2014 Movie Preview: #5 - Transcendence

Release date: April 18

Plot summary: Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) is the foremost researcher in the field of Artificial Intelligence, working to create a sentient machine that combines the collective intelligence of everything ever known with the full range of human emotions. His highly controversial experiments have made him famous, but they have also made him the prime target of anti-technology extremists who will do whatever it takes to stop him. However, in their attempt to destroy Will, they inadvertently become the catalyst for him to succeed—to be a participant in his own transcendence. For his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and best friend Max Waters (Paul Bettany), both fellow researchers, the question is not if they can…but if they should. Their worst fears are realized as Will's thirst for knowledge evolves into a seemingly omnipresent quest for power, to what end is unknown. The only thing that is becoming terrifyingly clear is there may be no way to stop him.

My take: While Christopher Nolan has nothing to do with this film, his DNA feels infused in the project. Wally Pfister who was the cinematographer for many of Nolan's film is directing this film. There's also several people in the cast who are Nolan mainstays like Morgan Freeman and Cillian Murphy. Then you've got a plot that seems to be a real sci-fi mind bender. All of that adds up to a very engaging film for me to want to check out.

Depp recesses of the mind

It shouldn't be newsworthy when Johnny Depp plays a normal human being that isn't caked in ghoulish makeup in a movie, but it is. Here is a teaser trailer for his newest movie, a sci-fi thriller called Transcendence that is being directed by Wally Pfister who is a first time director but long time cinematographer for Christopher Nolan.

RBR: Oblivion

If you look at the evolution of the public's perception of the space program, you see how those first few missions had audiences utterly captivating. We were seeing something we had never seen before and that we never thought we would ever see. Over time, those missions became so routine and familiar that we stopped caring. That is basically how I felt as I watched Oblivion, the recent sci-fi thriller starring Tom Cruise. Cruise plays Jack Harper, one of the few remaining people left on Earth after an attack left the planet inhabitable. He's tasked with fixing the drone machines that scour the planet to eliminate any remaining alien threats. Jack's memory of the attack and his life before it have been wiped clean, yet he keeps having flashes to what he believes is moments from his past life. Things get more complicated when a woman (Olga Kurylenko) he sees in those dreams crashes onto Earth. There's also a secret group of humans, led by Morgan Freeman (between this, Olympus Has Fallen, and Now You See Me, I'm beginning to see this guy in my sleep) who try to assist Jack in understanding the truth about what is going on. I won't give away any of the film's big twists here, but I would imagine that by the description I have already given you, you can draw comparisons to this movie and several other more famous sci-fi films. From a story perspective, this film offers you absolutely nothing new. The movie initially hooks you in because it has a tremendous look. Director Joseph Kosinski (TRON: Legacy) has a great knack at creating worlds that have an impressive visual aesthetic. It's fun watching Cruise fly around in unique looking spaceships across a barren Earth that still looks somewhat inviting even if no one can live on it. But once the thrill of the film's look is gone, you are left with an empty story that plods along to its inevitable conclusion. With a decent TV, Oblivion still has some value on home video for its visual effects, but if you're looking for a decent story, you're better off renting one of the dozen classic sci-fi films that tell these tropes much more effectively. Rating: ***

RBR: Now You See Me

Portraying magic in the movies can be just as difficult as performing a trick in real life. Both require a lot of misdirection before a final reveal that needs to payoff. In Now You See Me, the crime thriller that came out last May, a group of magicians and illusionists band together to perform tricks that seemingly involve robbing banks. The group, known as the Four Horsemen, consists of Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, and Dave Franco. After committing their first trick/robbery, they are put under investigation by a cop played by Mark Ruffalo and an Interpol agent played by Melanie Laurent. Also involved is Michael Caine who is producing the Four Horsemen's act and Morgan Freeman as a magician who has built a career out of revealing magicians' secrets to the public. As you can see, there are a lot of moving parts at play here. This enables there to never be a dull moment in the film, but is also prevents us from really getting to know any of the characters all that well. The most development comes from the budding romance between Ruffalo and Laurent, but I found that to be the weakest part of the film. Meanwhile, director Louis Leterrier throws a lot of tricks at you, both of the magical and visual kind, that are meant to, and mostly succeed, at enthralling you. This is a movie that begs you to "look closer" in order to try and figure out. While it does a good job of keeping you guessing, I am not sold that the final reveal works. Yet I found it to be a twist that encourages me to watch the film again rather than get annoyed or disgusted. If you let yourself get sucked in to the magic, you will likely find yourself fully entertained. But if you're the type of person who wants to take the magic out of everything, the film gives you plenty of ammunition to hate it. Personally, I was entertained and would gladly be interested in seeing more adventures from The Four Horsemen in the future. Rating: ****

RBR: Olympus Has Fallen

When I saw White House Down a couple of months ago, I did not have the luxury of comparing it to the other "Die Hard in the White House" movie that came out this year, Olympus Has Fallen. Now that this one, which stars Gerard Butler in the "John McClane" role, is out for rent I can see that both films share similarities beyond their set-up. Both films are also flawed. Where WHD decided to take a lighter approach to the terrorist plot, Olympus is far more somber. The death count is higher and the kills are more graphic in this one. There are also some problems with the film playing fast and loose with the timeline of event. Compressing the time of events would not be so bad if it was not for the fact that they chose to constantly put a clock up telling us what time it was. You sit there wondering what everyone has been doing for the past two hours when they jump ahead, yet nothing seems to have happened since the previous scene. Plot holes and shoddy filmmaking can be ignored if a film is entertaining, but this movie treats everything so seriously that it's difficult to enjoy any of it. Even Morgan Freeman, who plays the Speaker of the House and eventually takes over as President, seems weary playing his role. While White House Down is no cinematic classic, it at least had the sense to have some fun with its ludicrous plot. This one may boast a higher number of celebrities in its cast, but that's no reason to opt for this dreary disappointment. Rating: **

Jack of all trades

Tom Cruise's next movie, Jack Reacher hasn't even hit theaters yet and we already have a trailer for another film featuring him playing a character named Jack. This one is a sci-fi film called Oblivion that is being directed by the guy that did TRON: Legacy. This looks to be pretty epic and will no doubt be on my 2013 movie preview list later this month.