Transcendence

Post by **Leisher** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 10:29 am

I haven't seen it, but wanted to share this very negative review.

Post by **Leisher** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 2:56 am

A homegrown terrorist group fighting to end out of control technology advances, specifically AI because they watched The Terminator, unleashes an attack that almost kills Johnny Depp, but forces his transformation into their greatest fears.

Almost none of that is made up.

The whole film suffers from pacing problems. It feels ridiculously rushed from start to finish. It's also a story that's been told many, many times only this time instead of giving someone the powers of a god, they turn him into a machine with the powers of a god. There's a ST:TNG episode that does it better than Transcendence.

Lots of flaws in the technical aspects of the film, but you know that going in. It gets worse as the film goes on.

The ending directly contradicts plot points made earlier too, which is ridiculous when you realize if the end is correct, then the "good guys" were really the bad guys.

I wouldn't know who to recommend this to, so I won't. It's not terrible, but it's not great.

Edited By Leisher on 1414306623

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 12:11 pm

There's a ST:TNG episode that does it better than Transcendence.

Is that the one where Howlin' Mad Murdock becomes smarter than the ship's computer?

Post by **Leisher** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 6:21 pm

No, but I guess the story is similar.

I was thinking when Gordon's clone was given the power of Q.

Post by **GORDON** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 4:46 pm

The ending directly contradicts plot points made earlier too, which is ridiculous when you realize if the end is correct, then the "good guys" were really the bad guys.

I picked up on this early on. The thing was being treated as evil in spite of the fact it never did anything evil.

Well, there was that one thing, but it is ambiguous.

Edited By GORDON on 1435092539

Post by **GORDON** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 5:01 pm

Leisher wrote:I haven't seen it, but wanted to share this very negative review.

Spoilers probably follow

I just started reading this article.... finished the first 2 paragraphs... there are three mistakes already, so huge that I am wondering if this reviewer saw a different cut of the movie than I did. Because it's either that or he watched the movie on one computer screen while playing Call of Duty on his other screen at the same time.

Johnny Depp ...plays Dr. Will Caster, an eccentric tech celebrity like Elon Musk or Steve Jobs whose main area of research is to figure out how to upload human consciousness into a computer.

Wrong. It was another guy in their field researching that.

Before the inevitable happens his wife and Max attempt to upload his brain to a computer to keep him “alive,” and once Will’s consciousness is online he, for some reason, decides to destroy humanity.

Wrong. There's never even a glimmer of a hint of that.

You see, Depp’s computer character has created countless nanobots that can both regenerate cells to cure the sick (and subversively create pod people) but also do his evil bidding if he wants to.

Wrong. The thing itself is ambiguous.... he describes them as keeping their independence, but also being able to call on a collective mind... maybe that isn't moral? But they volunteered for it and nothing "evil" is ever done.

I'm just going to stop reading there. This guy wasn't paying attention to the movie.

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Sun Aug 02, 2015 9:39 pm

I was thinking when Gordon's clone was given the power of Q.

That's not quite a decent analogy for me. Riker was understandably going to go off with Q and see the universe or some shit. He wasn't going to hang around and call the shots. Depp very much is, albeit with more benign intentions than you'd think.

Holy shit. This wasn't that bad expect for the AI turning into a moron in the last act. Straight up dumb-ass.

Also, was I the only one that thought the real villains were the bleach blonde bitch (henceforth referred to as BBB), her buddies, and Bettany? My opinion turned about halfway through or so. Let's check the score (spoilers):

AI:
- cures all known diseases and maladies, including genetic ones you've had from birth
- invents virtual immortality
- gives you hive mentality on demand, autonomy otherwise
- solves world hunger and thirst
- solves every environmental issue you can think of, including nuclear waste disposal
- can power a quantum supercomputing cluster, can probably handle the needs of your average major metropolitan area
- body count: zero, number of people raised from the dead: more than a few, number of people seriously injured: 0

Luddites:
- knock out all known electronic tech, tossing you back into a pre-WWII age
- use artillery, automatic weapons, bombs, and straight up kidnapping and assault to further their agenda
- are willing to shut a guy off from the network while he's fatally wounded, effectively killing him so they can prevent all the AI bullet points

All you need to do is give the individual veto power over the network taking control of their brain while retaining the superhero benefits. BBB is ironically proven wrong at the end when Depp decides to upload the kill-virus to save Bettany and listen to his wife. The AI demonstrates a million times the humanity that cunt and her friends do.

Edited By Malcolm on 1438568978

Post by **GORDON** » Sun Aug 02, 2015 10:27 pm

Glad I am not the only one who saw it that way. The guy who wrote the article saw the opposite.

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 11:43 am

The more I think about this, the more the Luddites should've been lynched after they pulled this stunt. I'm sure all the people with cancer, leukemia, and heart disease were jumping for joy. Also all the people that are now without their desktops, laptops, smartphones, and social media accounts. Then there's the economy which had to take a staggeringly sharp nosedive in the wake of widespread poverty, famine, and illness. If the death toll isn't in the millions, it'd be astounding.

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Post by **GORDON** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 12:05 pm

Hell, a million died in about 3 weeks when there was no more insulin.

I'd predict an 80% die-off within a year.

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Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 12:16 pm

GORDON wrote:Hell, a million died in about 3 weeks when there was no more insulin.

I'd predict an 80% die-off within a year.

Shit, that just gets me thinking about all the vaccines, antivenins, etc., that have to be refrigerated. Hope there's a lot of ice around.

Post by **GORDON** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 1:18 pm

I forget, was it just America, or the whole world with the EMP?

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 1:29 pm

GORDON wrote:I forget, was it just America, or the whole world with the EMP?

Everyone. He got out on the internet. The Luddite argument is "he copied his source code to every machine online." While that sounds like something a technical idiot would say, let's assume it's true. It wasn't an EMP, either. They took his source code, which has to be gigs upon gigs of jeebus only knows what kind of logic, analyzed it (even with machine help that would take years), and engineered a virus to exploit some kind of weakness.

Come the fuck on, can't the AI self-analyze his own code and plug up any security holes?

Edited By Malcolm on 1438623055

Post by **GORDON** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 1:32 pm

Yeah, I knew it wasn't an EMP, it was just effectively an EMP.

Good thing it was the whole world though or you'd have China colonizing/annexing everything west of the Rockies under the guise of "humanitarian aid."