Review of "Transcendence"

On paper, "Transcendence" sounded quite promising as a sci-fi thriller. However, the biggest problem I found with the story was that the concept of transcendence wasn't really explained and explored clearly so at the end of watching the film, I found that I was still none the wiser about what the whole hoo-ha over transcendence was about. I thought it was a real pity that the film had the potential to do better if the concept was developed to its fullest but it went the other way instead and felt like a half-baked effort.

In addition, I didn't really see the link between the advanced technology which the scientists were working on and the ills of the world e.g. pollution and diseases affecting humans which ultimately resulted in the global blackout when the main characters died. Maybe the message was that something created with the intention of goodwill can be manipulated by those who have the desire to use it for their own benefit. Then again, is the film trying to say that Will had the ambition within him so when his consciousness was merged with the AI, he had the power now to do what he always wanted to? However, when you look at the earlier scene where he was speaking at the presentation, he expressed his view that his wife had the lofty ambition to solve the problems facing mankind and he was more concerned about his research. Somehow, that seems a bit contradictory to what the later version of Will thought and did.

It was also a great pity to see Johnny Depp being relegated to leading man in name. In fact, Rebecca Hall (Evelyn) was seen in action more than him and it felt like she was the lead instead. However, if you look at how the script was written, I guess there was no way to see more of Depp in physical action since he had to die before his consciousness could be uploaded to the AI. If that didn't happen, the story would not move forward. However, if the story had been more detailed and taken the trouble to explain some of the fundamental questions over the concept of transcendence and what it really meant or involved, I think there would have been more room for Depp to explore the inner world of Will a bit more and make his performance more memorable to viewers.