Cert 12A
119 mins
BBFC advice: Contains moderate bloody violence, bloody images
It had to be done. Whenever we are abroad we try to watch a movie at a cinema to see how it differs from the UK.
In India, in January, it wouldn't have been worth it because the Bollywood films don't have subtitles on the sub-continent so we wouldn't have known what was going on.
In Spain, a few cinemas show original English language pictures with sub-titles and so we have seen movies in Barcelona and Gran Canaria.
In Portugal, where we have been staying for the past week, only animations are dubbed so while watching Tarzan would have been pointless, we had a chance to catch up with Wally Pfister's Transcendence.
Thus, we walked a kilometre from our hotel in the seaside town of Olhao to the Ria Shopping Centre and the Algarcine cinema.
Awaiting us were two surprises: firstly, the tickets only cost 4.50 euros and, secondly, we were the only people watching the film.
It soon became clear why the latter was the case.
Despite an ambitious storyline and an impressive cast, including Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany an Rebecca Hall, Transcendence is not nearly as dramatic as it should have been.
Indeed, both Mrs W and I were struggling to stay awake - and this was the early evening screening.
The premise is an interesting one - an expert in artificial intelligence (Depp) is shot down but before he dies, his scientist wife (Hall) and best friend (Bettany) succeed in hiving off his memories and his intelligence.
She is keen to preserve her husband's neurological functions but his friend is not so sure. What happens if they miss one small element? Would he really be the same person with the same vision?
Well, if he just turned out to be the same old guy, it wouldn't make for much of a film would it?
Many movies have dealt with the subject of artificial intelligence outwitting mankind. None with greater effect than Michel Crichton's excellent Westworld in 1973 (it gave me nightmares for years).
So what does Transcendence add to the genre?
In my view, not a lot: it just has a bigger budget than most.
Despite their considerable acting talents, Depp, Bettany, Hall and Morgan Freeman (who plays yet another scientist) are required to do little more than sleepwalk their way through the film.
And its ending is spoiled because it is given away in the opening scenes (why do more and more film-makers do this?).
From promising ingredients, it is a disappointment.
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 5/10