Transcendence (Wally Pfister, 2014)

The Dark Knight cinematographer Pfister has the support of Christopher Nolan behind the scenes for his directorial debut, but this is an anaemic affair by comparison, with ransacking aplenty of Lawnmower Man, Demon Seed and Her, while falling short of all three because its pretensions overreach its logic. Much is made of the logic of machines versus the contradictory nature of  humankind as Johnny Depp is uploaded into a computer before his death, but there is nothing logical about the story arc from there on, with the now-omnipotent Depp setting out to rule the world through nanotechnology. In a rather reactionary twist against technology as an affront to God, it falls to survivalist rednecks to bring him down.

4/10