Artificial intelligence expert, Dr. Will Caster ( played by Johnny Depp), is revered all over the world for his progress in the field. His goal to create a sentient machine is making waves and not all agree with his methods. A group of extremists have made it their mission to kill him in order to stop this supposed madness. However, they only serve to push the experiment along as Will has to use this technology on himself in order to “survive”. It appears to work, but Will’s wife, Evelyn (played by Rebecca Hall), and his best friend, Max (played by Paul Bettany), begin to learn that this may have been a grave mistake as Will’s quest for knowledge gradually corrupts him.
At first I was hearing that this would be a remake of the super cheesy yet oddly entertaining The Lawnmower Man from 1992 starring Pierce Brosnan and Jeff Fahey. Just give yourself a chance to think about how hilariously bad the effect from that one looks in this day and age. At the time when I watched it, I knew I was watching a bad movie, but I did it anyway and lived to tell the tale. I thought it was fairly forgettable until the buzz started for this film.
I was thinking with the effects and advancement in today’s technology that it could take the premise of such a film to new heights. Transcendence turned out to be fairly different. The underlying message remains the same that being all knowing can disconnect you from your humanity, but nevertheless this was a boring entry for me. I couldn’t even laugh at the bad effects because they were decent. The setting in general has more of a dull and sterile appearance, so even potentially exciting scenes come up flat.
A movie like this could have been a passion project, but it felt lazy. I can’t even count how many Johnny Depp films I’ve watched an enjoyed, but it feels like more recently I’ve been enjoying them less. He usually takes on more inspired roles than this.
I wanted to feel bad for Evelyn and Will’s situation, but their chemistry felt off and that kept me from connecting to the characters. She is a scientist, but some of her decisions made little to no sense. She could have been interesting if she was allowed to be more analytical in her approach to things.
Paul Bettany’s character Max is probably the most interesting and it helps that he is anchored to reality, but he can’t carry the film on his own.
Overall, this this movie is one big a wasted opportunity with a $100 million price tag. I don’t know how it even got off the ground with that type of budget.