"Be careful what you wish for, cause you just might get it."

'Transcendence' is a science fiction movie about Artificial Intelligence with some classic themes in it. After a tragic event someone is brought back to life by copying his mind to a (quantum)computer. When the program spins out of control, it is up to the heroes of the story to stop the machine from destroying humankind.

Story
So far so good. A basic AI story with all kinds of possibilities, and this is where they went wrong. It looks like they could not really decide which theme(s) they really wanted to go with, so almost every theme is hinted at: Self-consciousness, Technology as a life form, is a machine able to Love, is the world holistic or based on reductionism, Could a machine ever overpower us, post apocalyptic world, struggle of morality, devotion and faith et cetera. None of these themes gets the proper time to get deepened out, so we end up with a movie with a lot of unsatisfying development.
Secondly, the first scene of the movie already betrays the end of the movie, which was a very bad decision, because it took out all the suspense from the movie and made you aware of the ending from the beginning.

Some plot holes which made me think the creators think I am dumb, but in the end made me think they are dumb:
1. I thought it was weird the 'virus' had to be uploaded by 'the wife' Evelyn, since it was basically working like an antidote (a bit weak imho) and since the AI's main goal was to "improve" everyone, not kill them, dosing people with the virus would make them invulnerable for hostile takeovers.
2. Also, the main power source of the AI was his solar park. Even though he operated on the complete Internet and everything connected to it, including the power grid itself (which is literally named in the movie.) So shutting down that solar park should not have any effect on him at all!

Characters
Besides a few 'errors in 'judgment', the cast is overall pretty good and does a nice job. Nobody will probably win an award for this movie and some characters are so anonymous I cannot even remember their characters name just after watching the movie (I seriously had to look this example up: Paul Bettany as Max Walters.)

Visuals/Music
The music in the movie was pretty decent. Nothing special, just like the movie in it's whole, but not bad either. Visuals were neat, but no megalomania was added, so you won't really be able to enjoy big massive visual spectacles on the screen. But this is not a film for that anyway.

Overall/Enjoyment
In contrary to the many negative points I wrote down, it is not bad of a movie at all. It does not reach classic heights or big majestic scenes, but you will be interested in it as long as you like the AI kind of Science Fiction. I especially liked how the movies seems to have a bit of a slower pace than is the standard nowadays, which I can appreciate.

The movie begins interesting, promising a quite intriguing story and it ends in a superb way. However, and this is very unfortunate, every thing in between is mediocre, partly even worse: the plot has holes (e.g. why and how do the rebels know about Brightwood after going underground and turning even their cellphones off, why is Joe the AI professor suddenly leading military troops or why are a few single cores for PINN hooked up to some rag-tag equipment in a desolated building enough to analyze Will's mind?), the story is mostly predictable and the performance of the support cast is poor (especially Max (Paul Bettany) and Bree, but also the wooden and lifeless Joe (Morgan Freeman)). All these weaknesses along with same hilarious assumptions regarding quantum- / super-computers and AI make it sometimes nearly unbearable to continue watching Transcendence.

However, as mentioned in the introduction, the ending is superb and makes up for a lot. As a fan of Nolan's films a have to say I am quite disappointed in his 2014 work: Transcendence is nowhere near Prestige, Insomnia / Memento or the Dark Knight movies and Interstellar is the even bigger disappointment! I really hope that his future work will improve again!!!

A story about a huge super-almighty AI. It poses some pretty interesting ethical questions:
What makes us human? Consciousness? Emotions? Is an AI with both a human? Or does it need a human body?
How far are we allowed to go in our progress of using technology? When it is too much? Sure, having everyone connected like at the end of the movie is too far, but where exactly was the line? And aren't we connected to each other way too much already nowadays?

Is it ethically allowed to grow a human body and insert a previous backed up consciousness into it?
Are we allowed to re-create out environment, healing it, with micro robots if we are able to? Fiddle with the very nature? Or are we already way more cruel to it today?

Overall, I think this movie was well over-averaged, but not among the best. There are some logical holes, for instance, why isn't the AI fully informed of the plans against it? Shouldn't it been able to monitor and anticipate their moves, or coming and aiming at least? For that matter, it did before when informing the FBI about the whereabouts of RIFT...

Yet, in the end, it has proven to be human, by being willing to destroy itself out of fears of humanity, or becoming to artificial itself. I am not sure one can even describe the reason for the (basically) self-destruction if not for our very values.

I felt Freeman's performance a bit underwhelming, I felt the wrong actor played the wrong role. I think it would be much more interesting if he played the 2nd scientist, asking all the moral questions.

Rating: 8/10

flat as empty paper

When the FBI guy (Cillian Murphy) gives a clueless monologue for the first time, I wondered whether that was a potshot. The second time, it became clear the writer has no clue what he's writing about. No, the blender meme wasn't about Luddism.
Plots involving AIs have been around for decades, and they always require a good amount of suspension of disbelief. But they should never be stupid. (Nor should the AIs.) Here, both are.

There is no depth to the story, no suspense, no unexpected developments either. These topics - AI, Nanites, Dr. Frankenstein improving the world - has been written about competently, oftentimes. A good copy would've done. When this script tries to be deep, philosophical even, it fails.

But that's not the worst of it.

The only actor to get to express some (some!) emotional range and depth is Rebecca Hall in her role as Eveyln Caster. The other actors, good as they are, have very little to work with - all the characters are flat and schematic. The partner: loving. The concerned friend: despairing. The father figure: caring. The terrorists: self-righteous. The FBI: sober. The townspeople: stupid hicks. And so on.

The obvious questions don't get asked, the less obvious - hey, the AI and a number of characters are supposed to be highly intelligent! - aren't asked either. And so the movie plods along to its expected end.

Even acclaimed actors have a hard time to breathe life and sense in a papier mâché puppet.

"Transcendence" (2014) is another WOMBAT: Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time.
Don't waste yours.