Movie Review of Transcendence

This movie is of a sci-fic genre, whereby scientists attempt to integrate a person’s consciousness into a machine as a form of AI. The main lead, Will Caster, was poisoned and on his dying bed, his wife decided to experiment on him and to kind of upload his consciousness into machinery and thereafter even uploading his consciousness onto the internet. As an online husband of sorts, the AI version of Will is able to buy himself land and make scientific discoveries that baffle mankind. He is able to help humans regenerate and recover from ailments of any kind and this is what makes him dangerous to man. Man fear the unknown they say and this is so real in the movie. Mankind developed a technology that could help them but they feared the power it possessed.

The movie was a bit slow paced and dry at the start but it gets better when the AI version of Will gets uploaded on the internet. After that, it gets really interesting as we get to see what this AI is capable of and how the other scientists react to its development.

It has been a while since I watched such a thought provoking movie. Makes me think about how man is always developing technology to benefit our own kind but at the end of the day we are afraid of what we have created for moral reasons, for the power it places into our hands. It begs the question whether there is a need to pursue such technology. Man is man because we are subjected to birth, life and death. If we do not die, are we still humans? Will we still be humans? I guess I shouldn’t tell you the ending in case you decide to catch it at the cinemas but it has a really sweet ending to it. At the end of the movie, it refocuses our attention to the love between the husband, Will and his wife, Evelyn. It is not about the world but really, it is just about them and their love.

I would rate this movie 3.8/5.