What lies beyond our human form? What is our next step in evolution? Does our continued existence rely on the natural test of time or what we can do to advance ourselves artificially? Transcendence teases and tiptoes around many worthwhile potential scenarios, but falls short on delivering a memorable advances to its premise.
Directed by Wally Pfister, who has served as Christopher Nolan’s Director of Photography for six films, Transcendence plays on our fears of the sentient artificial intelligence scenario, which we’ve seen played out many times before. The thinking computer gone wrong has factored into our fears for decades on the big screen, whether it be 2001‘s HAL 9000, The Lawnmower Man, Star Trek‘s V’Ger or the baddest AI of them all: Skynet.
Headliner Johnny Depp plays Dr. Will Caster, a brilliant and prominent researcher of artificial intelligence who has made great, albeit controversial, advances in creating machines capable of possessing self awareness.
Caster poses to the world the God-worthy What If concept of successfully transferring every synapse and neuron in the human mind to a computer, sustaining it on a hard drive, and allow it access to the endless resources of the internet. Such human transcendence would lead to an entity he calls the Singularity. While he maintains rather humble aspirations for the entire concept, colleagues wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and best friend Max (Paul Bettany) see the vast possible scope of merging a mind and machine.
Leave it to some fundamentalist terrorists led by Kate Mara’s Bree to attack various research facilities around the country and gun down Caster, ultimately leaving him at death’s door. If there is any chance of salvation for the good doctor, it would mean being the guinea pig of his theory and have his mind copied to a computer. And that’s where the show begins.
What does this merging of man and machine mean for the world? If Caster has truly cheated death digitally, has he ascended to a higher plane of existence? This is where Transcendence starts to throw an awful lot out there, some ideas more original than others. But Jeff Paglan’s screenplay never takes the time to developing fully any one of the several worthwhile high concepts worth exploring.
The Caster super computer attains world altering abilities, but will he (or it), be able to live among humanity or instead seek out greater power sources to move on to the next stage of existence? Just the very introduction of functional nano technology into the plot throws so many curves into the virtual highway of directions the film can take, most of which unfortunately get underdeveloped.
To its narrative detriment, the film opens with a “5 years After The Fact” prologue. Sometimes this works as a clever book ending device. Sometimes. But by showing us its hand right off the bat, Transcendence ultimately robs itself of building any potential climatic suspense. Every dramatic step forward we witness is watered down by reveal of the first scene in the film.
Also what hinders the scope of the story is its self containment. While the potential consequences of Caster’s actions as an AI have the potential to change the world, the story itself always remains painfully localized. The threat barely makes it past the population of a small outback desert town and unfortunately fails to fully capitalize on potential terror, paranoia or mass destruction on a global level. For all intents and purposes, six people are in the know on what is going on with the Caster cyber threat. Frankly, 1983’s WarGames set up higher dramatic stakes.
Depp is sentenced to thanklessly sleepwalk through the entire film. His Will Caster doesn’t ooze charisma as a human, so you can just imagine how this personality translates downwards as an AI. He is predominantly trapped behind TV monitors delivering dialogue as an omniscient modern day Max Headroom. It’s definitely one of those times you say to yourself, “C’mon Johnny. You’re better than this.” Rebecca Hall gets to show the most range as the wife so obsessed with saving her husband that the well being of the world becomes non-consequential. Pfister brings along his Dark Knight series mates Cillian Murphy and Morgan Freeman to play a government suit and an AI researcher.
Spike Jonze’s Her merely touched upon on a similar fantastical sci-fi topic. But the screenwriter/director intentionally glossed over the grander scope of the yes, transcendence, that happened to Samantha the OS at the film’s conclusion. Let’s face it, Her wasn’t really set up to explore the darker potential consequences of AI’s gone bad, but it certainly left a huge consequence of the film open ended. The approach to such AI ambiguity in Transcendence does not allow you to leave the theater feeling the same way.
Truth be told. I was actually never bored with the film, even with a two hour running time. I did find fascination in the story’s potential and it maintains a steady methodical pace. But with so many ideas getting short changed left and right, it could have almost used another hour to sufficiently flesh itself out for satisfactory resolution.
Transcendence is a digital drama with limitless possibilities that unfortunately delivers underwhelming results. Touching on some worthwhile ideas but ultimately leaving them hanging doesn’t help push the film to heights any where above films that have previously tackled a similar idea. Throw in a lifeless lead character and minimal dramatic execution of the stakes, Transcendence sadly and ultimately fails to deliver on the promise of upgrading a tried idea to the next level.
Transcendence opens in theaters and IMAX on April 18th.
REVIEW RATING: ★½ ★★★★
Director: Wally Pfister
Starring: Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Cillian Murphy, Kate Mara, Paul Bettany, Morgan Freeman
Screenwriters: Jeff Paglen
Studio: Warner Bros.
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 120 minutes
Leave a Reply