Film Transcendence | Eclipse Phase

Thu, 2014-04-17 17:13

#2

MAD Crab

God damn it, why can't we get

God damn it, why can't we get one good film about transhumanism? Thanks for the warning though. I've been wondering about this for a little while.

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Thu, 2014-04-17 18:39

#3

Darn_the_Vargr Darn_the_Vargr's picture

I would venture to blame this

I would venture to blame this on Hollywood. That's the reason we aren't getting meaningful films. Capitalists are afraid of producing work they feel won't make money. They're afraid of giving new IP a shot.

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Fri, 2014-04-18 12:43

#4

bibliophile20 bibliophile20's picture

Ouch. Just read a review

Ouch. Just read a review over at [url=http://www.wired.com/2014/04/transcendence-review-poem/]Wired[/url]. They were driven to writing of their disappointment in rhyme:

Quote:
Some movies reel you in with dazzling dialogue and plots; Some movies turn you upside down and tie your brain in knots; Some movies overwhelm you, leave you speechless in mid-sentence; Then there are those none-of-the-abovers—like Transcendence. We first heard about it last year; it was too good to be true. The director was the guy who’d made the Dark Knight movies blue! (We don’t mean Mr. Nolan, but instead a different Mister— Nolan’s crack cinematographer, a guy named Wally Pfister) On the surface, it had everything a sci-fi fan could ask, from its highfalutin title to its all-star genre cast: Cillian Murphy was in 28 Days Later and Inception, And Cole Hauser was—well, he’ll just beat us up if he’s not mentioned. Plus Johnny Depp! Computers! A dose of Morgan Freeman— The greatest film Prez ever by unanimous agreement! We try not to be such fanboys, but please get us our inhaler! (Oh, and also, this excitement was before we’d seen a trailer.) So the day it finally came out, we bought tix with trembling fingers, Then we sat back and prepared ourselves for setpieces and zingers. We watched it. We sat there. We looked around and said, “Wait, it’s just about some asshole who gets sucked into the Web?” That trope’s been put to bed, guys; have you never seen The Matrix? How about Ghost in the Shell? The collected Phillip K.-Dicks? We’ve been uploading our brains in fiction since the gene was spliced— And your big idea was ripping off the girl from Poltergeist? Look, the thing is, genre stories should be all about evolving, Whether that means sentient ape revolts or simply puzzle-solving. But a low-res rendered cyber-face is not Inception‘s equal— If it was, we’d all be waiting for the fifth Lawnmower Man sequel. Are we sounding like mere haters? Are we bottom-feeding trolls? Are we ruining the prospect of Transcendence Oscar gold? We’re just trying to put an end to myths of Man Versus Machine. Now let’s find that laptop Depp is on—and wipe its hard drive clean.

I think my triangulation has agreed: don't bother on watching this one.

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"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." -Benjamin Franklin

Fri, 2014-04-18 17:27

#5

ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture

Darn_the_Vargr wrote:I would

Darn_the_Vargr wrote:
I would venture to blame this on Hollywood. That's the reason we aren't getting meaningful films. Capitalists are afraid of producing work they feel won't make money. They're afraid of giving new IP a shot.

and it creates a weird paradigm where when they try and make something new it gets actively sabotaged to reinforce that only the tried and true concepts work

Fri, 2014-04-18 19:10

#6

Undocking

I was quite worried about the

I was quite worried about the neoluddites succeeding and winning ideologically. But, after having seen it, I am quite pleased to relate that the neoluddites are not glorified. The plotting and screen writing is not the best. Acting is pretty good, as it is the only dramatic element. I feel like the hollywood nachine tried to spit out a technothriller from a technoromance and neither ended well. It is hard to blame the first time screen writer and director when there are also producers and execs to please. Screen writing for Hollywood is the most frustrating writing I was ever involved in.

Fri, 2014-04-18 19:34

#7

The Doctor The Doctor's picture

bibliophile20 wrote:Ouch.

bibliophile20 wrote:
Ouch. Just read a review over at [url=http://www.wired.com/2014/04/transcendence-review-poem/]Wired[/url]. They were driven to writing of their disappointment in rhyme:

Wow. Well, that makes up my plans for tonight...

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Sat, 2014-04-19 06:20

#8

Lilith

Welp

Sounds like something to add to my "crappy movies on Netflix" queue.

Sat, 2014-04-19 23:00

#9

Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture

Yeesh! I just saw Captain

Yeesh! I just saw Captain America:the Winter Soldier, and it sounds like I saw the better transhuman film! It has cybernetics, biologically optimized humans, jetpacks, espionage,as well as

Spoiler: Highlight to view

secret societies, surveillance states ,cryogenics, memory erasing, practically the defining example of a "murder hobo", and even a character whose mind is transferred into a computer( with 1970's technology!)

It wasn't perfect ( I've joked that the least credible part of the film is a high speed car chase in Washington D.C.!) but I enjoyed seeing it.

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Current Status: Highly Distracted building Gatecrashing systems in Universe Sandbox!

