Transcendence (2014)

nTitle: Transcendence (2014)

nDirector: Wally Pfister

nCast: Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany, CilliannMurphy, Morgan Freeman

nFunny story with this movie: I went to see it on whatnCatholics call Holy Friday and on that day, actually that whole weekend, well,ntheaters where flooded with church religious folks going to see either God isnnot Dead (2014) or Heaven is for Real (2014). So I felt out of place going tonsee Transcendence which touches upon the dangers of religious fanaticism, fromna more philosophical angle. Transcendence is a movie against religion, not fornit. Funny part is that the theater that was playing God is not Dead was rightnnext to the one playing Transcendence and both films were starting at the samentime. The interesting part is that I could see people entering in droves to God is notnDead while every once in a while, somebody would go into Transcendence and mynfirst thought how this was all so symbolic of what goes on in the world. Sonvery few people are inclined towards the philosophical, the thought provoking.

nI’m of the mind that religion is dying off little by littlenand that thanks to the help of the internet and social media, people are slowlynrealizing just how much of a fairy tale religion is. The powers that be knownthis, which explains the avalanche of religious flicks we’ve being seeingnlately. It almost feels like a desperate attempt to inject society withnreligiosity again. The powers that be also control Hollywood and they know hownto use it well. I mean, even Hitler realized the power of cinema to transmitnhis ideas! So anyhow, this avalanche of Christian movies is to me, the lowestntype of religious propaganda, so sleazy, so obvious in its desperation. Therencould be another explanation for the recent onslaught of religious flicks:nmoney. Religious people don’t need much to get all fired up and Hollywood knowsnit. This explains why a prejudiced film like God is not Dead is making money. Hollywoodnknows this is an untapped market, and it seems they now want to exploit it as muchnas possible. I mean, this month alone we had 3 religious themed films! And theynall have these titles that make it obvious they have an agenda. God is not Dead….Heavennis for Real…I’m in Love with a Church Girl….these titles let us see the kindnof ideas that they want to infuse into society. God isn’t dead no matter whatnyour university teachers tell ya! Heaven is Real, look at this little kid who wentnto heaven…and when you marry, make sure she’s a church girl! What the?! What’snnext? A film called Science is the Antichrist?

nI mean, it’s not like films about ‘not believing’ are sonobvious with their titles. Just look at a film like Transcendence; there’snnothing to tell you that it’s a film about religious fanaticism, the themes arennot blunt or in your face. The themes are not even implied in the films title!nNope, the films themes are hidden behind meanings and symbolisms; you don’tnfeel like you’re being preached to. With films like God is not Dead and Heaven isnfor Real, I feel like am being preached at from seeing the previews alone! Sonanyways, there I was, doing my part in supporting a philosophical film withninteresting themes and intriguing cyberpunk elements which I am a sucker for,nunfortunately Transcendence wasn’t a very exciting film. Sure it wasnphilosophical, and sure it had interesting concepts which I was diggin’ for thenmost part, unfortunately it all builds up to nothing. I wanted a bigger bangnfor my sci-fi buck! Unfortunately the filmmakers weren’t all that interested innshowing us anything amazing or mind blowing.

nThe thing with this movie is that it had all the appropriatenelements to deliver something thought provoking and cool at the same time. Thenconcept of artificial intelligence becoming sentient, fully aware of its existencenis incredibly interesting to me. It presents us with the terrifying notion thatncomputers might one day think, like us, or for us. It goes even further andnplays with the ideas of transferring our consciousness into an artificialnintelligence, so that it might duplicate us in a way, so that we might, in anway, live forever. Of course the logic behind it is a lot of bullshit science,nthe kind of science that they show us in films where complicated scientificnprocedures are explained away with a simple sentence. And that’s fine as far asnI’m concerned, I don’t need things to be explained to me, this side of the filmnreminded me of the dream traveling technology in Inception (2010) which isnnever explained in the film. It’s like the famous ‘McGuffin’ , you don’t reallynneed to know what it is, or how it works. What matters is how we go from pointnA to point B. Unfortunately point B in Transcendence takes us nowhere. Interestingnconcepts are presented but never taken to their full potential, I feel theyncould have pushed things a bit further, they played it too safe in my book.

nThe film kind of contradicts itself because it presents usnwith Will Caster, a scientist who has successfully transferred his consciousnessninto the internet. He follows all the steps that a cult leader follows in ordernto build his empire. He buys land, he builds a society apart from the rest ofnhumanity, and then he starts attracting parishioners by promising themnparadise. I couldn’t help but think about David Koresh and his shenanigans innWaco, Texas, or Jim Jones and his Jonestown in Guyana. The problem is that thencharacter of Will Caster isn’t really evil; he creates technology that actuallynhelps humanity. His creations would make the world a better place, so then whyndoes the film make it a point to portray him as an evil religious leader? So whichnis it, is he the leader of a zombie religion, or is he the savior of humanity?nIt’s not just that this character has that duality to it; it’s just that thencharacter contradicts itself. The film is a jumbled mess in my book. It’s onenthat wanted to play with heavy themes, but ultimately didn’t know how tondevelop them in the best way possible. I mean, we’re even presented with the idea of living in a world where technology has dissapeared from the face of the earth, which would have made an even more interesting film, but alas, they only hint at it.

nUltimately, the biggest sin this film has going for it isnthat it was not entertaining. The ending is so incredibly dull I was literallynfighting to stay awake. I guess a lot can be explained by the fact that thisnfilm was directed by cinematographer turned director Wally Pfister. The problemnwith technical guys becoming directors is that they just don’t have that visionnnecessary to tell a story in an entertaining or visually interesting fashion. Justnbecause you’ve worked behind the scenes all your life, doesn’tnmean you’d make a good director. Sure there are exceptions, but morenoften than not, technicians and writers don’t always make good directors.nExamples of this are Blade Trinity (2004), Virus (1999), Spawn (1997), Eragon (2006),nall directed by writers and special effects guys who suddenly wanted to take anstab at directing. I’m not saying that Transcendence is a terrible film becausenit does offer us interesting concepts and at times interesting visuals, butnaside from being dull beyond measure, it even has great actors in roles that go nowhere! Cillian Murphy and Morgan Freeman are next to useless here. To me, Transcendence feels unfinished ornhalf assed; it didn’t push its concepts all the way. And those are some of thenworst cinematic sins in my book; a missed opportunity every step of the way.

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nRating: 2 ½ out of 5