Dearest Blog, yesterday I took full advantage of a day off to sneak out to the cinema. On my agenda was the new Johnny Depp flick, Transcendence.
Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailer.\
When a brilliant A.I. researcher is gunned down by opponents of his work, his grieving widow and a former colleague seek a way to save him, but the result of their efforts is not quite what they intended.
Well, dear Blog, the first thing I noticed when I got to the theatre yesterday was that I couldn't check in to Transcendence on TV Tag (formerly GetGlue); it wasn't even in their library. I thought to myself, "Self, that can't be a good sign," and I was right. Opening on a holiday weekend to a pretty busy cinema, there were only three other people in the room with me, far fewer than for my second screening of Captain America: The Winter Soldier afterward.
As regular reader(s) and anyone who knows me will be well aware, I think Johnny Depp is the world's finest living actor. I've been a fan since his days on Jump Street, and, while his performance never lets me down (even in sub-par movies), I admit I've grown tired of him playing the quirky guy in the funny hat, and was ready for something at least a little bit more serious. Sadly, after seeing Transcendence, I think I'd almost rather have had another Mad Hatter; the role was so blah I wasn't even looking forward to his screen time as the movie dragged on. Rebecca Hall is fine as his widow, though she, too, has little to work with and does even less with it. (Also, leggings, big shirts, and ballet flats are not her best look. She's one of my favorite girl crushes, and I was deeply saddened by this.) The rest of the cast is a who's who of faces I love seeing, to the point that listing them all here would venture into the ridiculous. Instead I'll just say a movie that can't be fixed by Clifton Collins, Jr. simply can't be fixed at all.
Transcendence doesn't exceed my recommended two-hour guideline, yet it seems to go on forever. The premise is fascinating and the cast solid...yet somehow the execution fails completely. I grew more bored by the second and practically sprinted from my seat when it was over (and not just because I was that eager to see Sebastian Stan again...no matter what you've heard)!
Transcendence isn't a terrible move, but, when you can't help comparing what it is with what it could and should have been, it's bound to be a disappointment.
Of a possible nine Weasleys, Transcendence gets four and a half.
Until next time...
I call it Transcendence!
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