Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Christopher Nolan’s Oscar-winning go-to cinematographer Wally Pfister makes his directorial debut with this fantastical tale of a 21st-century ghost in the machine. Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) believes that mankind is on the verge of a new order of artificial intelligence. It involves “transcendence,” whereby the electrical impulses of the brain—the emotions, memories, and ideas that make up our consciousness—are uploaded into a supercomputer. And after Will is shot by a member of a radical neo-luddite group (no, seriously), that’s exactly what he does to himself, losing his physical form and becoming a being of pure software.

But he’s no passive hard-drive resident: In short order, he begins manipulating stocks to generate the necessary funds to realize his plans for a secret utopian community where science is advanced in startling ways to do incredible things. But Cyber-Will’s rapidly evolving, almost God-like abilities soon attract the attention of a concerned U.S. government, and a decisive confrontation lies ahead.

Now, we can forgive the purely digital fellow for being a tad dull, but despite a cast peppered with capable Nolan veterans, not a single character here is even marginally compelling. This bleak, joyless movie is routinely in awe of itself, despite a lack of real innovation.

Surprisingly, this well-budgeted sci-fi drama, helmed by a man who purportedly knows his stuff, doesn’t look particularly good on this disc. Blacks are flat and lifeless, and the 2.4:1 image suffers from some dis- tracting edge enhancement, which was also a criticism of the Pfister-shot Dark Knight on Blu-ray. To be fair, there are some pleasing colors and fine details at times, but much of the movie is set in clean, visually sterile environments. Thankfully, these appear to be noise-free.

Some sharp, LFE-reinforced gunshots and explosions spice up the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack, along with more massive hardware in act three. The speakers all come alive in a clever moment when Will accesses a fanciful representation of the worldwide Web. His computerized voice has a noticeable booming quality, and it comes at us from different directions depending upon the situation. Too often, however, the story is tediously mundane, with people just standing around debating morality.

The host of featurettes feels like recycled promotional material, just there to add more bullet points to the back cover.

Blu-Ray
Studio: Warner Bros., 2014
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Audio Format: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Length: 119 mins.
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Wally Pfister
Starring: Johnny Depp, Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall