Transcendence
OVERALL: Meh. Beautiful film, but WTF.
POINTS: Beautifully made movie. Very well crafted, very well acted.
PITFALLS: The script. WTF? And possibly the mindset of the directing. Sorry people but I just can’t be afraid – see Cultural Pitfalls below.
FEMALE CHARACTER(S): Well we had two. Evelyn Caster played by Rebecca Hall and Bree played by Kate Mara. Rebecca Hall carried a great deal of the movie, and well she can as she is an excellent actress. Kate Mara was also good as Bree but her character was no where near as interesting which one can deduce since Bree doesn’t even have a last name.
CULTURAL PITFALL(S): Ok here goes. IMHO:
Look, as far as I am concerned you can’t really review something totally objectively because your own personal biases are going to come into play. I freely admit that (see Chick Flicking Review System). So let me begin by saying I LOVE technology! No wait.
I LOVE TECHNOLOGY!
I am an engineer’s daughter. I love mechanical items in all shapes and sizes. I teaching a computer applications course at a university! When I finally got my hands on computers that was it! I feel in love and continue to be in love with computers. They are the ultimate communication device. 🙂 So what does this mean?
It means that if I see a movie that brings fear or OMG! into a discussion about tech I get annoyed. Really annoyed. My bottom line is this: Technology can only do what we people tell it to do. That’s it. Not a fan of nuclear bombs but we humans built them. They go off only when we tell them to.
Now yes this movie deals with the idea of singularity (see links below) and frankly I am looking forward to that. Sure I love the Terminator movies, but in my mind if and when computers get smarter than us it will be cool and we will work together in harmony. (See the books I, Robot and the Culture series.) And if we don’t, well welcome to being human.
Now do I think that there will be issues in how we treat sentient machines? You bet. Humans is a great TV series that I think deals with this issue perfectly.
So I guess my bottom line is let’s put our fear on hold, let’s get analytical, let’s calm the eff down and roll with it baby.
Good grief, was there this much hand wringing when the wheel was invented?
HIGH POINT(S): Beautiful acting, visuals, pacing. This was a gorgeous movie! It just felt too fearful for me and not enough curiosity and exploration. I kept saying to the screen “Oh good grief calm down.”
BECHDEL TEST (Website): 1 of 3.
RACIAL BECHDEL TEST (Website): 1 of 3.
IMDB: Transcendence (2014)
OFFICIAL MOVIE WEBSITE: Transcendence
DVD/BLU-RAY WORTHY: Well, no but if someone gave it to me I wouldn’t throw it away.
LION PAW PRINTS: 2 of 5.
Transcendence Official Trailer #1 (2014) – Johnny Depp Sci-Fi Movie HD
LINKS:
Chick Flicking Reviews 