Dr. Will Caster is a scientist who is close to creating a new artificial intelligence, one capable of being smarter than the entire population of the world. Threatened by the possibility of Caster creating what could become a God, a terrorist group known as Rift attacks Dr. Caster. Fearing for his life, Will Caster's wife uploads his consciousness into a computer as a way of keeping him alive. Transcendence is directed by Wally Pfister and written by Jack Paglen. The movie stars Johnny Depp as Will Caster, Rebecca Hall as Evelyn Caster, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, and Kate Mara as the leader of Rift.
This is Wally Pfister's first time as a director, he has primarily worked as a cinematographer. He worked on such films as The Dark Knight Trilogy, Memento, Moneyball and even won an Academy Award for Inception. Jack Paglen has never written a screenplay before this one. So what you have is a first time director directing a screenplay written by a first time writer. The combination of these elements make for a very lackluster film. That saddens me to say because not only was I looking forward to this movie, I also really wanted to see Wally Pfister succeed as a director. He made a movie with interesting ideas that ultimately go nowhere. The first third is the point at which the film peaked. It contains topics of morality which are interesting but at the same time there are little red flags in the beginning which are cringe worthy. You hope the film will get past them and continue to tell a compelling story but it never does. After the first third the film was moving very slowly and wrapped itself up with an unsatisfying finale. This film's science fiction element isn't anything we haven't seen before. Even the love story doesn't hit as strongly as it could have. The fact that the love story fails is a major reason why the movie isn't good. The love story between Johnny Depp and Rebecca Hall is supposed to be the soul of the film and when that along with the sci-fi isn't connecting you get a dry film.
Johnny Depp can be a terrific actor when he wants to be. Unfortunately here, the screenplay just doesn't allow that as he is essentially playing a computer. Rebecca Hall tries but her relationship with the computer just doesn't work unlike in the film Her, where a man falls in love with his operating system. The difference is in that film the operating system had a personality. In Transcendence we have Johnny Depp who has no personality at all for most of the film. It takes two to tango and as much as Rebecca Hall tries, the rule remains true. Kate Mara plays the leader of the terrorist group who believes Will Caster should be stopped. Once again, Kate Mara tries and the screenplay tries to make her a formidable opponent but you never really buy that. If the screenplay was better it would have expressed what the audience was thinking and that was that her character didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of victory. Cillian Murphy plays an FBI agent who along with Morgan Freeman is trying to stop this new Artificial Intelligence. Cillian Murphy as talented as he is brought nothing to this movie. I don't believe that's his fault either, there was just nothing to his character. The same goes for Morgan Freeman who had nothing to do in the movie. The once exception to all of this is Paul Bettnay who plays a scientist who was a friend of Dr. Caster. Paul was good in the film as he was a character who you understood and could get behind.
There are good things about the film. Wally Pfister made a good looking film with the help of cinematographer Jess Hall. Jack Paglen raised some interesting ideas in the beginning of the film. The other two thirds of the film really bring the quality down. It isn't helped by a one-note Johnny Depp and a cast that is mostly underwritten. This could have been a great sci-fi movie but unfortunately Transcendence falls flat on too many levels.
2.5/5
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