Review of Transcendence (2014) by Shpostal — 19 Apr 2014

This is a mentally engaging film, not too profound, but enough to make you think about what could happen in a world where humans and computer technology are no longer separate entities. It would be the virtual end of our existence as free willed creatures, and that freedom is compromised more every passing day with the reliance on the internet for far far too much. We are sacrificing privacy and freedom for technology, and probably already have.

The movie raises more questions than answers, and gives us just one scenario of what could happen. Depp plays a brilliant computer specialist who, shortly before his mortal death from a poisoned bullet, is successful with the help of his wife in uploading his mind and essence into a computer and then linked up to the internet, with very disturbing results.

His acting is its usual weird soft spoken self, and the cast is a fine supporting cast, including Morgan Freeman. There are things in the film I seriously doubt could happen, but nobody knows for sure what the future holds, so the script's guess is as good as anybody's.

What is more frightening is the realization that mind control is nothing new, and the vast majority of humanity surrender themselves to said manipulation as they have for their entire existence. Religion is the main culprit, and I could go on forever about that, but politics, social settings, upbringing and the herd mentality that insists we buy the latest fashions, like the same style of dress, music or whatever because everybody around us does are also effective in reducing the independent thinking of most people, and they don't even think about it.

So, the movie is a good movie in that it does make you think a little bit about our fate and how delicate the balance is between total technology and human emotion and freedom. The enemies of free speech and thought are out there and always have been. It will only get worse, and perhaps a movie about societal capitulation to one or more of these causes would make one think even more. It's not Depp's finest work, and it won't replace a film like "The Matrix" any time soon, but it is worth checking out.