Transcendence

There's only one problem with Transcendence: everything.
Okay that's not completely true, but it was tough finding positives after seeing it earlier this week.
I think the biggest thing for me was the film would have been a lot more effective if it was made 15-20 years ago. The fact they even name-drop the Y2k thing reinforces that point.
I am ragging on the film a bit but it is a complete shame - I had such great expectation of Transcendence and it failed reach anywhere near the heights I hoped.
The idea of technology becoming self-aware and a threat to human society is one that deserves to be explored a whole lot more in film. It's one of my favourite scinece fiction themes, which leaves an even more bitter taste in my mouth.
Johnny Depp stars as Dr. Will Caster, one of the world's foremost researchers of Artificial Intelligence who is working to create a machine that can develop independent thought and the full range of human emotion. After delivering a keynote presentation, he is shot by anti-technology extremists with a poisoned bullet that will eventually kill him. Caster's wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and best friend Max Waters (Paul Bettany) work out how to upload his consciousness to the machine - or transcend. It does more harm than good, with his thirst for greater knowledge posing a deadly threat to human civilisation.
The idea is great but the execution is off. Maybe it was because I wasn't feeling too great, but I struggled to get through it.
Morgan Freeman is solid as always as Joesph Tagger who struggles to deal with the consequences of Caster's transcendence, and I still struggle to see Cillian Murphy (Agent Buchanan) as a "good guy" because he is so good as a bad guy. Murphy does put in a good performance but I feel he is miscast.