Today I decided to see Transcendence, despite Wired actually canning it – Transcendence: A Movie Too Terrible to Even Hate-Watch. In my opinion, that’s being way too harsh. Of course the movie could of been better, but it could of been way, way worse.

I won’t give any spoilers, but it’s basically a movie where Depp ‘Transcends’ in to a computer, a-la Kurzweils singularity. This bit is quite cleverly done as there’s a conceptual twist that is so obvious yet rarely mentioned in singularity literature.

Things go pretty well, as they do when you have a brain the size of a planet, but of course we can’t leave it there. With people involved we know there will be twists, and there are. I thought the ending was quite brilliant and romantic, even if a bit Hollywood which is to be expected as it’s a big budget film. With a cast of Depp, Rebecca Hall, Freeman, Paul Bettant and great supporting cast there’s no problem with the acting. The special effects are great to illustrate what a giant Quantum computer and associated peripherals may look like.

If you’re in to computers, AI and the like I’d rate it 4/5 – it’s as least as good as the brilliant British movie “The Machine” which takes a different spin. If you’re not in to computers and AI then it may be a 3/5 – not wasted time, but you could wait until an online/DVD release.

PS If you’re in UK, you may want to go elsewhere than Cineworld as they didn’t turn off the lights during the movie and have terrible “customer service”

PPS To end on a positive note, this is my first (of I’m sure many) posts using the absolutely brilliant BlogPad Pro App on my iPad. It actually makes it possible to use your iPad for blogging and at £3 is a no-brainer