May be because of his long-term association with Christopher Nolan, cinematographer Wally Pfister took such a theme for his first directorial venture. After watching Transcendence there was this hangover similar to many of Nolan’s films which gives your brain some heavy exercises. But when you analyze the movie after watching it, there is less logic in it and the amount of show off they have done with the possibilities of artificial intelligence is too much.
The story focuses on the life of a great scientist Will Caster who is doing researches on AI. Anti AI activists’ attacks caster with radioactive object coated bullet and thus resulting in the physical death of the character. With his wife Evelyn loading his consciousness in to an AI system he already created, Will becomes alive in that digital format. With a confusing question whether is this really Will or a possible deathly machine creates two sides in the story making way for the conflict zone. How it all goes is what the film talking about.
If you think, I just said too much about the plot, I would say it is the best way I could to explain it in a minimalistic way. The film opens to a grand premise that has that potential to show us something intriguing and interesting. However, what happens after the mid-way is something that lacks logic. They have spent enough and more time on creating a calm looking demon out of Will Caster and I was expecting something revolutionary to happen in the script. However, to my sadness nothing path breaking happened. Usual elements like authorities suppressing ideas etc gets into the plot and it starts to look ordinary.
The long pauses and silences in the narration just cannot create any great curiosity in the viewer’s mind and on an adverse knot; it rather makes things very dull. The script begins on an interesting level but it’s muddled in between and something interesting there in the conclusion which leaves you thinking whether we missed something (which on many level of my limited brains power I can’t figure out). Cinematography is nice and the visual effects are good.
Johnny Depp’s character portrayal looks as if Captain Jack sparrow woke up after a really long sleep. There is very less for him to do in the movie. Rebecca Hall was good as Evelyn. Morgan Freeman and Cillian Murphy went underused. Paul Bettany as also showed some quality.
To sum it up, Transcendence would give your brain a strong stir. But the overall confusion and lack of innovation in the story would ultimately make the movie a disappointment. My rating is 2/5 for Transcendence. It is a dull sci-fi that might spoil your time even after watching it – thinking about the idea.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
