Director: Wally Pfister.
Starring: Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany, Morgan Freeman, Kate Mara, Cillian Murphy, Josh Stewart.
Running Time: 119 minutes.
Certificate: 12A.
Synopsis: After being attacked by radicalists, Evelyn Caster (Rebecca Hall), a scientist and wife of computer genius Will (Johnny Depp), uploads her dying husband’s mind into a computer in an attempt to have him live on.
TRANSCENDENCE isn’t anything original, having been done to death in TV shows such as The Outer Limits. But it contains aspects that are interesting and relevant to today. Our reliance on technology and the idea of creating a sentient intelligence are genuine realities, however the lack of originality makes it feel dated.
Beginning five years in the future, Paul Bettany explains how the world is now free of mobile phones and computers. He then lets on that he knows why they disappeared, essentially spelling out what happened before the film jumps back five years to show the details. By doing this, the film loses an essential element: dramatic tension. Bettany’s character faces a few challenges along the way – kidnapped by an extremist group, for one – but because we know he survives, we have no need to worry.
The head of the extremist group RIFT is Kate Mara. The group is comprised of intelligent computer programmers and researchers who have come to realise that man is about to cross some lines that should not be crossed. Normally in a film such as this, the people opposing the advancement are religious nuts, but TRANSCENDENCE delivers a twist by having the group serve as the only ones clever enough to see the threat that the Casters pose.
At the film’s core is the relationship between Evelyn and Will, exploring the depths that people will go to in order to keep their loved ones alive. Again, it’s not the most innovative of plot devices, having recently been seen in Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror, but the dark, almost toxic relationship between Hall and Depp is suitably sinister. Hall’s character falls into the pitfalls of the clichéd arrogant scientist who is so focused on whether something will work that she doesn’t stop to think. It also takes her far too long to accept that the computer version of Will might not actually be him. TRANSCENDENCE’s casting feels a little like Pfister calling in all the friends he gained from working on Christopher Nolan’s films, often becoming distracting. However it’s refreshing to see Johnny Depp in a more serious role, temporarily leaving his Jack Sparrow persona behind.
Wally Pfister has spent the greater part of the last decade acting as Director of Photography to the brilliant Nolan, with TRANSCENDENCE finally seeing him branch out on his own. The result? Rather hit and miss.
[usr=3] TRANSCENDENCE is released in UK cinemas on Friday 25th April, 2014, previewing in some sites from Saturday 19th.
