The universal yearning for an afterlife has found a new world to explore in cyberspace, transmigration to which has been the subject of a number of recent films. Whether a new mini-subgenre or a passing fad time will tell, but the idea is nowhere so literally embodied as in Wally Pfister´s Transcendence.
Transcendence is Mr. Pfister´s first feature film. Mr. Pfister has a considerable career behind him as director of photography, most notably as resident cinematographer of Christopher Nolan, having photographed all his films since Batman Begins (2005). It is therefore too soon to tell if the merits of Transcendence are mainly to be attributed to the director or to someone/thing else, but The MacMahonian will keep him under watch just in case.
Transcendence is about a terminally ill scientist (Johnny Depp) who manages to develop a technology to download his memory to the Internet so that when he dies his mind continues to exist online. This he succeeds in doing, to the point of being able to make his face appear on the screen of his wife´s, friends´etc. PCs, so that from the cyber-hereafter he continues to lead a mega scientific project designed to ultimately put eveybody´s soul online. In the process he develops increasingly surprising ectoplasmic abilities – like having a romantic dinner with his wife/widow, she sitting at the table enjoying a glass of red wine, he floating in pixel-land looking at her wistfully. The story eventually evolves into (no spoiler here) an almost apocalyptical situation which at the last moment resolves itself in a rather New Agey happy end.
The film deals with the promising and daunting implications of the literally fantastic subject matter effectively (it appears that recent scientific research points to a future not very unlike that portrayed in Transcendence; I´m personally not quite persuaded, but then again 150 years ago people thought it crazy that man would one day be able to fly…) while managing to maintain a serious tone without losing credibility, which under the circumstances is a remarkable achievement, reminiscent of the tone and atmosphere of the Universal Studios horror movies of the 30s and 40s, stuff for which there´s a soft spot at The MacMahonian. Johnny Depp plays himself in serious/intense mode, the only one he has beside the zany pirate mode, which is a lot more fun but would perhaps be inappropriate here. Maybe a less self-infatuated lead performance could have given Transcendence that extra je ne sais quoi it lacks to be genuinely seminal.
While not at the level of last year´s excellent Her (Spike Jonze) which covered similar ground, Transcendence is nonetheless hereby provisionally pre-short listed for the macmahonian Top 10 2014.