Transcendence (2014)

Transcendence is Wally Pfister's directorial debut about Dr. Will Caster, who has his mind transferred into the largest supercomputer on the face of the planet after he is shot by an anti-AI activist at a conference. But, as Will begins to grow and expand, can his wife Evelyn and Will's friends stop him before the Will they knew is completely gone?

I find it truly pathetic how many people are hating on this movie, and for some of the wrong reasons. I did go into this movie with high expectations and was disappointed, but there was still a lot to salvage from that was good. But first thing's first: the bad. Transcendence has a fantastic story and great concepts, but the way it was delivered and structured was incredibly poor and muddled. If you split the film in half instead of thirds, the second half of the film is incredible and ends how it should, but the first half suffers from time gaps, some left out character development and poor pacing. But, this is really all that's bad.

The decent but disappointing aspects of the film are the ideas. The film pitches grand and epic thoughts that grow, but the ideas it preaches are never fully realized, at least the majority of them. Then, the script by Jack Paglen suffered from inconsistencies and random plot elements that did not really need to be there, or should have been examined further (like RIFT).

Now, the good and great. Wally's direction was superb; he really knew what he was doing after working with Christopher Nolan for so long. Pfister's style and unique eye helped save this movie from being a total disaster, especially when it came to the action, the way the camera moved with the scene and the characters or just the environment itself. The acting was great, too, especially Paul Bettany in the supporting role as Max, Will and Evelyn Caster's friend and fellow scientist. He brought heart and emotion from the other side of the spectrum, having an objective and subjective eye on the situation, with the other (completely subjective) side being from Evelyn's point of view. Rebecca Hall was great as Evelyn, a researcher clouded by her love for Will, and challenged in deciding whether or not the thing Will says he is, is actually Will or not. Johnny Depp was good, but it wasn't until the end of the film when the audience feels emotionally attached to him, as he's usually an emotionless AI, projected on screens and glass. The visual effects were top-notch and some of the best of the year hands-down, and the musical score by Mychael Danna was haunting, beautiful and intense when it needed to be.

Transcendence is an actually good movie that deserves more credit than the immense crap it's getting. And to those who keep comparing it to the B-movie "Lawnmower Man," it's different. Sure, there are brief similarities (melding man with machine), but that's it. It's an original take on the "technology-will-destroy-humanity" cautionary tale, and it's a disturbing one that does have some hopeful (and resonating) humanity after the mayhem and chaos has settled. I hope Wally Pfister gets to tackle another big sci-fi film, but one with a different, more experienced writer.

Fmovies: No irony in the above. The irrational and immensely stupid human reactions are more than realistic, and paint a bleak future while also explaining why we are stuck here today. People are scared of human evolution and advancement, and do their utmost to prevent them from happening. Think of religion or populistic yet unreasonable laws that are based on religion or similarly unfounded assumptions.

This film is great, the possibilities outlined are very real, and those hurring it down have absolutely no knowledge of science and have no imagination as to what the future may realistically hold.

I would expect that Transcendence will do better in countries where there is more critical thinking, such as Japan or most of Europe.

Don't know why all the negative review about this movie, but reading their negative comment it seems to me that they expected something else and it is not delivered hence they are throwing a tantrum and choose not to enjoy the movie.

While its cons might be the lack of characters development this doesn't change the fact that the story line and concept is better than a lot of other movies and it is presented well. The story might feel a bit stretched but it give us more time to think and enjoy the development of the movie.

It doesn't show too much of the potential of an AI, nor it have a lot of actions scenes, but it does show us a lot of perspective and views on a single ideas, and what misunderstanding and doubt could do. The movie doesn't show you what is right or wrong, or which is the best solution, it only show us the thinking of each characters and the consequences from their actions.

If you love thoughts provoking movie which leave you with a lot of thinking, you will definitely like this movie.

Transcendence fmovies. This film will most likely split down the middle because of it's religious tones of God and evolution. Some people will love it and some will hate it because it might go against their belief system.

For movie purposes, it has great acting, great story (though some may feel it's a little too far fetched, which I personally don't think is too far fetched when you see what the world was like 10 years ago before the mainstream web), and pretty good action scenes.

At the heart, it's a story about a woman, Evelyn, who loves her husband, Will, so much she tries to hold onto him by helping him save his consciousness. She begins to wrestle with whether this being is really Will or is something new. It's also about evolution and the line between humanity and evolving into something more. This movie might be a turn off for religious people but it does make you think of what humanity could become whether you're religious or not.

Overall, it's a great movie that's enjoyable, thought provoking, challenges some beliefs, and foreshadows some future realities we will all have to soon deal with.

I would say go see it!

Transcendence, much like most of the latest sci-fi themed films to hit cinemas, is a wasted effort. It exhibits signature Pfister cinematography that we've come to love over the past decade. With Nolan's Batman trilogy and Inception, it was only a matter of time for Wally Pfister to take a stab at directing. Unfortunately, the only thing that seems well done in this film is the cinematography. The story, while seeming fresh and exciting on paper, devolves into a half baked idea with mediocre acting. Johnny Depp does the best he can while only being a mere voice during the latter half of the film. The rest of the cast seems wasted, this is especially true because we know how great Paul Bettany, Morgan Freeman and Rebecca Hall can be. Wally Pfister focuses more on capturing really fantastic shots but seems never truly devoted to the actual story. This comes as a major disappointment especially because of the hype that this film has been generating over the last year. When it boils down to it, Transcendence is just another exercise in style over substance, never matriculating to anything more than an average sci-fi thriller that has a criminally underused cast and phenomenal camera-work.

Truly the questions this film asks leave me wondering. So let's start with the film itself, as a scifi thriller, it's beautifully executed with some stunning visuals, to the extent that sometimes it has the feel of a travel advertisement. The story hangs together well, with strong central performances which keep you engaged. Some of the ethics are quite complex, and you have to ask if the machine's intent is really hostile, or is that just the interpretation characters are putting on it because they don't understand. And we fear what we do not understand. The intent here is clearly to tell a story in such a way that you walk away thinking about it. Job done. I came away thoroughly entertained, and thinking more about singularity and transcendence than I have in quite a while. If you are after a Saturday afternoon blockbuster with a lot of action, this might not be the film for you, but if you prefer your action with a little more intrigue, this is a great film.