Prey is one of many novels written by Michael Crichton. It was published in 2002, and involved a
story about nano-robotics and the havoc they wreak. After Timeline, it is my favorite Michael
Crichton book. I always thought it would
make a really interesting and terrifying movie.
Apparently, Transcendence is as close as we will get, and that’s a shame
– it’s not based on the book, but maybe it should have been.
Transcendence tells the story of Dr. Will Caster, who, with
his wife Evelyn, and their friend Max, are working to create a more powerful
Artificial Intelligence. They are
collaborating with several other experts in the field at various other
labs. One day, a radical anti-technology
group called RIFT (basically what John Connor would create if he was real) attacks all
these labs at once with varying degrees of deadliness, ranging from poisoned
cake to exploding computers to radiation-laced bullets. The bullet was for Will, who begins to die,
and during the process, works with Evelyn and Max to upload his consciousness to
the A.I. they were working on. Max is a
little concerned, but Evelyn doesn’t want to live without Will, so they upload
him. Once uploaded, he grows more
powerful. The terrorist group sets out
to stop him, as he leads Evelyn to a rural desert town to start building
nano-bots, which he begins to use to “fix” humanity, making them stronger and
regenerative. Max flips sides to the terrorist
group, who team up with the government once they realize the threat that Will
has become. But – is it really
Will? Or is it some other A.I. mimicking
him to get what it wants? That being, to
‘transcend’ everyone on the planet to a hybrid A.I. type being.
That sounds pretty interesting, right? Well, here’s the problem. It really should have been, but the movie is
way too slow, and gets bogged down in itself.
It’s directed by Wally Pfister, who has worked with Christopher Nolan
over and over again – that’s why half the cast is Nolan regular players. I wonder if it would have been better had he
directed it himself. The movie takes way
too long to get Will uploaded, and once uploaded, it’s never really clear what
exactly he’s doing. We spend way too
long with the anti-technology group without them ever really explaining why
they think they way they do. The strange
thing with this movie is that it either needed to be elevated a bit = more on
the philosophical side, with more drama, and more questioning of the direction
humankind is going …or, it needed to drop down a few clicks = and become more
of a sci-fi action flick. A few more
action sequences, more with the nanobots, and more ‘spolsions. It would be less high-brow, but way more
entertaining. However, the cast of this
particular movie would lead it more towards the first option.
- Johnny Depp long ago slid into the realm of becoming his own punchline. What was the last Johnny Depp movie you saw that you really liked? The first Pirates? He’s really only comfortable playing an over-the-top character with a costume he can disappear into. When he has to play a real person, he comes off as wooden and un-interesting. Will Caster is supposed to be a brilliant scientist, and Depp could have pulled that off, but really he just looks bored. He’s actually way better once Caster ‘transcends’, because then Depp can play the monster part.
- Rebecca Hall, who was recently in Iron Man 3, but is in this because she worked with Nolan on the Prestige, plays Evelyn. She is actually pretty good, because she starts out desperate to have Will back, then slowly becomes terrified of what he’s become.
- Paul Bettany, who was with Depp in the terrible Tourist, plays Max. He’s pretty great in almost everything, and does his best here. He wants to help Evelyn, but he really knows that uploading Will’s consciousness is the wrong thing to do.
- Cillian Murphy – who worked with Nolan in Inception and the Dark Knight triology – plays Agent Buchanan, who’s connection was unclear. He seems to be a government agent who stops by in the beginning of the movie to have things explained to him (thanks for the exposition), and comes by in the end to help bring down the monster that Will becomes. If you actioned-up this movie, his character would have had more to do.
- Kate Mara (older sister to Rooney Mara) plays Bree, she’s currently on House of Cards, and will be your new Sue Storm. Bree is a member of the anti-technology group, and she, with other members, kidnap Max to get him to see what is happening. Again, in this movie, that is several slow scenes of her and Bettany looking at each other and talking, but if you action-ed up the movie, they would be more running, yelling and escaping from things as she tried to get him to see what was happening.
- Cole Hauser plays Colonel Stevens, who again seems to be a military person who shows up at the end to help bring down Will. Just imaging how cool his role would have been in the action version of this movie.
- Clifton Collins Jr. plays one of the residents of the town that Will and Evelyn take over, he’s also the first person that Will ‘transcends’, causing him to be able to have super strength, and crazy regeneration powers, and also – telekinetic connections to Will and other transcended people. Again, that could have been so cool, but he gets one or two scenes using that.
- Morgan Freeman, who worked with Nolan in the Dark Knight Trilogy, plays Joseph Tagger, who seems to be a scientist who was working at one of the other labs, and avoids eating the poisoned cake – so he makes it through the attack. He meets up with Will and Evelyn before Will gets taken out, and then shows up later to visit Evelyn, and warn her that Will is probably not Will. He hands her a tiny note that says “Run from this place”. Which is pretty cool – but, again, if you action-ed up the movie, could have been a much more interesting scene.
Overall, it’s another movie that suffers from wasted
potential. I would really like to see
the Saturday Night SyFy version of this movie, I bet it would be way more
entertaining, with far less shots of people looking shocked, and less shots of
sunflowers. Yes, I understand why we’re
looking at the sunflowers, but it didn’t need to be for that long. The final moment of the movie seemed to imply
that the question we were supposed to be asking the whole was “Is it Will? Or
is it something else?”, and honestly, that was barely touched on – and when it
was, it wasn’t clear.
5 out of 10 – it really just needed to be sped up. Gained points for Cillian Murphy, then lost
points for him barely being in it.
Gained points for the interesting aspect of a anti-technology terrorist
group, but then lost points for not using them all that much. Gained points for bringing in the government
on the sly – but then lost points for not explaining that connection. Gained points for the creepy way Will cyber-stalks
Evelyn around the base – but then lost points for him nano-bot building himself
a body, creepy. Read Prey – it’s good,
don’t see this, it’s too slow.
Bonus Video 1: The
Prestige – a really great Nolan movie.
Bonus Video 2: Now
You See Me – the Freeman/Michael Caine movie.
Bonus Video 3:
Transcendence cast interviews
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