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Transcendence, featuring Johnny Depp and Rebecca Hall

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S

SCULLIBUNDO

Banned
http://www.hitfix.com/motion-captur...-silly-science-fiction-ideas-of-transcendence

One of the truths of science-fiction is that anytime we as a culture try to get our heads around a jump forward in technology, one of the ways we do that is by imagining the very worst case scenario, so it should come as no surprise that as we discuss ideas about The Singularity and trans-humanism, "Transcendence" arrives to serve as this decade's "Lawnmower Man," a deeply stupid movie that uses smart ideas as a springboard but without any real sense of what they're talking about. Wally Pfister, best known until now as the cinematographer on Christopher Nolan's big films, makes his directorial debut here, and as dumb as Paglen's script is, Pfister seems to have no feeling whatsoever for the staging of sequences or for any sort of dramatic narrative momentum. Make no mistake… "Transcendence" is a stiff, but one that is produced with enough polish that it almost successfully disguises its true nature.
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http://www.thewrap.com/transcendence-review-johnny-depp-wally-pfister-christopher-nolan
“Transcendence,” the directorial debut of cinematographer Wally Pfister (“The Dark Knight”) is a sleek, smart techno-thriller loaded with interesting ideas — until it stops being any of those things.

Like a snazzy new laptop that immediately heats up and stops working, this exploration of our reliance upon technology — and how far mankind will subsume itself to its creations — seems great when it's right out of the box. But by the end of two hours, you'll find yourself wishing that first-time screenwriter Jack Paglen had taken his creation to a Genius Bar for a thorough de-fragging.
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http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplayl...ebecca-hall-kate-mara-morgan-freeman-20140415

Over six collaborative efforts, Pfister and Nolan fashioned a much-debated approach of emotional logic over narrative coherence. In this film, it seems Pfister has swapped the routine, stringing a clear, episodic plot together with a perplexing mish-mash of motivations and actions. To make matters worse, Pfister’s allegiance to anamorphic 35mm is severely misled. Using DP Jess Hall (“The Spectacular Now”), he plunges his actors into murky browns and drab whites, topping the look off with a back-lit sheen that looks fairly cheap.

The cinematography was so unremarkable that it made us question if the film was in fact shot on digital—a peculiar conflict, considering the themes at the heart of “Transcendence.” It is wondered aloud among characters how much humanity presides in artificial intelligence, and whether the appearance of empathy or love is enough, even when there’s nothing but code behind it. I love that Pfister treats these issues not as a punchline, but with an engaged eye—and to be sure, for better and worse, it is not the eye of his longtime collaborator. But as technological advances hint that these events aren’t too far off, it’s a safe bet life will unfold differently to Pfister’s deeply uninvolving debut: there will be humor, there will be disbelief, and there will be a moment of tangible spectacle if it actually works. [D+]
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http://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/film-review-transcendence-1201156786/
“Transcendence” is a most curious name for a movie that never shakes free from those hoary old cliches about the evils of technology and the danger by which man plays at becoming a god. The man in question here is Johnny Depp, whose listless lead performance as a brilliant scientist in the field of artificial intelligence does little to aid this overplotted, dramatically undernourished debut feature from longtime Christopher Nolan d.p. Wally Pfister.
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http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie/transcendence/review/695534
The Bottom Line
Big ideas and a big budget work at cross-purposes sometimes.
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SJRB

SJRB

Gold Member
Did anyone truly expect this movie to be good after that last trailer basically gave away the entire garbage plot?
 
J

jaxword

Member
Delta Assault said:
Where's that seinfeld gif when you need it...
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Here you go.

1GOTV1H.gif
 
R

Ridley327

Member
I think that ever since the first trailer hit, the movie it sounded like it was going to be completely disappeared in favor of a more traditional WHEN TECHNOLOGY ATTACKS! concept that is so immensely unappealing. There's surely a great movie to be made based on the studies surrounding the Singularity, but it sure doesn't sound like this is the one.

Also, Depp needs to take a very long vacation. He hasn't given a fuck for a while now, and he's an active detriment to the films he's in these days.
 
V

vio

Member
Remember that interview where he said that Nolan is Michael Bay fan? I disliked the guys since then. He came across like if he was equal to Nolan, as in being director.
Take that Wally! Sucks for the cast and rest involved though.
 
L

Lé Blade Runner

Member
I didn't expect anything better, to be honest. The poster, the trailer and the premise seemed stale to begin with, and Depp has dropped off my radar a long time ago. A shame, really, as I used to anticipate his movies.
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
iwlsynYvZbGGL.gif


Nah, I wasn't expecting greatness but at least was hoping for nice visuals. Hearing that the sets are boring and there's only some solar farm at the end is disappointing.

plasmawave said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-DjAjVGuHI
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Damn, sad to hear coming from Stuckmann who's a fan of Wally. He has insight from a screenwriter friend that the first script draft was "fantastic" and was "completely butchered" in this final product. Gives the same score as Indiewire.
 
C

Calabi

Member
Ridley327 said:
I think that ever since the first trailer hit, the movie it sounded like it was going to be completely disappeared in favor of a more traditional WHEN TECHNOLOGY ATTACKS! concept that is so immensely unappealing. There's surely a great movie to be made based on the studies surrounding the Singularity, but it sure doesn't sound like this is the one.

Also, Depp needs to take a very long vacation. He hasn't given a fuck for a while now, and he's an active detriment to the films he's in these days.
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That's what the whole film's advertising seems to be based on.
images


Depp doesnt give a fuck so neither should you.
 
