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Author
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Topic: Transcendence
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Stu Jamieson
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 524
From: Buccan, Qld, Australia
Registered: Jan 2008
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posted 04-26-2014 08:27 PM
There's a war on for the minds of people and the enemy is artificial intelligence. At least that's the viewpoint of the extremist group, R.I.F.T. (that's Revolutionary Independence From Technology, to the unlearned), and they're willing to take murderous action to win their war.
Dr Will Caster (Johnny Depp), leading AI researcher, is but one victim of R.I.F.T.'s murderous rampage. Shot with a radioactive slug and with just weeks to live, his beloved wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) uploads Will's mind into his quantum supercomputer thus saving his life - or at least his existence. With instant access to vast online resources, Will's research is greatly accelerated but the power which comes with almost unbounded knowledge greatly alarms both R.I.F.T. and the US government.
First time director, Wally Pfister, poses some really interesting questions on the nature of consciousness, human toil, knowledge and power, but from about the midpoint on, he becomes obsessed with whether Will's conscience really has been uploaded to the supercomputer, whether he is good or evil and how his love affair endures with his wife in virtual form. But these are all Hollywood tropes and are far less interesting than the fundamental principle at play here and that is that knowledge is power and how the subsequent threat of that power puts good and evil in the balance.
Whether the holder of that power is actually good or evil is almost beside the point (in the context of a movie); the pointed question is: should anybody wield that power at all? By reducing this principle to a mere love story and to questions of whether the protagonist is good or evil does the story a disservice and perhaps speaks to the lack of confidence of a first time director in his own abilities; lacking the confidence to stay the course on the true message of the film and surrendering to a vehicle which merely delivers entertainment.
In this regard, Pfister seems to miss the point of his own movie. The film could have been great. It starts drawing on interesting historical events such as the Koreshian siege in Waco but ends up a tired mash-up of HAL 9000 with Invasion of the Bodysnatchers.
Interestingly, the film is executively produced by Christopher Nolan (Pfister is his cinematographer) and, in truth, would probably be better had he directed it.
6.5 out of 10
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 04-27-2014 12:56 AM
quote: Stu Jamieson
First time director, Wally Pfister, poses some really interesting questions on the nature of consciousness, human toil, knowledge and power, but from about the midpoint on, he becomes obsessed with whether Will's conscience really has been uploaded to the supercomputer, whether he is good or evil and how his love affair endures with his wife in virtual form. But these are all Hollywood tropes and are far less interesting than the fundamental principle at play here and that is that knowledge is power and how the subsequent threat of that power puts good and evil in the balance.
This smells like the "Save the Cat" formula B.S. at work. Let's not bother really exploring and pursuing what's possible with a story premise. Instead, let's do clip-art style methods that agree with the known formulas and are friendly to focus groups.
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