Transcedence Movie Review

If there is a God, I pray that he never lets me write a book like Transcendence.

And that's not a knock on the movie, it's a compliment actually.

A bit of background--I love Johnny Depp. I love him more than Brad Pitt and on par with Tom Cruise. He's sexy. He's funny. He's intelligent. He's a great actor. What is there not to love? More, as is well known, the man is always pushing himself in the roles that he picks.

So when I heard about Transcendence, I was like, this shit has to be good. Doesn't have a choice. It has Depp and is about computer intelligence surpassing that of human intelligence. There was a strong possibility this thing could end up being the greatest movie ever created.

And then the reviews came out. I pay attention to reviews like fat people pay attention to McRib season.

Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 19% rating, which is slightly higher than a warmed over pile of shit sitting in a bag on your porch.

I was aghast. Why would Johnny do this to me? Why would he create a movie with such a great plot line (with MORGAN FREEMAN no less) only to have it turn out to be a critical disaster. I stayed away. I didn't see it in the theaters. I couldn't handle the disappointment.

Friday night was the first time I was able to rent it, and I did, already knowing that I would most likely quit the movie half way through.

I didn't. I watched the entire thing and at the end I realized how great the movie COULD have been. I'm not exaggerating when I say I wish I could I write a novel that ingenious and at the same time hope that I never execute as poorly as the director of this film did. It had such potential to literally destroy the watcher's psyche at the end, but the set-up was all wrong. This could have been a movie on par with Se7en in that the final scene could have driven quite a few people mad.

It didn't though. What it did, instead, was make think...Fuck, Johnny--why did you have to do that?...I wonder if we have any ice cream?

I really can't recommend the movie on any merits besides its potential. If you want to see something that really could have been great, but in the end, makes you wonder if you have pistachio or chocolate ice cream in the freezer, then I'd pick it up. Otherwise, let's hope Johnny's agent gets his shit together.