Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

shimok 35+ years writing software code ... starting w/ Cobol and ending w/ C#. Watched Neural Networks and "AI" all through my career. "Colossus: The Forbin Project", "The Matrix", etc, have tried to get people to think about what's coming. Until now the tools weren't up to the task that Jonny Depp's character and his Wife envisioned. The next step to human evolution is thru AI period. Face it, I was coding with a 1953 OS that had a pitiful upgrade process. All human coders are faced with the same limitation. However, now with the internet and all the computer scientist, bio-engineers, and human genome decoders out there publishing their results it's only a matter of time before someone releases some type of viable AI into the wild. THIS IS WHAT THIS MOVIE IS ABOUT !!!!! Wake up, we need to start thinking & talking hard about how we want this AI to behave, This movie was couched in the EVIL AI GENRA, I suspect that AI had to be the bad guy before it could make it to the big screen as a third rate movie at best. Sheeple don't like change, it scares them and according to this movie they would rather destroy all the wonderful things we've developed over the last 50 years just to keep radical change from happening. Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) could have simply cured people and foregone networking them and giving them super powers but the networking and super powers was the functional cinematic reason he had to be stopped. The point is he cured people that currently have incurable disabilities. The Authorities could have chosen to talk first BEFORE shooting. Ah, but again AI and Change have to be the bad guys. But bad guys that cure Smog, Clean our Water, Recharge our depleted soil, Breakdown our garbage to useful elements, etc. What's bad about THAT !!! Yes there are risks to change, there are ALWAYS risks to change. However, the Authorities could have said to Dr. Caster, "Dude it's cool to heal all these people, it's even cool if you ask them and they choose to be enhanced. BUT we're NOT OK with all the people you fix being automatically networked. They should be asked if they want to be BORG and they should be given a Network OFF Switch. Isaac Asimov wrote the "3 laws" in 1950. It's not like we haven't been thinking about this stuff. I couldn't give a hoot about whether the movie was great or sucked (I realize this IS IMDB - but for me this is too great a movie message to reduce to cinematic chat.) P.S. you can bet the Weapons development people restarted the site immediately after it was under Authoritarian control. The point of all this - CHANGE WILL HAPPEN - GET USED TO IT - GET A HANDLE ON IT.

robbierehman As scientists are on the verge of a new breakthrough in A.I. technology, the line between Humanity & Humanity's evolving into something much more is clearly waning.Though the movie doesn't show too much of the potential of an AI, but it does show us a lot of perspective and views on the idea, and what misunderstanding and doubt could lead to. That's where fear of AI originates.If a intelligence such showed in the Transcendence is made, no amount of human effort can alter the course of it; that's final. And in actuality the process is already going on, just look around you.

micke-bystrom Not even Depp can save this script, which is almost completely in the pathetic, mixing some elementary ideas from movies like "Lawnmover Man" (1992) and also a storytelling style from not so well-done movies like "Independence Day" (1996). Unfortunately the storytelling is at par with the latter, full of logical errors, totally overblown exaggerated technical assumptions based on very little if anything, twists that leave the viewer without explanation and plot holes big enough to fly a Boeing 727 trough. It's sad that the makers, when having a chance to address the relevant and very real problems and virtues with AI and Nano Technology, they allow this opportunity to be wasted on a tepid story where alleged highly intelligent people acts more or less like some buffoons. The actors do what's necessary, but not more and in most cases less. Paul Bettany ("Max") does the better job, while Rebecca Hall ("Evelyn") is not convincing at all. Morgan Freeman has a somewhat smaller role as "Joseph Tagger", but there are too many stupid moments to render his interpretation as anything else as ridiculously mediocre considering how good an actor he can be. Probably not his fault. Granted he wasn't the focus here, but nevertheless. Depp also disappoints as "Will Caster" going through the motions, but somehow feeling almost absent on the screen, also when in physical form. One main gripe I have is that Evelyn's behavior as an highly intelligent woman when exposed to the fate of her boyfriend is overshadowed of her alleged love for him, driving her to illogical decisions. This may be acceptable if only her love had been believable. It's not. As it is presented now the audience have to assume this is how she felt, which is never a good sign. Compare this to how the love between "Neo" and "Trinity" in "Matrix Reloaded" is presented and where I think you can feel and more importantly understand their love for each other in the more dramatic moments of that movie. It's more than skin deep, which is not the case in "Transcendence". A big disappointment in short. I wanted to give this a "2", but I add one point for a somewhat poetic attempt of an ending.

qmtv OK, this movie has a decent idea, man is dying, uploads his consciousness onto a computer, then to the internet, after a couple of years and a new mega facility built, he is so advanced to the point of curing people and linking them to a collective cyborg consciousness. OK, I believe the idea is decent, but I also believe it's been done before. So, the only thing that could save this would be the acting. We'll the acting sucks. We have Johnny Depp as Will Caster, what the hell is up with that stupid mustache and little goatee? Is this a pirate movie? Beyond that, his acting is boring, his voice sucks, his dialogue is crap. He sucks in this movie. Rebecca Hall as Evelyn Caste as Will's wife is below par mediocre, dialogue sucks, unintelligent, always has a concerned look, that's it. Yeah, she loves Will, but give me a break, this did not come across well. Paul Bettany as Max Waters, best actor here, but overall mediocre, not his fault, the dialogue is trash all the way. Kate Mara as Bree, who the hell thought she was a good, or even a competent actress? That stupid blond wig – WTF! Those stupid facial expressions. Morgan Freeman as Joseph Tagger, wasted in another crappy mediocre supporting role. He should retire or only take a leading role. Enough with this nonsense. Everybody else in this film is just there to fill in the holes. So, the acting is garbage, the dialogue is boring, the story is mediocre. No suspense. No chemistry between the actors. Cliché final battle – crap. And what really got me is the zombie collective. Music is filler. Cinematography was competent. At least we didn't get quick edits – thank god. Again, idea is fine, even though it was stolen from other films. Crap no chemistry acting. Cliché battles and zombies. Are we supposed to feel for the Will and his wife because he sacrificed himself and his wife for his friend Max? Then Max finds them both dead, Will's eyes closing. Where's the drama here? This movie sucks.Please read the critic - 1,2,3 WTF!? (Watch the Film)- They give a timeline, breakdown of WTF is going on in this "film". It takes time to do this. I applaud their effort.