5.0 out of 5 stars If you haven't seen it, you should.

t. · March 7, 2025

Not sure how I missed this film, I guess I was busy. Even though it's over ten years old, it's still good, the hallmark of a good sci-fi movie. I don't believe technology is evil, I just think humans have not evolved emotionally or empathetically in 3 million years. Our behavior is as it always was, animalistic, selfish, competitive. We either abandon technology, or completely change the entirety of human consciousness. No more borders. No more capitalism. No more homocentric perspective. We see that we are just one small part of a larger system, where every part is as important as we are. Failure to complete either one of these options will reset the Earth, probably back to the microbial level again. I bet when Musk made his cameo appearance in this film, no one could imagine he would become the defacto CEO of America. The irony and similarity of this movie's theme and our present reality is a little spooky.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Perfect Reflection of Real Life!!! AWESOME MOVIE!!!

O. · December 17, 2014

What if one day our technological advances reached a point where the boundary between "artificial intelligence" (AI) and "human consciousness" disappeared?That is the premise of this "AWESOME" movie!I must admit that at first I was a little weary due to reviews that suggested that this is a movie intended for the "intelligent" and therefore requires close attention to dialogue. I feared that its "entertainment value" would be compromised by the weight of the subject matter. I took the chance and was VERY glad that I did!This movie had everything mixed into it! The magic of Hollywood in its amazing special effects, a deep plot, romance, and a "perfect" reflection of the human condition!The movie starts off with everything going well for Will Caster (Johnny Depp)and his beautiful wife. He doesn't seem to care much for the fame and fortune that are the byproducts of true genius, but he goes through the motions simply out of his love for his wife, who is his research sidekick.As in real life, anything can happen at anytime and this unexpected derailment is represented by a religious fundamentalist who does something to Mr. Will Caster. A perfect depiction--in my humble view--of the closed minded, religious fanaticism that cares not about any form of advancement (development) whether technological or psychological. Such immature level of development is the "real" and "actual" toxic poison to the human mind (many minds) in real life. This tragedy is depicted in the movie as an object that poisons Will, challenging his "will" to live, as the doctor tells him he has but a few days.I love how Johnny Depp's character says: "It just doesn't make sense. They are afraid of technology because it is a threat to humanity, yet they don't flinch at taking a life."Our human fear of what we "don't" understand is further reflected through a group that would be comparable to our Green Peace ethnocentrists. They are staunch separatists that want to save humanity from being overtaken by the infiltration of a "collective consciousness" on the "individual."The human fear of "Transcendence" is so strong that even Will's wife begins to doubt and fear her own husband's mind, now that it has merged with the collective. At one point Will's wife learns that Will can see even her most subtle mood shifts. He knows when she is sad, afraid, excited--all by the changes in her internal biochemistry. When she finds this out, she yells out at him "you are NOT allowed!" and walks away. Echoing our egocentric resistance and fear to loosing a boundary that in "Reality" never actually existed to begin with!After this scene, I thought to myself "wouldn't some wives 'want' their husbands to be keenly aware of their most subtle mood chances? Isn't this very 'disconnect' what most women complain about? That we don't understand them? That we don't know how they feel as women? For me, this scene depicted our different perceptions "dependent" on our own level of psychological maturity. Our own technological advancement, if you will.I don't want to say too much more, for fear of spoiling this great adventure for you. This movie was very well done, it had a perfect cast of characters and it was very well acted.I watched three movies this weekend and this one was "definitely" the one that left an indelible imprint in my psyche. For me, it perfectly represented our own psychological development towards the realization of the underlying "no-boundary" Reality, and our resistance to this most natural "transcendental" linear flow. A serious, intelligent matter, executed in an exciting, spellbinding format!Enjoy!

4.0 out of 5 stars Best I've seen so far this year

D.D. · July 23, 2014

Unfortunately, this movie has received a lot of negative reviews. Reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes are crushing it. The thing I have tended to find with the negative reviews is the authors failed to understand the movie, or they were parroting the unsupported claims of others in the group. That often happens when movies use prestidigitaton or slight-of-hand as a part of the plot structure (e.g., The Sixth Sense). As with written satire (e.g., A Modest Proposal), many fail to understand the story.DYNAMICSAs some have noted among these (largely better) reviews, there is a complicated dynamic between two groups. The first and larger and more aggressive group coalesces for a variety of reasons that include extremism, jealousy, fear, inflexibility, and unfounded assumptions -- component parts of many fundamental religions, by the way. The second group is made up of Johnny Depp and a few people he has helped -- though it should be noted that as a part of the process, he has connected with them mentally and can have zombie-like control over them (that terrifies group 1, who assume he is building an army).The dynamic is, "who, if anybody, are the good guys. Clues abound, but Depp is portrayed so creepily that it is hard to see him as anything but a soulless computer program building limitless power. He even introduces into the world an apparent plague of self-replicating nanobots that are also under his power (the slight-of-hand). On the other hand, while group 1 advances their agenda with violence, killing a bunch of people, even in battle he never hurts anyone. Still, given Depp's performance (and the fact that virtually everybody in the movie calls him "it"), viewers will tend to side with the terrorists.ENDING--Though I do not give it away, I point to indicators that it is not what it seems.Some have complained about the ending. It is bittersweet to say the least, but it is not really the ending. At the very beginning of the movie we see a delightful image of water dripping off a sunflower. The camera focuses on two drops (one slightly smaller than the other) and follows them to a pool where the merge with the rest of the water. That scene, knowledge of what is in the water, and the word "Transcendence" explains the movie, and the ending becomes the most beautiful and uplifting part of the entire plot.ACTINGI felt like the acting was spotty. One critic claimed that Depp "Skyped" his performance in. I suggest that he still did an excellent job. On the one hand, he was barely in focus and difficult to see, while successfully portraying a creepy, soulless program deeply in love with Rebecca Hall. I was not so impressed with Hall's performance. The problem might not have been hers, however. It might have been that her character was so shallow. Morgan Freeman had to play Morgan Freeman, because his character had no depth at all. I hated Kate Mara, but only because she made such a believable terrorist. I was confident she would cut my throat in an instant if she needed to -- of course that is a testament to great acting. Paul Bettany did a beautiful job of playing the most complex part in the movie. He was a jealous and spiteful man with strong opinions that invariably turned out wrong but always sounded important, and true, yet he always seemed the only reasonable person in the group. I gave the movie 4-stars because there were weakness in this area.I have see the movie twice. It is one I will add to my collection. I will watch it whenever I want to see a complicated idea well presented. In my humble opinion, this is the best movie I have seen so far this year and among the most interesting love stories I have seen since "What Dreams May Come."

