By Brett Blake TRANSCENDENCE is not an aggressively awful film, or even one that’s particularly bad. It is, however, not particularly good, either, which is disappointing considering the caliber of talent involved in its creation. It’s also deeply strange and weird, which may or may not be too much for the average viewer to accept. The basics of the plot involve Johnny Depp’s Dr. Will Caster, a brilliant computer scientist working in the field of artificial intelligence. He is shot and killed early in the film by a rogue anti-technology group (led by a character portrayed by Kate Mara), which leads his wife, Evelyn (Rebecca Hall), and fellow scientist Max (Paul Bettany) to upload his consciousness into a computer. They do so, Caster’s intelligence begins to grow and change within the computer system, and then things begin to escalate in a dangerous way. So, just from that basic synopsis - which doesn’t even begin to touch on the really bizarre stuff which starts to happen - is probably enough to get across how willfully, even gleefully silly the whole enterprise is. On the surface, this isn’t too much of a problem for me, personally, as I think there’s something admirable about its straight-faced handling of the absurdity. That’s not to say that the storyline doesn’t turn into a mess (because, boy, does it ever!) but I give the movie credit for not just doing a by-the-numbers kind of tale. Just how weird does it get? Skip down to the next paragraph if you’d like to remain clean, because here’s a spoilerish example: the movie establishes that Depp’s character is cremated upon his death early on, and yet once the third act arrives, Depp’s computer intelligence is able to conjure up a physical version of himself, seemingly from nothing. His explanation for this: “I found a way back.” That’s it. We’re just asked to accept it, and it pushes the film fully into science fantasy, rather than hard science fiction. The frustrating thing is that there is a good, satisfying story buried in here somewhere. The concepts of loss of humanity in favor of technology and the increasingly-plausible notion of artificial intelligence which is indistinguishable from (or greater than) our own are classic science fiction ideas, and ones that seem to be perpetually relevant. While this is a good thing, it also causes the movie to feel just a bit familiar, like about a dozen-or-so other films have been dropped into a food processor. It’s not quite a hodge-podge, but anybody who’s familiar with the science fiction genre will find a ton of recognizable elements. Some of these, I’m sure, are intentional homage, like the desolate research facility where the majority of the movie’s second half is set, which strongly recalls Robert Wise’s 1971 classic THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN in terms of design. There are also hints of the technological concerns found in 1999’s THE MATRIX and even 1992’s (awful) THE LAWNMOWER MAN. There’s nothing in TRANSCENDENCE that feels like a total rip-off of earlier material, but the tale is definitely informed by solid genre foundations. Now, the basic nuts-and-bolts of the story are just fine, and the movie explores them reasonably well… for a while. But once we get into the latter half of the film, any kind of cohesion of tone or theme goes out the window in favor of messy plotting and truly strange - and patently unbelievable - developments (see the spoilery example above). I will say that the actual climax/denouement of the story works quite well from a thematic standpoint, but what leads up to it just doesn’t click, and it’s undercut by an opening sequence that essentially forecasts what the ending is going to be, robbing the specific climax of much of its impact. The film is directed by Wally Pfister, and it’s his first go-round in the director’s seat. Prior to this, he made his name as an accomplished, Oscar-winning cinematographer, best-known for his collaboration with director Christopher Nolan (an executive producer on TRANSCENDENCE) on such films as 2008’s THE DARK KNIGHT and 2010’s INCEPTION. Pfister’s photography has been of an uncommonly high quality, so it’s a shame that his coming out party as director is so scattershot. It’s not a badly-directed film, per se, but there’s a distinct lack of energy and excitement to most of the movie; it’s a pretty inert experience, all things considered. It’s also oddly paced, complete with an overlong midsection that literally skips over years with little sense of an appropriate passage of time. As far as the acting is concerned, Johnny Depp is fine in what basically amounts to a supporting role. Once his character dies, he’s represented mainly by a disembodied voice and a face on a computer screen; not demanding work, surely. Rebecca Hall does a very impressive job despite being saddled with a character whose actions frequently defy logic, rationality, and common sense. It’s really kind of amazing that she comes across as positively as she does given the material she has to work with. Paul Bettany contributes the performance of the film, giving his all in the service of a truly conflicted man trying to do right by both his friends and society at large. The likes of Kate Mara, Cillian Murphy, and Morgan Freeman all feel kind of stranded by the screenplay; it’s nice to have them along for the ride, but the characters mostly feel extraneous when it comes to the main plot. From a technical standpoint, the movie’s solid enough. The cinematography is rich, and it strongly echoes director Pfister’s own work as a cinematographer. The production design (which I alluded to above) is also strong; there’s a sleek, white aesthetic to things that’s very much in line with the look of sci-fi films from the late 1960s through the 1970s. Additionally, Mychael Danna’s score provides an ambient and effective counterpoint/support system to the story. Again, I want to stress TRANSCENDENCE really isn’t a terrible film, despite what other reviews might claim, but it is a disappointing one because the pieces were here to do something really interesting. Instead, we have a messy sci-fi melodrama that never lives up to the promise of its premise.
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