Transcendence had so much potential. Johnny Depp. Morgan Freeman. Big budget sci-fi thriller commenting on the evolutionary struggle between man and machine. What could possibly go wrong?
Everything, apparently.
There is no way that a scientist (Paul Bettany), who's been off the grid in a cave somewhere for two years, could write a virus that would outsmart a self-aware supercomputer (Johnny Depp) so advanced over the same time period that it can literally build a human copy of itself from the sands of the earth. No way.
Even if the original source code was written by said cave scientist, the movie establishes that the supercomputer has been re-writing its code ever since it became self-aware. Paul's character wasn't even as smart as the human Johnny Depp, and we're expected to believe that Paul can outsmart Johnny as a supercomputer with unlimited resources? Sigh.
And to the subject of national defense. A lone FBI agent, who's not even a high ranking official, makes the decision to side with a known terrorist group to shut down all networks and electricity on the planet? Seriously? The United States government, or any other world government, would sooner take out the terrorist cell (and the FBI agent) and negotiate with the supercomputer before allowing all hospitals, communication, commerce, defense and refrigeration to shut down in a moment's notice.
And even if we take the premise that the supercomputer committed suicide to save the life of the scientist who wrote the virus, why would he do that? He could have easily saved the scientist, his wife (Rebecca Hall)and everyone else, by just taking the gun from the terrorist holding the scientist hostage. He can sprout nanotechnology from the ground (which is how he took everybody else's gun). Double sigh.
I was very disappointed, again because this movie had so much potential. Instead of being awesome, it's just another classic example of poor script writing and relying on big names and special effects to do the job. What's worse, the makers of this film should have known better.
Shame.
Normally, I'd give this movie a 4/10. However, for its audacity to advertise brilliance and be anything but, it gets a 1.
Everything, apparently.
There is no way that a scientist (Paul Bettany), who's been off the grid in a cave somewhere for two years, could write a virus that would outsmart a self-aware supercomputer (Johnny Depp) so advanced over the same time period that it can literally build a human copy of itself from the sands of the earth. No way.
Even if the original source code was written by said cave scientist, the movie establishes that the supercomputer has been re-writing its code ever since it became self-aware. Paul's character wasn't even as smart as the human Johnny Depp, and we're expected to believe that Paul can outsmart Johnny as a supercomputer with unlimited resources? Sigh.
And to the subject of national defense. A lone FBI agent, who's not even a high ranking official, makes the decision to side with a known terrorist group to shut down all networks and electricity on the planet? Seriously? The United States government, or any other world government, would sooner take out the terrorist cell (and the FBI agent) and negotiate with the supercomputer before allowing all hospitals, communication, commerce, defense and refrigeration to shut down in a moment's notice.
And even if we take the premise that the supercomputer committed suicide to save the life of the scientist who wrote the virus, why would he do that? He could have easily saved the scientist, his wife (Rebecca Hall)and everyone else, by just taking the gun from the terrorist holding the scientist hostage. He can sprout nanotechnology from the ground (which is how he took everybody else's gun). Double sigh.
I was very disappointed, again because this movie had so much potential. Instead of being awesome, it's just another classic example of poor script writing and relying on big names and special effects to do the job. What's worse, the makers of this film should have known better.
Shame.
Normally, I'd give this movie a 4/10. However, for its audacity to advertise brilliance and be anything but, it gets a 1.