Transcendence

[MacGuffin]

Release date: April 18, 2014

Starring: Johnny Depp, Kate Mara, Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall, Cillian Murphy, Paul Bettany, Cole Hauser, Clifton Collins Jr.

Directed by: Wally Pfister

Premise: Two leading computer scientists work toward their goal of Technological Singularity, as a radical anti-technology organization fights to prevent them from creating a world where computers can transcend the abilities of the human brain.

[MacGuffin]

Full Trailer

[jenkins]

i feel kinda awkward for the guy. has anyone gone to see spike jonze's her? this is like her as bullshit. lol. sorry

[polkablues]

They should call this "Him".

[Reelist]

This has gotta win the most pretentious title of the year award

[jenkins]

seems polite to allow this movie to enter a conversation. i read this:
http://i-d.vice.com/en_gb/read/think-pieces/863/i-sex-its-better-than-sex

goes like:

The majority of young Japanese are now out of, and not particularly interested in, any kind of relationship. The Japanese media coined the term “celibacy syndrome,” blaming ever more intimately capable technology – such a part of their modern national character - as partly responsible for a plummeting birth rate.

(chill japanese vocab i want to use in like a hikikomori conversation)

In a piece for Business Insider, an adult writer under the pseudonym Apt No 7 says: “A distinctly X rated connection exists between our devices and ourselves.

“It’s not just us growing into, and penetrating, the secrets of technology. It’s our technology growing into, and penetrating, us.”

(adult writer -- pseudonym Apt No 7 -- mhmm -- quote please -- thanks)

computer chess:

Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess shows that, even when computers were at their embryonic stages in the 1970s, humans had capacity to develop intense emotional feelings toward possessions that are, by definition, transactional, indifferent and governed by logic.

oh wait, i forgot to quote the part that explains something according to idkw

Based on computer evolution since the birth of the internet, it's estimated we’re between 12 and 15 years from founding computers that can function as quickly and efficiently as a human brain.

bc then:

As I sit to write this, a teaser trailer for Transcendence, the debut from cinematographer Wally Pfister that stars Johnny Depp, has just launched on Youtube.

“For 130 thousand years, our capacity for reason has remained unchanged,” Depp says in voiceover. “The combined intellect of the neuroscientists, engineers, mathematicians pales in comparison to the most basic AI. Once online a sentient machine will quickly overcome the limits of biology. In a short time its analytical intelligence will be greater than every person born in the history of the world. Some scientists refer to this as the singularly. I call it transcendence.”

Johnny Depp might be right. We might be heading towards exactly that prediction; a science non-fiction in which computers control the world. Yet we can fight them, and fight them we will, just by taking off someone’s clothes.

i'd like to give credit to this movie for somehow being the end of a fucking essay

[Lottery]

The basic idea behind this is cool, I mean I'm all for digging up Michael Crichton. I'm a fan of his technothrillers. This is a little like Prey.
Bland/weak trailer though.

[Mel]

Ouch, that doesn't look good at all.

[Drenk]

The assassination of Christopher Nolan by the coward Wally Pfister.

[jenkins]

now tomorrow this opens, and 2014 will have its after earth. responses can be written with my tears, and tears sometimes have rainbow prisms. totally possible there'll be a rapturous part equal to when the mother giant bird saved the son in after earth. crossing my toes

i really think this'll be a highpoint for trash culture this year, i support seeing it, and i'll only be crying if/because you've forgotten:
under the skin
grand budapest hotel
only lovers left alive
the raid 2
alejandro jodorowsky's dune
the unknown known (this just came out???)
joe
nymphos
noah

[picolas]

did i actually watch this? i'm not sure. i faded in and out over a couple of sittings.

something dumb happens in nearly every scene.

scene 1: guy uses a keyboard to prop a door open, voiceover uses "inevitable" and "unavoidable" to describe the same thing in the same sentence.

scene 3/4: depp and hall pretend to love each other before going to the event depp forgot about

scene 6?: depp gets laughs from a large audience for his flaccid delivery of "...hackers."

etc etc.. i could really spend all day writing these down.

the foundation of the movie is the love between two characters who are completely boring and self-important on their own, but even MORE SO when put together.

why is paul bettany such a mark of mediocrity now? he had a promising start. i guess he's gotta do what he's gotta do..

i must admit it's really interesting to see a nolan-like sheen used to service a way less interesting movie. it's like looking at a renaissance painting of paint drying. it gives one the opportunity to understand the technique without being distracted by the content. and there are elements of the story that are cool. there's just zero reason to care beyond some of the concepts and the kinda cool editing.