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'Transcendence' review: Brain uploaded, logic goes out door

Artificial-intelligence expert breaks boundary - plot defies logic, but you'll never be bored

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Will Caster - JOHNNY DEPP in Transcendence.
Will Caster - JOHNNY DEPP in Transcendence.Peter Mountain/Warner Bros.

In most horror movies, the victims can be forgiven for their lack of sense. It's within the realm of possibility that a hormone-charged slightly dense 17-year-old might open the wrong door, utter the forbidden words or ignore the obvious warnings to get off the mountain.

In "Transcendence," the obtuse adults opening the wrong door are some of the world's greatest scientific minds.

Real scientists are going to hate this film. It suggests they are oblivious dimwits who dive headlong into potential catastrophe with no safeguards, and little consideration of the morals or consequences. And then, when catastrophe is surrounding them, they make a nice chicken piccata, sip wine and argue about their feelings.

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The directorial debut for ace cinematographer Wally Pfister is always watchable, but the narrative flaws and logical leaps sabotage sustained enjoyment. "Transcendence" looks and sounds like a Christopher Nolan film that got attacked by malware.

One huge positive for "Transcendence": It's never boring. The film has the fascinating vibe that happens when very talented people with a large amount of resources are making something unique. Nolan is the executive producer, and Pfister's movie has that "Inception"/"Memento" ambience, where audiences feel as if they're on a ride that could take them anywhere. This ride just isn't quite as much fun.

Johnny Depp stars as Dr. Will Caster, a Berkeley artificial intelligence scientist whose partners have figured out how to upload a primate's consciousness onto a computer. Caster and his wife/scientific partner Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) have also been working on a sentient machine, which would never be made by anyone who has seen "2001: A Space Odyssey" or "WarGames." When revolutionaries seriously wound Caster, Evelyn and colleague Max (Paul Bettany) hole up in an abandoned gymnasium and perform surgery, hoping to upload Caster's consciousness before he dies.

Story problem No. 1: We'll assume it's even remotely possible that this Berkeley gym wouldn't already be inhabited by 47 squatters. And we'll assume it still somehow has the working electricity to power a bank of supercomputers. Are we supposed to believe that a pair of academics would be capable of performing an on-the-fly intracranial neurosurgery procedure?

From there, "Transcendence" presents itself as a smart movie, while it bombards the viewer with confusing plot turns, huge lapses in logic, protagonists who act against their own interest and smart characters who are slow to realize the obvious. For every really good story idea, there are two more problems that will make you shake your head.

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Story problem No. 2: The government, which would have 20 agents assigned to follow Caster's every move in the real world, appears to assign one mid-level investigator to the case after a terrorism-related tragedy. The revolutionaries are gaining strength? The same investigator is in charge. The fate of mankind hangs in the balance? OK, we'll let the single FBI agent order around a dozen soldiers too. But don't wake up the president ...

So now you have the bad news. While it fails as an airtight sci-fi thriller, "Transcendence" is still a decent "Twilight Zone" episode. The off-putting moments are reminiscent of the science-experiment-gone-wrong themes in the underrated "Splice," or a good David Cronenberg creep-out. The problems seem to rest more with the edits than with the work of "Transcendence" screenwriter Jack Paglen, whose overly serious yet detail-oriented script yields some fun surprises.

And Depp embraces the many complications of being a warped version of humanity, pulling off subtle emotional changes along with one or two bizarro turns. Depp critics can complain that he's been uploading all of his performances since 1997. But you wouldn't want anyone else in this role. (OK, maybe Nicolas Cage ...)

Cinema is a better place when filmmakers like Pfister and Nolan and Alfonso Cuarón and Neill Blomkamp can explore new ideas and original scripts, instead of squeezing out the 47th "Spider-Man" reboot for Sony Pictures. The finished product may be messy with "Transcendence," but at least it's not like everything else.

One more note for Bay Area residents: While it appears that much of the film was shot outside the Bay Area, "Transcendence" does have the best use of San Pablo Avenue in a film since Pixar's "The Incredibles." The Broadway of the East Bay is immortalized once again ...

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Transcendence

ALERT VIEWER Drama. Starring Johnny Depp, Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall and Cillian Murphy. Directed by Wally Pfister. (PG-13. 119 minutes.)

Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicle's pop culture critic. E-mail: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @PeterHartlaub

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Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicle's culture critic and co-founder of Total SF. The Bay Area native, a former Chronicle paperboy, has worked at The Chronicle since 2000. He covers Bay Area culture, co-hosts the Total SF podcast and writes the archive-based Our SF local history column. Hartlaub and columnist Heather Knight co-created the Total SF podcast and event series, engaging with locals to explore and find new ways to celebrate San Francisco and the Bay Area.

He can be reached at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com.