Starts up good, ends up being quite ridiculous

Rating: 6/10 (18 August 2014)

My overall impression is that the move takes elements from movies such as limitless, transcendence, Hannah and all those movies where you get the American tourist kidnapped in some foreign Asian country if you know what I mean. In fact what I saw reminded me of a sci-fi comic book type of movie, the European style.
This movie is built around 4 main components:
a) The thriller - dominates beginning of the film
b) The action - more prevalent at the middle
c) The sci - fi -mid to end
d) The philosophical. - last quarter of the film
Although in the beginning of the film the first two are prevalent and the direction is quite interesting and captivating, unfortunately the movie did not meet my expectations and I ended up feeling I was watching something rather stupid. The second half of the movie, which is build around the sci-fi and "philosophy" fails to deliver, in fact, in combination with some ridiculous special effects it makes you wonder at times "are they for real?".
Do not assume that I am unfamiliar with the topics that the movie discusses at its various parts, in the contrary I am very familiar with them and find the way they are discussed upon and build upon clumsy the very least. Having Morgan Freeman presenting us pseudo-scientific non- sense is so cliché... having Scarlett Johansson sporting a (very badly acted I might add) serious - expressionless face and blabbering non- sense is comical at best.
The positives:
a) Very interesting and intense start to the movie in which Scarlett Johansson totally rocks.
b) Was not bored during the movie (except a little bit at the end) and for me with all those terribly boring movies coming out lately this is a plus.
c)The movie is build around interesting ideas
The negatives:
a) Please enough with Morgan Freeman explaining everything, it's become a joke and makes it hard for me to take a movie seriously.
b) The way Scarlett Johansson is acting her gradual "transformation" is horrible. She is so unconvincing and fake it's unbelievable. She has that typical "I'm a robot" acting style that the director assumes that a person with enhanced brain capacity should have. Overall although she starts nicely on this film I have to say that her acting was poor through the movie.
c) The way the film tries to deliver philosophical insights is clumsy, forced and uninteresting.
d) The plot evolves in a ridiculous manner and you end up feeling your are watching something really really stupid. Some of the end scenes are just comical...
I think that the people involved with this movie where themselves puzzled about how to present someone who's brain capacity is increasing so rapidly. Their lack of imagination (or the complete opposite you might say) is in my opinion on the main reasons this movie fails to deliver.