When I heard that Wally Pfister,
renowned cinematographer and DoP on films such as The Dark Knight trilogy and Inception,
was directing his first feature length film, I was delighted. I have always been a huge fan of his
cinematic style and I knew that
whatever the film was, be it good or bad, at least it would look damned
good.
I wouldn’t say I was totally
disappointed by Pfister’s first attempt, but I was certainly underwhelmed by
it.
To summarise the story in a
nutshell without spoilers, this film is about a scientist whose consciousness
is uploaded into a supercomputer, and the consequences to his family and the
world in general of this feat.
Startng with the good points, the
casting was great. It was novel to
see Johnny Depp in a role where, for a significant portion of the film, he is
physically absent from the screen, albeit he was vocally present. Rebecca Hall and Paul Bettany gave
solid performances as Depp’s wife, and co-worker/friend, respectively.
Morgan Freeman, as always, was
great, but I would have liked to have seen more of him, particularly in
relation to his work with the FBI agent, played by Cillian Murphy, as this was
somewhat glossed over in favour of the Depp storyline. Kate Mara was good as the ‘terrorist’
although, in some scenes, appeared to lack empathy with her own cause as well
as others.
Visually, I was not disappointed
by the way the film looked. As a
firm supporter of the tripod and steadi-cam, I was pleased to see that shaking
shots, were avoided, even in the action sequences, and I was easily able to
follow the film in its entirety.
If I was to nit-pick, I would say
that the numerous close ups and slow motion shots of water droplets dripping
onto flowers was somewhat overdone and did not always seems to have a
purpose.
This, unfortunately, is where my
enthusiasm for the film ends.
I was underwhelmed by the story
line in principle. I generally
take the view that AI films of this sort have largely had their day. As we move closer to the time of AI
becoming part of our lives generally, I prefer it when directors and writers
look further ahead and use a bit more imagination about an industrial AI age,
or a world post-AI might look like, rather than a somewhat transparent
examination of what our world is likely to be like in the next 5-10 years.
Whilst I applaud a film that is
able to introduce the concept of man’s consciousness being inputted into a machine
and avoid looking like The Matrix, I
found the examination of that concept to be superficial at best. The film introduces a fascinating
concept of self-awareness and yet fails to examine in any depth that concept
within the film, which for me, meant it lacked authenticity. Not once did I feel the film was asking
the audience to question their own self-awareness and humanity.
I don’t always want to watch a
film which is heavy on self-examination and conceptual but I think the least a
film can do is be true to the concepts it introduces and not leave them
hanging.
Overall, the film is worth a
watch and is certainly not lacking in acting and behind the camera talent. For me, where it falls short, is the
story itself, which I felt in parts, was let down by the enormity of the task
of exploring both AI and then attempting to make a judgment call about the use
and extent to which it should be progressed by humans. This meant it fell short of being
either an action film, or a conceptual film, and falls uneasily somewhere
between the two.
I won’t be telling people to
avoid it, but I certainly won’t be counting down the days until it is released
on DVD.
Director: Wally Pfister
Writer: Jack Paglen
