For this first spin in the director’s chair, Dark Knight DP Wally Pfister chosen not to go the indie-to-IMAX route of long-time collaborator Chris Nolan. Instead, he’s jumped into large-scale techno thriller territory as Depp’s dying scientist has his mind uploaded into a computer and despite his beneficent proclamations, unleashes terror through terabytes.
Sadly, it’s all based on a script that feels like it was written by an AI in desperate need of a creativity upgrade and though Pfister and cinematographer Jess Hall deliver some effective camerawork, it’s all slaved to a banal sci-fi slog that aims high but falls far.
