Posted in: Movies | Tagged: entertainment, film, johnny depp, transcendence

How Transcendence Fails to Transcend Anything – Look! It Moves By Adi Tantimedh

Published Mon, 21 Apr 2014 11:00:01 -0500

Adi Tantimedh writes,

So Transcendence is an awful Science Fiction blockbuster and is probably going to flop.

That would make it the first casualty of this year's Summer Blockbuster Movie Season. Not the most unusual thing in the world. Every summer has its flops. However, there are more interesting things going on with what's wrong with it that highlights a lot of Hollywood's problems with Science Fiction.

In case you haven't seen it, the plot is about Johnny Depp getting fatally shot and his widow and best friend uploading his consciousness into an AI that proceeds to take over the entire internet, then the whole world, bringing about the Singularity and humans have to fight him before he brings Humanity to an end. Cue big Third Act battle scenes that are just outright naff in their thinking. This is present-day Hollywood so of course you need big explosions and gunfights that really don't make any sense. It's a prime example of a bloated, decadent Hollywood movie that thinks it's trying to be deep and profound about a major issue but completely bottles it in its alarmist cluelessness and stupidity.

The script was one of those selected for Hollywood's Blacklist a couple of years ago. The Blacklist is an annual compilation of the best unproduced screenplays by both known and unknown screenwriters, which often generates buzz and results in many of them getting produced. It's fast and slick but filled with plotholes and paranoid, Luddite technophobia, failing to grasp how information technology or, well Science in general, really work in its "technology is bad and scary" message. I'm not a technocrat, but I would hope that a story would make the effort of getting the science and technology right before decrying their dangers. This is a movie that fails to live up to its own title. It doesn't transcend the morass of clichés and sloppy writing.

This sticks in my craw because it's part of an exploitative and hypocritical strain of technophobia in the Film and TV industry. Many development executives and producers don't really get Science and look down on Science Fiction. They only really relate to the genre when it portrays Science and Technology in a bad light. Yes, I know there are directors and producers who are pro-Science and Technology, but they stick out because the majority of movies are alarmist. You can spot all the real-life news items that Transcendence grabbed to cobble its Frankenstein-like plot together: Johnny Depp being murdered with radiation is clearly inspired by the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London back in 2006, since nobody ever wrote that as a method of murder before that, the notion of a computer Ai threatening humanity is an old trope that had been giving new life by Ray Kurtzweill's writings (though he's actually pro-Singularity), then there's the silly nanotechnology stuff and the notion of luddite terrorists who carry out bombings and murders like extreme animal rights activists, getting Morgan Freeman to lend gravitas to hokey speeches… it doesn't feel like a proper story so much pieces stitched together from other – better – stories and movies. There's not a whiff of authenticity or authority in the story at all, no matter how much they dress it up in A-list production values.

Doesn't it strike you as hypocritical that they make alarmist movies and TV shows that are warnings about how "Science and Technology are Bad!" while using the latest state-of-the-art technology to tell us all that?

What's gratifying is that the general critical consensus and buzz for the movie has been bad. Even the most sympathetic reviews have to admit its mediocrity. The punters haven't liked it either. Bad reviews and word-of-mouth is what's going to sink it at the box office. It's interesting that the general culture isn't buying this movie or its anti-technology message, or at least unconvinced by its message. It feels like Hollywood has fallen behind the general public and the market. That cheap, dumb, lazy Science Fiction doesn't cut it anymore, even if they throw over $100 million at the budget. In this instance, the audience aren't having being fed bollocks and treated like idiots.

The best Science Fiction isn't just reactionary cautionary tales but explorations of the impact of technology on moral and political issues as well as what makes us human. That combined with the spectacle and the special effects are why Science Fiction has proven to be the one movie genre that is consistently popular with audiences worldwide. You'd think audiences would deserve better Science Fiction movies, but that means writers and producers would have to make the effort of researching the science so it feels right rather than just cut corners and make up magic mumbo-jumbo and then call a danger to the world. Hollywood seems to think Science Fiction is now an excuse to have big battle scenes and blow shit up, but then many executives have regarded the genre as somewhat embarrassing anyway. Given the widespread popularity of Science Fiction amongst punters, it means Hollywood is once again out of step with the general public, which might explain why their audience is dwindling. Some people might argue that the more Science Fiction shows and movies the better, but I think bad Science Fiction doesn't do anyone any good.

The only thing left I can say about Transcendence is that it's as if they remade Max Headroom as a grim & gritty thriller, completely missing the point that it was a comedy.

I'd rather just watch Max Headroom again.

Not transcending snark at lookitmoves@gmail.com

Follow the official LOOK! IT MOVES! twitter feed at http://twitter.com/lookitmoves for thoughts and snark on media and pop culture, stuff for future columns and stuff I may never spend a whole column writing about.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!