Transcendence Movie Blurb by Shale April 18, 2014 It was a good looking Sci-Fi flick by the trailers and I sort of enjoyed the story, a sort of Frankenstein telling in the Information Age but I could see that the critics were not going to give it good grades and they didn't - mostly B & C. However, I am not a critic so I can enjoy what is there without picking out the slow pace or changing from real sci-fi to more of a drama. The sci-fi part is about cutting edge progress into artificial intelligence, with sentience. Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) is the leader in this breakthru with his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and Max Waters (Paul Bettany) a colleague and friend. They have created a Physically Independent Neural Network (PINN) which appears to be sentient. While we see all the potential to this advance in intelligence there is a terrorist group R.I.F.T (Revolutionary Independence From Technology) led by Bree (Kate Mara) who sees the danger in creating an entity smarter than humans in the evolutionary scheme. They make a synchronized attack on all the labe working on AI technology, killing many of the scientists. Dr. Caster is shot but survives. Bree the Terrorist However, he survived the bullet but not the radioactive polonium that it contained. He has a few weeks to live and is getting his life's work in order when his wife convinces him they can upload his neural network into a digital matrix like PINN. Dr. Caster After Being Shot The three of them pull this off and Dr. Caster is entered into the computers just as RIFT is closing in on them. But, this is a modern tale of electronic sharing. Yep, you may destroy one server but you can't destroy the info once it is uploaded to the WWW. Dr. Caster is now free in his digital incarnation to access all collected intelligence in the world and his intellectual grasp has increased exponentially. He is perfecting nano-technology, literally creating physical manifestations of his thot. Not only RIFT but now the Casters' friend Max and a surviving AI expert friend in his field, Joseph Tagger (Morgan Freeman) are seeing the potential danger of the increasing strength of their former colleague and try to warn Evelyn of the danger. Joseph Warns Evelyn to Leave So, this is where I will leave you on this story. I did enjoy the movie despite some of the problems the real reviewers will tell you about. And, this is the sci-fi theme that may have most relevance with our ever expanding technology - if we don't kill the planet before we reach that point.
I really hated Rebecca Hall in this role. There was something about her character that made me want to punch her in the face. If I never see Morgan Freeman again I will be happy, seriously how many wise old man roles can on person take? The movie was entertaining but some of the plot holes were big enough to drive a truck through. In the end it was worth 2 and a half stars out of five.
This movie was extremely slow.. pretty boring too. The ending was alright. This entire movie could have been summed up in about 10 minutes.
