{"id":18361,"date":"2014-07-31T14:03:55","date_gmt":"2014-07-31T18:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=18361"},"modified":"2016-01-03T14:19:36","modified_gmt":"2016-01-03T19:19:36","slug":"transcendence-2014-blu-raydvdultraviolet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/31\/transcendence-2014-blu-raydvdultraviolet\/","title":{"rendered":"Transcendence (2014) [Blu-ray\/DVD\/Ultraviolet)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It\u2019s interesting to see that Johnny Depp is at a point in his career where he can just film himself with the cast for twenty minutes worth of a two hour movie, and then just rely on special effects for the rest of the film. I imagine Depp was in a bungalow vacationing, and would interrupt his getaway to film his footage for a few days with green screen. For a film that revolves around demonizing technology to emphasize how it destroys humanity and human contact, it\u2019s inadvertently comical to see most of Depp\u2019s performance rely solely on him having zero contact with anyone in the cast. And even when Depp is on screen, you\u2019d swear he was being played by a robotic double still figuring out that tricky concept called emotions.<\/p>\n

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Depp plays Dr. Will Caster, a very brilliant scientist figuring out how to build an advanced form of AI that can connect to the entire world. He wants the AI to become something of a cognizant and somewhat omnipotent presence in our lives that can advance our way of living. For some reason, there\u2019s a terrorist cell named RIFT devoted to destroying technicians building any form of AI, and their efforts to stop the progress of Caster\u2019s concept of \u201cTranscendence\u201d (that\u2019s the buzz word for the movie, as it\u2019s repeated about fifty times throughout the duration!) are also comical. In the opening scenes they murder a group of computer techs by poisoning them with birthday cake, and murder Will by shooting him with a radiation laced bullet. A shot to the head or heart would have worked faster; who runs this group? Dr. Evil?<\/p>\n

Will\u2019s wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall is striking) conveniently transfers his consciousness to a massive computer network, and despite dying, he awakens again as the AI that he spent his life mastering. Except, as Evelyn and Will\u2019s friend Max (Paul Bettany) has warned, Will soon begins to use his absolute power to build an army of drones, and war begins. \u201cTranscendence\u201d is two hours of yet another tale of megalomania through the advancements of technology that\u2019s absolutely tedious, and lackluster. For such a wonderful cast, they have nothing to do but mug for the camera (Cillian Murphy and Morgan Freeman are especially pointless), and over explain everything for the audience that has no idea what the hell is going on. The movie is so clumsy and hackneyed it feels like the origins of a 1940\u2019s comic book villain, sans the superhero.<\/p>\n

Just think of junk like \u201cLawnmower Man,\u201d and \u201cThe Mangler 2<\/a>,\u201d and you pretty much sum up what director Wally Pfister tries to pass off as a sophisticated techno-thriller. Much of what occurs is very predictable and lacking in any kind of shocks or real commentaries on playing God with technology. It\u2019s all been done and said before, so \u201cTranscendence\u201d rolls over the same fodder we\u2019ve seen a thousand times over by much more creative people. The only performer in the group who isn\u2019t sleepily walking through their role is Kate Mara, who is very memorable as the leader of RIFT, desperately trying to keep Will 3.0\u2019s operation from growing in to worldwide domination. Otherwise, \u201cTranscendence\u201d is overlong, poorly conceived, boring, and dunderheaded. There are so many more interesting films about technology and our reliance on it out there, \u201cTranscendence\u201d is just a pastiche of broad, superficial ideas compiled in to a really bad script.<\/p>\n

Featured on the Blu-Ray and DVD combo is the five minute \u201cWhat is Transcendence?\u201d a typical behind the scenes promotional segment with interviews with the cast, explanation of the plot, and production footage. \u201cA Singular Vision\u201d is a three minute segment with more interviews with the cast, all of whom explain their experience working with Wally Pfister. \u201cGuarding the Threat\u201d is a two minute montage of clips from the film, and more emphasis on the idea of the film with no real exploration of the ideas. \u201cThe Promise of A.I.\u201d is a three minute conversation about AI, while \u201cIt\u2019s Me\u201d is a one minute teaser trailer for the film. Finally, there are two one minute long teasers, one of which is \u201cSingularity\u201d narrated by Morgan Freeman, along the teaser \u201cR.I.F.T.,\u201d narrated by Kate Mara.<\/p>\n