Release Date: 04/18/2014
A terminally ill scientist downloads his mind into a computer. This grants him power beyond his wildest dreams, and soon he becomes unstoppable.
| Best Case Scenario: 
| Worst Case Scenario: 
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Depp as Will There is an old adage that all a man needs to cheat is an opportunity. Transcendence seems to be advocating the same thing about megalomania. While it leaves itself ample room to cop out with something about how "the human soul" can't be copied, I hope it doesn't. In the trailer, Morgan Freeman says the real Will died, but I hope the horrifying conclusion is that he didn't; that all it took for him to turn on humanity was to be disconnected from it. However it turns out (does humanity prevail, or Will? The trailer seems to leave no middle ground), it shouldn't shy away from what it can say about man's depravity.
Transcendence is the directorial debut of longtime Christopher Nolan (who is involved in this one as an EP) collaborator Wally Pfister. Loaded with stars like Johnny Depp and Morgan Freeman, and surrounded by capable veterans like Cillian Murphy, Rebecca Hall, Kate Mara, and Paul Bettany, the movie may just be too big to fail. Nolan's name still carries enough cachet to drive people to the theaters, but the real question isn't its potential performance (that seems assured to me), but rather its prospective quality.
Transcendence is the directorial debut of longtime Christopher Nolan (who is involved in this one as an EP) collaborator Wally Pfister. Loaded with stars like Johnny Depp and Morgan Freeman, and surrounded by capable veterans like Cillian Murphy, Rebecca Hall, Kate Mara, and Paul Bettany, the movie may just be too big to fail. Nolan's name still carries enough cachet to drive people to the theaters, but the real question isn't its potential performance (that seems assured to me), but rather its prospective quality.
Hall as Evelyn There are worrying signs, but they might be buried deeper than you think. For instance, Pfister is a huge proponent of traditional film stock over digital, along with using a traditional photochemical finish instead of digital intermediate for this film. Do you think there's a chance some of that resentment over advancing technology seeped into his movie about advancing technology? It's quite possible that one of these characters will essentially serve as his proxy, venting his frustration at the inexorable march of progress that loses touch with the charm of tradition. That's in addition to the usual tightrope an AI movie has to walk between ridiculous and Luddism.
It will be interesting to see how the movie tackles Will manufacturing what I can only assume are nanobots. Machines building machines is all well and good, but it will be hard to portray it in the near future as something he's capable of with the current manufacturing processes in place. Perhaps they'll just set it far enough in the near future to explain it away. It's a problem Terminator 3 didn't even try to tackle and every other "robot revolution" movie escapes by having humanoid robots already in place.
It will be interesting to see how the movie tackles Will manufacturing what I can only assume are nanobots. Machines building machines is all well and good, but it will be hard to portray it in the near future as something he's capable of with the current manufacturing processes in place. Perhaps they'll just set it far enough in the near future to explain it away. It's a problem Terminator 3 didn't even try to tackle and every other "robot revolution" movie escapes by having humanoid robots already in place.
Still there's just too much potential here to set the ceiling too low, but with any project this ambitious there's also ample room for it to fall on its face, meaning quite a range. My First Impression is it will be much closer to the Best Case Scenario, but it would be naive to think it doesn't have the possibility to fail, especially in an inaugural directorial effort. At the very least, however, it will have a thought-provoking premise and as technology advances, and it becomes a matter of when, not if AI is developed, it will questions it can't hurt to ask, hopefully in as entertaining a manner as possible.
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