Transcendence had a trailer that looked awesome. It featured some amazing talent, including Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall, the often overlooked Paul Bettany, Cillian Murphy, and of course, Johnny Depp. It looked part surreal, part science fiction, part romance, part horror film meshed into one. It looked too good to be true.
Well, if there's one thing taught to us over and over again by Hollywood, if it looks too good to be true...it probably IS too good to be true. Transcendence is a mess, never using its moments effectively and never really bringing me to any sense of emotional distress as it so badly wanted me to be at. It never had the sense of excitement that science fiction needs to be interesting. It was never frightening or suspenseful, needed for the horror implications. Its romance was bland and forgettable, lacking any drama despite the obvious opportunities to be taken and used. And it was never so surreal that I could defend it as experimental, always just sitting on the edge of that line and hoping someone will accept that as enough.
Transcendence is about a man who, after learning he has minimal time left on earth, has his consciousness uploaded into a computer. There are a ton of implications here - can it really work? Is he really human? Can he love? Can he sympathize? Even though all of the implications are there, none of them are answered suitably enough. But more importantly, it seems like the entire cast doesn't really recognize the situation they're in. Rebecca Hall is wonderful as always, but her motivations seem to be based solely on reasons of Hollywood romance. I simply can't believe that a scientist would do things this rashly, without an ounce of thought. It was too jarring with the rest of her demonstrated character.
But perhaps more frustrating was the setup for the antagonist/antihero group. As if a giant super computer wasn't enough of a villain, there's also a terrorist organization against technology for the fear that it will go out of control. I guess there would be some form of group. But why terrorism? With such high themes of romance and humanity, why tire your plot with gun fire and explosions? It feels like something Michael Bay would do.
Transcendence has cool ideas, and great thematic material to work with. But it's definitely weighed down by its desire and inability to please everyone watching. If only it had taken more of a stand for one smaller set of themes, one main antagonist, and really developed a romance, it would have been far more stimulating. As is, it's a pretty huge disappointment.
Rank - 1/5
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