Review of Transcendence (2014) by Agarcia732 — 01 Aug 2014

Three things really surprise me--1) at one point Transcendence's "screenplay was part of what is known as the Black List, a list of popular but unproduced screenplays in Hollywood." 2) Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany, Kate Mara, Cillian Murphy, and Morgan Freeman are all characters in the film. 3) Christopher Nolan served as executive producer on the film.

Why do all these things surprise me? Because despite all this, I feel the move ultimately isn't very good. The ideas and concepts of: a almost post-apocalyptic Dystopian world not being able to rely on technology (due to the events at the end of the film); of "the singularity" and "Transcendence"; of radical terrorist "Anti-Technology" groups such as R.I.F.T; of uploading one's consciousness onto a computer or online; of extremely advanced A.I or Artificial Intelligence; of groundbreaking advancements in the fields of medicine, energy, biology and nanotechnology; and the idea of a technological Utopian civilization--all these concepts and ideas (featured in this film) are very interesting but most are not used to the fullest. These ideas and the entire film itself had lots of potential but it wasn't used. I feel this film really could have been as special as The Matrix or Inception, but it wasn't.

The movie was filled with some star-power. But IMO no one is memorable or relatable. I really liked Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer in 2013's "The Lone Ranger", and Depp in “Alice In Wonderland”. But here Johnny Depp is mostly quiet and speaks few lines when in good health, quiet and unsettling when in bad health, and reduced to a presence on a computer screen for most of the movie. At the conclusion of the film, you can feel for and relate to Dr. Will Caster. But for almost all of the film you really can't. His wife is just a pawn, damsel in distress, nervous wreck…whatever the plot needs her to be. Morgan Freeman and Cillian Murphy don’t do or say mutch.The rest of the cast is pretty boring and it feels like they are there just for a check or just to have some other recognizable actors to promote this film.

The movie doesn’t make sense some of the time and worst of all “Transcendence” feels boring and it drags on and on. Ultimately, this was supposed to be an action-vehicle for Johnny Depp—but I think it failed. It had too much focus on nice CGI and visuals plus having bankable stars shoehorned in—and not on a good movie. That might work in some cases, but it didn’t in this film. Poor Johnny Depp. (LOL, I was almost starting to forget how he looked like with all the makeup, CGI, and costumes he uses in his many diverse and strange roles).

If you liked this review, read my other ones on movies, TV shows, and videogames. I have reviewed the 2014 films Sharknado 2: The Second One, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Edge of Tomorrow, X-Men Days of Future Past, Godzilla, Blended, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, The Lego Movie, and more. I am actually still trying to find time for other film reviews, such as Robocop, Non-Stop, Divergent, Need for Speed, The Monuments Men, etc. I also review TV shows, such as: Fox's Sleepy Hollow, ABC's Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, CW's The 100, Fox's I Wanna Marry Harry, NBC's Crisis, Fox's Gang Related, TNT’s The Last Ship, and more.