'Transcedence' (12A)

***

Dr. Will Caster and his wife, Evelyn, are at the forefront of artificial intelligence, having created a powerful piece of technology known as PINN. The next step in their plan is to make a piece of machinery so clever that it will be become sentient and more intelligent than all the human minds in the history of the world. After Will is left seriously ill following an attack by an anti-technology group, Evelyn seeks to save him by uploading his consciousness.

There can be no doubting that this is an ambitious idea for a first time director, and it certainly has some poignant themes regarding where we stand today with technology and our ability to ‘play God’. The first half is pretty solid – we get to hear the arguments from both sides of the story about whether creating such a powerful piece of technology is a good thing, but the second half fails to live up to the opening and veers into the utterly absurd. I know that Will, or the Will-like figure (Johnny Depp) is meant to be all-powerful, but implanting himself into the minds of people he’s cured, and then putting himself into the rain is pretty bloody ridiculous and I could no longer suspend my disbelief. Also, if Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) was so intelligent, why couldn’t she see what ‘Will’ was becoming? And surely she should have been aware of the risks involved in offering a human being limitless power by uploading them to the internet? Everyone knows that power corrupts!

I did enjoy the film, but I felt that there was a lot missing and was both frustrated and disappointed by it. I felt the film would have benefitted from more frank discussion about the ethics of such a powerful piece of technology, but we rushed along from development to development. Similarly, the film lacks serious character development outside of the main three characters – seriously, Cillian Murphy and Morgan Freeman’s character weren’t even necessary to the development of the plot. The members of RIFT, the anti-technology radicals who made the whole thing happen in the first place, are completely interchangeable and the apparent ring-leader’s characterisation starts and ends with ‘thick eyeliner’ and ‘frizzy hair’. Some of the dialogue is clunky, too. However, all the acting is top-notch, as you would expect from such an A-list cast, and it was great to see Paul Bettany back on the big screen. His character, Max, is best friend to Will and Evelyn and is definitely the most interesting person in the whole film. It looks outstanding, as you would expect from a film directed by Christopher Nolan’s cinematographer, and the soundtrack is good as well, but I just wanted something more. It rather soulless at points, and I can’t help feeling that there would have been a better film in there if there had been more development prior to Will being uploaded.

Do not be misled by the trailer, which advertises the film as an action-packed, edge-of-your-seat thrill-ride… and it isn’t. This film is largely a ‘talkie’, with a couple of explosions at the end. I would advise you to go and see it though, because it does raise some interesting points and it is well acted and looks amazing. I personally felt that something was missing, but that doesn’t mean I didn't enjoy it.