
Entertainment

Share
22nd April 2014
08:30pm BST

With Caster slowly dying, his two fellow researchers, Evelyn and Max (Paul Bettany) decide they are going to help him complete his life work and give him the ability to "transcend", basically copying his memories and mind to a computer which will operate by itself, keeping not only Caster's brain alive but his life's work. But not everything is as straightforward as it seems. Although the pair do their best to keep control over Caster, the computer begins operating independently, recruiting soldiers to its cause and slowly becoming far more of a problem than they ever could have imagined.
Yes, all of the above sounds intriguing and during these times with our over-dependence on technology, it is certainly more than topical, but Transcendence's main problem is that the main idea exists and that is all. Much like the computer operating system it depicts, it spins out of control, becoming increasingly more nonsensical the further into the running time we go. The actors utter lines that we can only assume they were embarrassed to read aloud. Cillian Murphy suffers this on not one, but two occasions.
The cast as a whole try to make the most of a bad situation but there is no denying that Johnny Depp's career certainly needs some kind of resuscitation, perhaps a career kick he thought he might get with this particular project. Sadly, that is just not the case. Depp barely figures himself for most of the film, he exists mainly as the machine. The rest of the cast are fine, but just that, fine. Hall has proved on many an occasion that she is worth far more than a project like this while Bettany just looks like he may never get a break again.
Besides the bad points, of which there are many, in fact you may begin to wonder why you ever bought the cinema ticket, there is one plus; the film looks beautiful, even the machine takeover towards the end somehow looks kind of inviting, almost like a really nice hospital. However, you are not paying good money to admire how good a film looks.
Don't waste your money, this is just a mess. A mess.
Explore more on these topics: