There are some movies that need mulling over to be truly understood. What doesn’t make sense at first, may come to light after some thought. This is not the case for Transcendence, a movie I knew I was going to hate after about 15 minutes.
The story of Transcendence is one that seems interesting on paper. After being shot, a man’s consciousness is downloaded onto a super computer, ushering in a new age of technological enlightenment. But it also raises questions about the future of humanity.
It’s a smart, modern concept indeed. The tragedy is that the movie ends up being all idea and zero follow through as it trudges through pile after pile of dull characters and narrative contradictions that sometimes border on just plain stupid.
Take the main story for instance. Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) has his mind uploaded onto a computer to preserve and therefore further his work of super AI system. He is soon able to practically cure any earthly ailment with nanotechnology, at the cost of whatever he heals becoming a part of his digital network.
The idea behind this story is that he is causing humans to give up their free will to become healthy again, but he doesn’t do it maliciously. He does it for the good of mankind. Those around him do nothing but stomp around in paranoia instead in engaging in the moral debates this movie seems to want to initiate.
There is also the case of the “antagonists” in the form of a hipster, anti-tech group. They have no problem contradicting their own beliefs, using advanced technology to know exactly what’s going on all time and to get what they want, which I’m sure is the definition of irony.
On top of that, they also have no qualms with murdering innocent people to get what they want. In the end, when we are supposed to embrace their ideology, they do absolutely nothing to convince us they are anything but angst driven terrorists who probably hated the IOS 7 a little too much.
As for characters, half of them, like the Caster’s scientist friend Joseph (Morgan Freeman) and FBI agent Buchanan (Cillian Murphy), are just there to casually answer the question “Uh, does anyone else know about all this besides a super computer and this eco-rebel alliance?”
Paul Bettany’s Dr. Max Waters is the only character who emits some complexity, but halfway through he starts to spend most of his time being handed papers.
Let’s not forget all the little implausibilities that plague any bad movie. Some of biggest ones include a high-tech research lab being built in what appears to be a matter of days and the eco-terrorists migrating to random places, often too conveniently.
The worst example of ‘Slap-Face Syndrome’ is when Caster is shot, sent to the hospital and let out on his merry way in literally 30 seconds of screen time (not figuratively, English snob, literally). Then everyone is shocked when he starts to get a little woozy. He was shot an hour ago, what do you think is wrong?
Then we find out when he goes back into the hospital that the bullet was laced with poison or something, which they discover at the entrance of the wound. You’d think they would’ve found that the first time around had they put a Band-Aid on him and told him to take it like a man.
All of the above result in an ideological mess that plays out like a pretentious English student’s final paper. On the surface it seems smart, but underneath is a soulless mound of illogical mush.
It works as neither a tale of humanism—given the mechanism to drive that is a non-human AI system— nor as a cautionary tale about the future of technology. As the story becomes so ludicrous and disjointed from reality, it plays more like fantasy. In short, this very disappointing movie acts better as “What Not To Do” for screenwriters than a sociological statement.
