Helmed by Christopher Nolan’s director of photography, TRANSCENDENCE is Nolanesque grand concept sci fi that has a promising premise and high production values, but ultimately falls short. The script doesn’t do justice to the story’s central dilemma, nor to its moral implications. Instead major characters end up doing nonsensical things with unclear motivations, and the ending, instead of being intriguing and – well – transcendent (like Nolan’s better films), is instead confusing and trite. Entertaining, up to a point.

Coda: for sci fi geeks expecting a film that intelligently explores the fun ideas of singularity and transhumanism, unfortunately, you need to look elsewhere