M

MooseKnuckles

Banned
Pretty much what I was expecting. The trailer was completely awful, but I thought there might be a slim chance that it was just poor marketing playing up the "technology runs amok" angle for wider audience recognition. I was interested to see if Wally could transition to directing, especially after hearing interviews with Nolan praising Pfister's focus on storytelling as a DOP. Sounds like it didn't work out.
 
A

Atrophis

Member
Ridley327 said:
There's surely a great movie to be made based on the studies surrounding the Singularity, but it sure doesn't sound like this is the one.
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Sure, its called Terminator and Terminator 2.

I guess you could make an interesting film around creepy, racist, misogynist and terrible Harry Potter fan fiction writer Eliezer Yudkowsky and his Bayes worshipping Singularity cult. It'd be kind of like a sequal to The Master.
 
Z

Zaptruder

Banned
We built a machine with the capacity for super intelligence connected to every single machine in the world!

Lets upload an angry dying man into it.

The machine is doing things really predictably, in the manner an unimaginative baby boomer would if you gave him access to all the machines in the world.

Thanks Obama.
 
R

Ridley327

Member
Atrophis said:
Sure, its called Terminator and Terminator 2.

I guess you could make an interesting film around creepy, racist, misogynist and terrible Harry Potter fan fiction writer Eliezer Yudkowsky and his Bayes worshipping Singularity cult. It'd be kind of like a sequal to The Master.
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I don't see how those two are much more than WHEN TECHNOLOGY ATTACKS! than this is, outside of being good.
 
J

jett

D-Member
M

Messofanego

Banned
Scullibundo said:
I remember him throwing Seamus McGarvey under the bus for The Avengers' photography. Meanwhile, outside of The Avengers, Seamus McGarvey runs fucking circles around Pfister as a DP.
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Don't see how an opinion makes him a douche, though. He didn't personally insult Seamus or anything, just criticised his work on Avengers.
 
S

SCULLIBUNDO

Banned
Messofanego said:
Don't see how an opinion makes him a douche, though. He didn't personally insult Seamus or anything, just criticised his work on Avengers.
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It's one thing to say, 'It's not what I prefer' or 'I would have gone another way', then to call somebody's work 'appalling' and 'illogical'. And don't get me wrong, the photography in The Avengers largely was, because Whedon's lack of an eye took over, but it still doesn't excuse one from acting like a douchebag. What's funnier is that same year, Pfister didn't get a nomination for best cinematography while McGarvey did (Anna Karenina).
 
J

jett

D-Member
Messofanego said:
Don't see how an opinion makes him a douche, though. He didn't personally insult Seamus or anything, just criticised his work on Avengers.
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Scullibundo said:
It's one thing to say, 'It's not what I prefer' or 'I would have gone another way', then to call somebody's work 'appalling' and 'illogical'. And don't get me wrong, the photography in The Avengers largely was, because Whedon's lack of an eye took over, but it still doesn't excuse one from acting like a douchebag. What's funnier is that same year, Pfister didn't get a nomination for best cinematography while McGarvey did (Anna Karenina).
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Honestly, you should see him in Keanu Reeves' Side by Side documentary too. He completely dismisses digital filmmaking in a way makes it seem like he feels he is superior to everyone else simply because he shoots on 35mm. Like on the Avengers comment, he seems to act like a fanboy about the things he likes/does.
 
S

SCULLIBUNDO

Banned
Look, I have a friend who's met Pfister. Apparently he's a very, very nice and cool guy. But that thing he said about McGarvey was a douchey thing to say. I really need to watch Side by Side. Thanks for the reminder.
 
J

jett

D-Member
Scullibundo said:
Look, I have a friend who's met Pfister. Apparently he's a very, very nice and cool guy. But that thing he said about McGarvey was a douchey thing to say. I really need to watch Side by Side. Thanks for the reminder.
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I'm sure he's nice most of the time.

And yeah Side by Side is pretty neat.
 
B

Blader

Member
That's a weird comment to make, especially since nothing about the Avengers' photography really makes its sets look good. :lol

I don't think he's douchey in Side by Side, though. He likes what he likes and is probably more than a little defensive at this point, with everyone and their mother getting on his ass about switching to digital when he doesn't want to. And he was pretty effusive about digital projection, anyway.
 
J

jett

D-Member
Blader said:
That's a weird comment to make, especially since nothing about the Avengers' photography really makes its sets look good. :lol

I don't think he's douchey in Side by Side, though. He likes what he likes and is probably more than a little defensive at this point, with everyone and their mother getting on his ass about switching to digital when he doesn't want to. And he was pretty effusive about digital projection, anyway.
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Well, you just have to be a special kind of crazy(population: Tarantino) to prefer analog projection over digital. :p
 
R

Ridley327

Member
Atrophis said:
AI that achieves sentience and decides to kill us all? Check. Sounds like Singularity to me.



Singularity is mostly a doomsday cult predicting evil AIs will wipe us out so I think it fits to be honest.
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I've never gotten any impression of any Singularity discussion being so one sided like you're putting forth.
 
S

StormyTheRabbit

Member
Fuck Pfister. Pretentious asshat.

This movie failed to grab me even when the first teasers were released.

Pass.

EDIT:

Since it was already brought up in this thread....

I met him when he was in Pittsburgh shooting TDKR. He's a total prick. And his comments about the Avengers being shot all at canted angles to show off their million dollar sets?!

DUDE, YOU SHUT DOWN THE ENTIRETY OF DOWNTOWN PITTSBURGH FOR TWO WEEKS AND THEN SHOT IT FROM A HELICOPTER ON AN IMAX CAMERA. AND YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT SHOWING OFF YOUR BUDGET?! (Which is a stupid argument to make anyways, but this always seemed ironic to me.)
 
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