Few things are more disappointing than a movie with a star-studded cast that’s so bad, you feel sorry for the people in it. Debutant director Wally Pfister’s sci-fi film, “Transcendence” is one of those films that leave you questioning actors’ motives for making films. How someone can go from playing a swashbuckling pirate or a deranged, fanatic fictional character — characters that exude liveliness and energy — to playing a lifeless voice inside a computer, is a secret for actors to know and for audiences to guess.
Johnny Depp, (“The Lone Ranger”) plays Dr. Will Caster, an artificial intelligence researcher whose thirst for knowledge leads him to take control of the Internet. But that’s OK, because he’s doing it so that he can fulfill his wife’s clichéd desire to make the world a better place. A very vague goal, with the worst possible means of achieving it — taking control of the world’s intellectual base and using it for selfish purposes … so that humanity is in a better place. Caster, while giving a presentation that centers on the creation of a machine that possesses sentience and collective intelligence, is shot by a member of a terror group that wages war on artificial intelligence. Caster is brought back to life on a virtual platform where he is hooked up to the Internet by his wife, Evelyn (Rebecca Hall, “Iron Man 3”) in order to continue the process of harnessing the secrets of the universe through machines. This is the best thing that ever happened to the couple as they can now pursue their ambitions through the anonymity and power of the Internet. I mean, who doesn’t love some free Wi-Fi access, right? However, much like the teenage girl that posts way too many selfies on Facebook, Caster goes rogue, wreaking virtual havoc in order to achieve his goal. Pretty soon even the FBI ends up partnering with the terror group (what?) in order to stop the Casters from taking over the world. The multitude of actors and their underdeveloped characters prevent the audience from taking any interest in the film whatsoever. It’s a pity that actors such as Paul Bettany (“Iron Man 3”) and Morgan Freeman (“Now You See Me”) are confined to mundane roles such as Max, Will’s friend, and Joseph Tagger, an FBI agent, respectively. Even Johnny Depp, so renowned for his versatile acting prowess, seems uninspired and lifeless in his role. One can forgive the outlandish nature of the storyline and the mediocrity of the performances if the plot was clear and the events built upon each other to make sense. However, nothing seems to make sense in this movie, where just about anything happens for the sake of convenience. Therefore, it’s not even worthwhile to analyze the sequence of events. All developments seem to occur just so that the movie has something to say at the end. It’s as if statements are being made — not because they make sense — but because something more dramatic can be said about them later on. Even though there’s a lot of talk about the thirst for knowledge, the power of artificial intelligence and the nature of greed in human beings, it still feels as though nothing substantial has been said, due to the chaotic events of the movie and the shabby climax. The movie is all over the place — it has too many characters and too much happens to them for audience members to take it all in and care for the characters or the movie itself.
News Source:www.michigandaily.com
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