Transcendence is two hours long, and you can feel every minute of it. Granted, this is around quarter of an hour less that Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but whereas its box office competitor always has something to keep the audience's attention whether that's an intriguing set-piece, funny character-building asides or Sam Jackson Pirate-Shafting his way around the place for long spells of Transcendence, very little appears to be happening very slowly indeed, and then it just kind of ends. The worst offender is probably the first act, which takes far too long setting up all the pieces before following through on the film's premise. Clearly, Caster being shot with polonium bullets exist as a plot device there's no way Evelyn Caster could re-build PINN for the human mind if her husband only had six hours to live. Yet unfortunately, it achieves its goal a little too well, padding out the run-time so massively that you're left screaming at Caster to be downloaded into the machine already. You can take it for granted that this pre-death time is used to pull at the heart-strings, but the film's so oddly cold that you wish they'd get to the point. Of course, if the finale's a balls-to-the-walls affair, you can sign the meandering first and second act off as build-up to an amazing climax. However, Transcendence fails in this regard too, and bafflingly...
Durham University graduate and qualified sports journalist. Very good at sitting down and watching things. Can multi-task this with playing computer games. Football Manager addict who has taken Shrewsbury Town to the summit of the Premier League.
You can follow me at @Ed_OwenUK, if you like ramblings about Newcastle United and A Place in the Sun. If you don't, I don't know what I can do for you.
