12 Terrible Movies That Blew Awesome Concepts

8. Transcendence

The Pitch

After an A.I. scientist, Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp), is mortally wounded, his consciousness is uploaded to a quantum computer, allowing Will to "survive" physical death, but raising questions about the precise nature of human existence.

With Christopher Nolan's acclaimed cinematographer Wally Pfister directing a script that appeared on the coveted Black List for best unproduced screenplays, with a cast also including Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany, Kate Mara, Cillian Murphy and Morgan Freeman, there were plenty of reasons to be excited.

What Went Wrong

This was 1000% down to the script, and though Pfister made a few directorial stumbles in his debut, he ultimately acquitted himself fairly well for a first-time filmmaker given a $100-150 million budget.

Though Transcendence asks a compelling central question - what is it to be human? - it's ultimately a depressingly superficial film that thinks it's far smarter than it actually is.

The characters routinely act like idiots - especially Rebecca Hall's smart-dumb love interest of Caster - the tech-logic doesn't line-up with how the Internet actually works, and the majority of the ensemble cast are wasted in forgettable, nothing roles.

Worse than all this, though, Transcendence is just thunderously dull, and it's likely that few have even actively thought about it since it hit screens five years ago.

Between its critical panning and commercial failure - grossing just $103 million worldwide - Pfister unsurprisingly hasn't directed a single feature film since.