Panning shots, underused actors, and a slight sense of dissapointment: Transcendence

I was really looking forward to Transcendence. It promised to be an intelligent, well-thought out, and very entertaining piece, akin to, say, Inception. Alright, I didn't think it was going to be as good as Inception, but you can see what I'm getting at. Unfortunately, Transcendence didn't live up to that, but neither was it awful. It was fairly entertaining, but nothing extraordinary.

And yesterday, I was only excited.

Dr Will Caster (Johnny Depp) is a brilliant neuroscientist, working with wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and best friend Max (Paul Bettany) to create the singularity--the perfect melding of human consciousness into a computer, to make a true Artificial Intelligence. However, this has made him enemies, in the form of R.I.F.T, who attack him and force him to advance his program before he dies. But if (and when) he can succeed in uploading his own brain to a computer, will it still be him?

Now, I think that's a great idea for a film. However, the execution didn't live up to the plotting. First of all, very little happened. There were far to many panning shots and the story didn't go anywhere fast enough. By the second act I found myself planning a novel. There were destinations, but Transcendence didn't get there fast enough. I feel as though Wally Pfister had his great idea, but tried to do too much with not enough. And almost all of the characters were underused; Johnny Depp (in person) was barely in it; most of his lines could've been done over Skype! I honestly don't know how this happens, but they all felt underused. There were also some gaps in the storyline--I don't want to say much, as it might ruin the film for you (assuming I've not already done that), but it might bother you. It bothered me; not so much my friend.

Johnny, like the film, isn't looking too healthy here.

That said, Transcendence, when it was good, was entertaining. When it worked, it worked well, and there was enough of this to save it from being truly awful. The first act, and the first half of the second act were good; it was around act three that the quality began to noticeably
drop. In sharp contrast to Her (the only other example I can think of in recent years that deals with AIs and emotions), Transcendence poses some interesting questions about a technology that will probably be available within our lifetimes. I was entertained in many places, but there were some obvious flaws in what otherwise could've been a five star film.

Watch this if the only alternative is Noah; watch this on TV if you've nothing better to do on a Friday night. Entertaining, but with large gaps.

(A low) 3/5