getting out of hand. Can you get in touch with the Army?”
I suppose budgetary limits kept the military out of the movie and the action scenes at a small scale. While “Transcendence” features impressive sets and small scale special effects, what I’m assuming was originally envisioned as a large scale showdown during the climax of the film is too scaled back. It looks like a cheap movie set battle, not a realistic, organic conflict.
Worse, the ending is a convoluted mess that leaves you wondering what happened. If you see “Transcendence,” email me your theories. Was it really Will? If so, what was his true goal? Did he accomplish it? Director Will Pfister and writer Jack Paglen either weren’t sure, failed to make things clear, or thought ambiguity would be clever. They went for something emotional rather than concrete, but in leaving viewers scratching their heads, they failed to connect with their hearts.
One thing that’s clear is that man, as an organic, emotional being, will persist. It’s a nice idea, and in fact, there are a lot of nice ideas in “Transcendence.” I like how technology transforms Will, or Not-Will, into something he wasn’t in life, and how Evelyn becomes his prisoner, essentially trapped by her reliance on technology. But poor writing and often clunky directing keep the good ideas from gelling into something meaningful.
“Transcendence” is a failure, but an interesting failure that might be worth watching once it’s available for home viewing.
Two stars out of four. Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action and violence, bloody images, brief language, and sensuality.