Sat, 2014-04-26 11:29

#10

Freedom Geek Freedom Geek's picture

It was better than I expected

It was better than I expected when I saw the first proper trailer. I mean at least in the end the uploaded person wasn't evil. I found it was worth my time and money. Not great but not horrible either.

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Sat, 2014-04-26 21:43

#11

Steel Accord Steel Accord's picture

Already went to see it.

I've never been one to pass judgment on a movie without seeing it myself, regardless of critics or audience. Sadly my skeptical side won out on this one. It did touch on various themes that could have made a whole arc or even an entire movie by themselves, but then just glossed over them. I also found it jarring how RIFT's first act in the movie was coordinated mass murder, but then the film flips around and tries to play them as the heroes! The movie did have good ideas, even very pro-transhumanist ones, but it's execution was an absolute mess. You want a better movie with a similar setup? I think her actually did a better job at being a Singularity movie while primarily being a romance, and is a much better introduction to anyone not familiar with the science. "I want to be better, I just want to gobble it all up." Is so much more subtle and even frightening to those who know what it means then. "I need to get online, I need more power." That being said, I did think it was very well acted. My favorite scene was {SPOILER!} when Will gives a blind man his sight. That almost drove me to tears as it seemed almost Jesuit in nature.

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Your passion is power. Focus it. Your body is a tool. Hone it. Transhummanity is a pantheon. Exalt it!

Sun, 2014-04-27 05:00

#12

Freedom Geek Freedom Geek's picture

RIFT were supposed to be

RIFT were supposed to be heroes? I've seen other people say that but I always took RIFT as the villains of the film, representing humanity's fear of the unknown. And as the fear spreads more people suddenly start aligning themselves with terror(ists). I took them as representing that mankind was too blind to see where salvation lies.

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Sun, 2014-04-27 10:35

#13

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

The Machine and Orphan Black

Being a low budget (less than a million Sterling Pounds!) this british sci-fi movie hit on real transhuman aspects and would serve a good alternative to Transcedence. But I must say, it would have worked better as a BBC mini-series. It broaches several possible arcs that could use some more exploration. It also provide a good inspiration on how to roleplay the Real World Naivete trait without falling into comic relief caricature and add some creepiness to the mix Also, the second season of Orphan Black just began last week. And it started wild! good inspiration for Somatek and a cell of Jovian agents (the scene in the dinner was just epic!) too bad, it seems that Michael Mando (who played Pathetic Vic in season 1) isn't a show regular. I really liked his character

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Sun, 2014-04-27 13:02

#14

Starkiller Starkiller's picture

Freedom Geek wrote:It was

Freedom Geek wrote:
It was better than I expected when I saw the first proper trailer. I mean at least in the end the uploaded person wasn't evil. I found it was worth my time and money. Not great but not horrible either.

For me was a complete waste of time and money, i'd expected better than that. Ridiculous plot, no interesting characters and a total lack regarding any transhumanist theme. Augmenting henchmen with only super-strength and and hive mind is a little lame for a hyper-intelligent being, according to me is a missed occasion to show very cool futuristic technologies in action and to pose interesting questions about self, sapience, self-consciousness, intelligence enhancement, etc.

Sun, 2014-04-27 18:26

#15

ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture

it had a rookie director a

it had a rookie director a piss poor budget and concept to broad and big in scope. not a good combination

Mon, 2014-04-28 09:56

#16

nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture

Quincey Forder wrote:[Orphan

Quincey Forder wrote:
[Orphan Black] Being a low budget (less than a million Sterling Pounds!) this british sci-fi movie hit on real transhuman aspects and would serve a good alternative to Transcedence.

Hmm... Not on Hulu or the netflix yet, but $20 on Google Watch. I may have a new show to fold laundry to ;)

Mon, 2014-04-28 17:39

#17

Steel Accord Steel Accord's picture

Alignment

The film itself was kind of wishy-washy on who we were supposed to be rooting for. Personally, Bree generated just as much hate in me as Cersei of Game of Thrones fame, and under half the time. Not an easy feat, I assure you. "We gave him back his humanity." "You killed a man you bitch! One who was begging you to let him live!" The movie wasn't bad all the way, what it failed in was proper setup. As a transhumanist, I understood many of the concepts going on behind the scenes, but my family was completely lost. Even then, I got confused at several points myself. "Shut it down? It's him!" Uhhh shutting down the machine wouldn't kill him, erasing his memory would do that. I feel like you should know this. "Run away from this place." Why? What has she shown you that indicates any kind of danger? They're not engineering a grey goo scenario. "Upload the virus or I'll kill him!" Bitch, you just proved that Castor is still human enough to care about his friend's life. And so on and so forth. The movie was a mess, but a mess of good ideas, just poorly executed. What it did was try to have it's cake and eat it too. Instead of taking a firm stance on the side of it's own premise, it tried to baby the luddites in the audience so they would not walk out of the theater. "No see, we can show that this technology with infinite benefits for good can backfire."

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Your passion is power. Focus it. Your body is a tool. Hone it. Transhummanity is a pantheon. Exalt it!