Buona qualità audio e video.

S. · June 7, 2025

Un bel film.

But move is good.

A.R. · January 31, 2018

Grate move but only in english. But move is good.

Man stelle sich eine Maschine mit menschlichen Emotionen vor...

R. · July 20, 2018

In diesem spannenden SciFi-Thriller aus dem Jahr 2014 unter der Regie von Wally Pfister wird gleich zu Anfang ein interessantes Setting geboten, in dem sich der Erzähler durch eine enttechnisierte Welt bewegt, wo alte Laptops als Türstopper benutzt werden, teure Smartphones achtlos am Wegesrand verstauben und die Menschen ohne Strom zurechtkommen müssen.Das Ergebnis einer großen Schlacht zwischen digitaler Allmacht und menschlichem Überlebenswillen .Das Ehepaar Will (Johnny Depp) und Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) sind Experten auf dem Gebiet der Nano- und Computerwissenschaften, führende Kapazitäten auf dem Gebiet der künstlichen Intelligenz, mit dem großen Ziel, ein Computersystem zu entwickeln, das in seiner Funktion einem menschlichen Gehirn nahekommen soll. Doch dieses Vorhaben steht nicht ganz ohne Gegner da, denn es hat sich eine Organisation gebildet, die keine drastischen Mittel scheut, um diesen immensen wissenschaftlichen und potenziell gefährlichen Fortschritt zu verhindern. Als Will durch einem Anschlag dieser Organisation tödlich verletzt wird und im Sterben liegt, sieht sich Evelyn vor eine schwere Aufgabe gestellt, denn sie möchte das Bewusstsein ihres geliebten sterbenden Mannes in ihr gemeinsam entwickeltes Computersystem hochladen.Und so wird Will zur Seele eines allwissenden, omnipräsenten Computer, der nie um eine Antwort verlegen ist und der ganz selbstverständlich aus Luftmolekülen die phantastischsten Dinge kreiert, beispielsweise lebendige Menschen....„Transcendence“ spielt über weite Strecken in einer Solarfarm im amerikanischen Niemandsland. Die größte Anlage dieser Art nahm interessanterweise ausgerechnet Google in der Mojave-Wüste in Betrieb. Ihre Energie reicht für rund 140 000 Haushalte oder, wie im Film, für ein unglaubliches Datenzentrum. Der energiehungrige Supercomputer Pinn arbeitet in Bunkern unter dem Kraftwerk. Dort überschlägt sich der technische Fortschritt: Weil Quantencomputer bereits erfunden sind, ist die Entwicklung von autonomen Nanorobotern ein Kinderspiel....Die Vernetzung der Welt ist ohnehin ein Selbstläufer.Johnny Depp spielt grossartig, obwohl er leider schon nach kurzer Zeit nur noch als Pixelbild zu sehen ist. Rebecca Hall und Paul Bettany, in der Rolle des Freundes des Ehepaars, sind sehr glaubhaft und überzeugend. Auch Morgan Freeman ist als wissenschaftlicher Mentor in kurzen, aber sehr prägnanten Szenen zu sehen.Filmzitat:“Eine künstliche Intelligenz ist wie jede Intelligenz, sie muss wachsen, sich weiterentwickeln. Sie wird sich jetzt irgendwo niederlassen, wo sie sich vor externen Bedrohungen sicher glaubt, wo ihr gewaltiges Verlangen nach Energie befriedigt werden kann, aber sie wird mehr wollen. Irgendwann wird das bloße Überleben nicht mehr reichen, sie wird sich ausweiten, entfalten, Einfluss nehmen. Vermutlich auf die ganze Welt.”Wunderbares Unterhaltungskino mit intelligentem Subtext, sehr sehenswert

super film

H. · March 10, 2025

Excellent film, je le recommande

Perfecto

D.P.P. · November 24, 2018

Muy buen precio y bien empaquetado