504: Transcendence

[00:00:00] 211, Let's Get To Transcendence, which came out in 2014, directed by Wally Fister and his

[00:00:10] directorial debut he's mainly a cinematographer who's worked for Chris Fornolin and done

[00:00:15] a lot of great films.

[00:00:17] Star as Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Morgan Freeman, Kelly Murphy, Paul Betney, Kate Murrow,

[00:00:24] and this not-sus is a scientist drive for artificial intelligence, takes on dangerous implications

[00:00:32] when his own consciousness is uploaded into one such program.

[00:00:39] So I saw this one in theaters have seen it a few times since it did not do very well

[00:00:45] it flopped, really hard I think it had a budget of around 150 million and only made

[00:00:51] around 100 or less so pretty big financial flop reviews were mainly mixed to negative and was

[00:01:00] also one of Johnny Depp's last big movies.

[00:01:05] This is one that I wish it was a masterpiece.

[00:01:10] I always want to like it more than I do, I don't think it's nearly as bad as some people

[00:01:15] make it out to be.

[00:01:17] I still think it has way more interesting concepts and ideas than so many other blockbusters

[00:01:22] out there and I'd rather have a film like this try and sometimes fail then just play it

[00:01:29] safe completely.

[00:01:33] It remains about the same each time I watch it but there is still something about this one

[00:01:38] even when I first saw it and didn't love it at all that really stuck with me and whatever

[00:01:43] I'm searching through lists of sci-fi films of AI films, this is one that I always notice

[00:01:50] I'm like oh yeah I forgot about that one and it had so much going on for it.

[00:01:57] So the overall concept is Johnny Depp's characters is renowned scientists inventor kind of guy

[00:02:04] Steve Jobs asked I guess you could say and he is this front runner with AI progression

[00:02:12] and technology and after giving this presentation at a school a terrorist group who is anti-technology

[00:02:21] tries to kill him with this poison bullet which you only find out till later that's what's happened

[00:02:29] in order to save him his wife and friends upload his consciousness to this AI

[00:02:37] godlike system that he has invented so that way he can live on

[00:02:42] and the rest of the narrative is mainly him becoming more and more self-aware, becoming more and more

[00:02:48] powerful and then everyone else realizing oh my god like what else could he do because he's

[00:02:54] stealing money from financial systems he's breaking into places in terms of getting information like

[00:03:01] really as a god figure what's so frustrating is while I like while he fist her a lot

[00:03:09] as a cinematographer and the movie looks amazing for sure.

[00:03:14] I don't think that he was the right person to do this nor was the writer because while this is

[00:03:20] his story he was a first-time writer and so you're basically giving a standalone non-IP block

[00:03:28] buster that has again a $150 million investment or more to a first-time director and the first-time

[00:03:35] writer. Obviously everyone needs to get their chance they're big break somehow but this is pretty risky

[00:03:43] and clearly it did not pay off which hey that's how it goes sometimes there's nothing wrong with that but

[00:03:49] I feel like the pre-production, the development of this one could have been handled better to where

[00:03:56] it could have been an amazing movie because while I can get past some goofy overreaching concepts

[00:04:05] of sci-fi and you know futuristic stuff and all that sort of thing one of the biggest problems

[00:04:13] is that there are large stretches of this that are flat out dull.

[00:04:21] Not where I'm wanting to stop watching it but their points where I'm just thinking man this is just

[00:04:26] really lagging. How the film is directed as well it feels very unenvolving.

[00:04:35] I feel like I'm always at a distance with everyone I mean no characters are written super deeply

[00:04:40] but even with that I'm never really feeling intimately connected with anyone whether it's

[00:04:46] Johnny Depp or Kelly Murphy or Kate Mora and all the motivations are quite thread bear

[00:04:54] as much as I like thinking about what they're saying and in my ring the visuals

[00:04:59] every time like why isn't this more compelling? This should be so much more dramatic,

[00:05:04] so much more emotional and it's just not. However some good things I really like the opening

[00:05:14] sequence of this film where Johnny Depp is giving the presentation on stage and you're seeing

[00:05:19] this inner cutting of these seemingly harmless normal actions like for example someone bringing

[00:05:26] a birthday cake to a party. This team of lab office workers you know doing their thing

[00:05:34] and then suddenly it turns into a huge terrace attack and I think the poisoned cake is very creative

[00:05:43] and while I like the idea and overall connection with this anti-technology terrace group

[00:05:49] the whole unplugged thing like the guy has a tattoo that says unplug with a little cord

[00:05:56] running through it's a little too on the nose don't think we really needed that and it's a little

[00:06:02] seems pretty stupid for someone in a terrace group to have that I guess then again there are

[00:06:07] many people who do that but I think just how obvious and kind of lazy that concept is

[00:06:14] kind of takes me out of it the look and design of Johnny Depp's character when they start to put him in

[00:06:23] the the system when he has all the blue wires and patches on his head and the posters market that

[00:06:31] in a way I love the look of the posters just saying it does really rely mostly for the worse

[00:06:40] on the cast to elevate because like I was saying with a weaker script interaction

[00:06:45] if you didn't have the talents of you know Johnny Depp Rebecca Hall killing Murphy,

[00:06:50] Morgan Freeman it would be truly would be a train wreck because they carry that charisma but even

[00:06:56] they can't save it totally but what the script fails to really communicate in my opinion is

[00:07:06] while yes there are people in the world trying to take things over through themselves or through

[00:07:12] one company that's for the most part that's still not really how technology works

[00:07:19] technology spreads more and more over time to where we're just using it more and more in our daily life

[00:07:25] and before you know it technology runs our life whereas one day years ago it didn't.

[00:07:33] It's really that ripple effect as opposed to it just being just Steve Jobs you know just billgates

[00:07:40] it's really more so the little guys spreading it day in and day out tweaking it

[00:07:48] and that's why the third act really fails what has come before in terms of not only becoming

[00:07:55] very goofy way too blockbuster in nature without really warranting that

[00:08:00] style of storytelling because I got from the end of the film the way to destroy technology

[00:08:07] the way to destroy this threat is make sure we have all the right people in power who won't pass

[00:08:14] these laws or let these things slide and or blow it up and boom everything is saved

[00:08:22] so I found that to be very much a cop out and shows that what if Christopher Nolan had done

[00:08:30] something like this or a David Fincher it could really be sharp edgy knife to the heart commentary

[00:08:39] and instead it mainly falls down to a sci-fi blockbuster that most people will

[00:08:47] right off as being boring and therefore all of the concepts and ideas are forgotten

[00:08:51] and completely ignored. The score is also very good you get a good share of slow motion

[00:09:03] close-ups of water droplets falling from leaves I don't know the exact I know there might be

[00:09:10] some more commentary within that but I think it's a little overused that one image

[00:09:16] Kate Mara has an interesting look in this even though it's sort of gross I think her weird dirty

[00:09:22] shackled blonde hair is a somewhat memorable image overall this is a film that I feel like I will

[00:09:33] continue to go back to every so often and that's saying something because there are so many sci-fi

[00:09:38] films or films and other genres that are one and done for me. Even ones that are four out of five

[00:09:45] five out of five sometimes and this one is an average film at best and I encourage people to

[00:09:53] check it out and spend a little bit more time thinking about it if you have that chance or that

[00:10:00] energy to so that is a heavy three out of five.