10 Movies That Thought They Were Smart (But Really Weren't)

5. Transcendence

Quite possibly the most disappointing movie of the year so far, Transcendence was a hugely underwhelming directorial debut for Wally Pfister, though that was largely due to Jack Paglen's script, which broached interesting and timely ideas about technology and transhumanism, though couldn't make them add up to a compelling whole. The premise revolves around Will Caster (Johnny Depp), a scientist whose consciousness is uploaded to a computer shortly before he dies, though his colleagues (Rebecca Hall and Paul Bettany) soon find themselves questioning whether what they're dealing with really is Will or an exponentially more dangerous digital mutation. Though the idea of a human's mind living on after physical death is a fascinating one (particularly the challenges involved with differentiating the humanity from the digital approximation), the approach taken here just doesn't make much sense. Even ignoring how easily the team is able to capture and upload the content of Will's brain (what kinda Internet connection are they rocking?), simply putting this information online would not suddenly allow him to reign free uninhibited, though in the movie this clumsily and quickly leads to him building a techno-utopia complete with scientific breakthroughs far in advance of our own. This, of course, has the inevitably negative consequences hinted at before, much to the surprise of Rebecca Hall's dopey, lovelorn scientist character. The characters are a major problem here in selling the movie to audiences: pretty much anyone on either side of the fight who isn't Paul Bettany ends up looking rather stupid, and the movie's apparent message, that technology can be bad in the wrong hands, but progress is fascinating, feels completely muddled by the end. It's not nearly as innovative or clever as it thinks it is, and it's little surprise that critics and audiences largely rejected it.