Max Waters: I spent my life trying to reduce the brain to a series of electrical impulses. I failed. Human emotion, it can contain illogical conflict. Can love someone, and yet hate the things they have done. Machine can’t reconcile that.

Evelyn Castor: Can you?

Max Waters: Yes.

Director: Wally Pfister

Cast: Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy

Synopsis: A scientist developing a new form of AI technology is shot at a conference. With only moments left to live he uploads his consciousness into his new technology as his wife helps him develop into a new form of artificial intelligence.

Review

A promising plot somewhat similar to last year’s Spike Jonze sci-fi drama ‘Her’, this film unfortunately doesn’t quite reach those heights. Opening with the clichéd narrative trope of the bleak ending we then rewind five years earlier to Johnny Depp’s Will Caster introducing his new technology PINN to a crowd of funders and fans of his work. We are also introduced to his wife Evelyn Castor (Rebecca Hall) who loves him and supports his work. A terrorist cell is also introduced that don’t want technology and computers to advance (for reasons unknown). One of the terrorists shoot Will with a poisonous bullet that makes him slowly die over the next few days. Will wishes to upload his consciousness into his new program and show the world how much his program will change the world.

What follows is an over complicated clichéd story of the ghost in the machine. We have seen this before in 1993’s Ghost in the Machine and 1995’s Ghost in the Shell and I’m sure countless other science fiction films. This one doesn’t bring anything new to the genre with a plot that is filled with ambition but nowhere to go and a rather lifeless (pun intended) performance from Johnny Depp. This film had a lot of promise with the directorial debut of Christopher Nolan’s go to cinematographer Wally Pfister. The film’s visual composition is as beautiful as Nolan’s Inception and The Dark Knight however he could have used Nolan’s help with the narrative progression. Rebecca Hall and Paul Bettany also turn in great performances.

Rating: 2.5 Stars