Transcendence (2014), PG-13, ★1/2

Johnny Depp giving a presentation. 

Do you trust an artificial intelligent human being? Do you trust a system that is beyond your wildest beliefs and dreams? Do you trust its creator? Well, either you question the person who created the universe or the person who is curious about the nature of the universe gets you perplexed as to why a scientist has the free will to create a computer with technological singularity, another word for artificial intelligence or as he calls it "Transcendence". It is sort of a neat concept when it has to be explained well to get the viewer to go on the journey with the characters, but the storyline and the lack of emotion derails the whole movie and we get left with plot holes and questionable logic.

Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) is a shrewd scientist that is curious about what is out there in the center of the universe and while he lectures the fact to an audience that he is building a computer with a team, he predicts that a computer will be interpolated with artificial intelligence and even advanced technology. He sees the potential for the future where artificially intelligent humans can cure humans or fix almost anything on the planet. His wife, Evelyn (Rebecca Hall), supports his efforts and joins him in a garden to build a Faraday cage to keep out wireless signals. However, one of the members from the cyberterrorist team "Revolutionary Independence from Technology" (R.I.F.T.) shoots Will before committing suicide and we see a shot of his tattooed arm saying "Unplug".

When he is at the hospital, the doctor informs Will, Evelyn and Dr. Joseph Tagger (Morgan Freeman), a researcher at the laboratory that the bullet is pierced with toxins and causing radiation poisoning in his system and he estimates about 5 weeks until Will is going to die. Evelyn hatches a plan that she will upload Will's consciousness into the quantum computer that they both were developing for their project and while Max Waters (Paul Bettany), their best friend and researcher, questions the decision, he helps her connect Will and they connect him to the Internet successfully and he has the ability to have his knowledge grow into the system.

Will uses his vast intelligence in his own virtual world to find a deserted town to create a utopia where he can develop groundbreaking new technologies with his fundamental research in the scientific field and technological field. However, his decision will prompt Evelyn's judgement that he is going a little too far on what he is preparing to do in that town.

Paul Bettany and Rebecca Hall trying to help their friend out.

This movie has so much ambiguousness going on and while trying to figure out what Will Caster is saying and what he is doing, the more I think about, the less interesting it gets. It is like a sci-fi film wrapped around a nature and technological documentary that is so loose that the storyline seems to be filled with arbitrary scenes and characters. Plus, as the film progresses into another town, the movie turns into a parody of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and it become pretentious as to what will happen to Will and Evelyn.

Johnny Depp has been in kind of a slump lately with exceptions to Rango and his cameo in 21 Jump Street, but Dark Shadows, the hideous Lone Ranger, and now this one, does he care that he picks the right movie projects? He is not credible as a nerdy scientist who wants to change the world and looks more stiff and dead in a corpse-like state when connected to a computer and inside the computer. It looks like he did not enjoy making this film. Rebecca Hall and Paul Bettany actually gave good performances in this film really carrying the emotional balance between reality and disastrous fantasies. And, also you have some people who are always cast in movies directed by Christopher Nolan such as Morgan Freeman and Cillian Murphy, who are underused. Kate Mara does not really do anything in this film except talk about cyberterrorist nonsense.

This is Wally Pfister's debut, who is the usual cinematographer for Christopher Nolan's films and even though the movie looks great in some shots, the narrative structure is set aside with unquestionable disinterest. The movie turns a great concept into a routine thriller with science fiction elements that conceptualizes the ideas with complicated and insulting notions that are tough to care about. This movie is the biggest disappointment coming from a person who has worked one of the best storytelling directors of our generation. I just hoped he can focus more on the narrative and balance it with his intrinsic camerawork.

*1/2