Transcendence
Rated PG-13 and Released in Grand Rapids 4/18/14
Reviewed 4/21/14 at Celebration North Theatre
with Gary
 |
| 2 out of 5 Js in QUIET Rating System |
Part action drama, part science fiction, Transcendence is not the exciting plot that we anticipated. Not that it was a total bust, but with the likes of Johnny Depp and Morgan Freeman we just had higher expectations. It reminded me of Her, another Artificial Intelligence type movie that we saw back in the fall. While Transcendence is not as creepy weird as that one, it still is on the bizarre side.
Depp plays a brilliant scientist, Dr. Will Caster, who learns he does not have long to live after he is shot by an anti-computer activist. He, along with his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and another scientist Max Waters (Paul Bettany), hatch a scheme to download Will's mind into a computer before he expires. Evelyn carries on their dreams while maintaining her digital relationship with husband Will, the now Computer. Yes - it's bizarre. This all goes basically unnoticed even though "the couple" pours a ton of money into a run-down town. They have built the utopia of scientific facilities and to also host Computer Will.
The "Will" machine is rapidly evolving along with his/its intelligence and power. He eventually discovers a way to transcend humans into his minions that are all interconnected to his mainframe and to do his bidding. Several years go by and the government is made aware of the operations thanks to the same activists that shot Will. The group has been obsessed with shutting the site down. Thank goodness for their anarchy and pro-activeness, or where would mankind be? A computer versus man showdown ends the movie where it started. It's a world of no computers, everyone off the grid so to speak. Piles of useless cellphones trash up the streets and keyboards are used as doorstops. Now this would be a living hell. No thank you! I will take my chances with technology.
QUIET Rating system: 2 Js
Quality: JJ
Understood story: JJ
Interest:
Entertainment: JJj
Time: JJ
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