The latest Sci-Fi film “Transcendence” was much better than I had expected it to be. This movie displays the risks and rewards of artificial intelligence.

Johnny Depp plays Dr. Will Caster, a distracted yet outstanding scientist. His wife Evelyn, played by Rebecca Hall, works on raising money to bring Will’s ideas to life.

Dr. Caster is researching artificial intelligence, working to create a machine that combines the intelligence of everything ever known with each of the human emotions.

We are led to appreciate the wonder of being able to make the world a much better place through recent research on artificial intelligence.

Will is famous for his experiments, but also the main target of anti-technology extremists working to stop him.

He is then shot and killed. The movie becomes emotional, leading you to believe that he won’t be returning. Evelyn does everything in her power to bring him back with artificial intelligence, and he does in fact return.

While the anti-technology extremists attempt to destroy Will, they unintentionally become the reason and allow his success for him to take part in his own transcendence.

At first, Evelyn is skeptical that it is actually Will since he’s nothing but a computer. I feel that if I was in her same position, I would react the way she had. It would be a frightening thought if it wasn’t actually him.

Eventually, the individuals healed by the artificial intelligence become too powerful and begin to take over. There’s no way to destroy them other than to shut all technology down.

At the end of the movie, everything is shut down by Evelyn. Computers become useful for nothing but door-stops.

The storyline of this movie was very interesting to me, especially since artificial intelligence is a very real and current issue. The special effects were magnificent and seemed very realistic.

This movie really shows how artificial intelligence can be good in healing the sick, restoring the planet, and conserving consciousness.

It was also very scary to realize that this could possibly happen in the future; not knowing whether one is human or a computer can transcend the ability of the human brain.

This film isn’t necessarily about the dangers of technology going too far, but rather about how dangerous our fears and suspicions that can destroy ground-breaking ideas.

Unfortunately, the film does have some holes and leaps in the logic, so it gets to be a bit hard to take seriously.

The characters who are originally villains become the heroes, and there’s really no one you can root for. For me, it got a bit confusing whose side to stand for because of this.

Otherwise, this movie was great. The acting was executed very well all around, and Depp did a wonderful job playing a serious role.

This movie does require you to keep an open mind to accept something that is strictly not entertainment oriented. It’s mind troubling and a compelling look at how humanity will react when faced with transcending ourselves.

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Wayne Thallander

Katie Vogt, senior