SCIENCE: Johnny Depp as Will Caster.

MAN'S unhealthy relationship with technology takes a sinister turn in Wally Pfister's ham-fisted sci-fi thriller, which imagines the consequences of an artificial intelligence running amok in the digital realm.

Transcendence opens in Berkeley, California in the aftermath of a global blackout.

The narrative then rewinds to the same location five years earlier, where Dr Will Caster (Depp), a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, lives with his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall).

They are at the forefront of a bid to create a machine with sentience.

Extremists R.I.F.T. (Revolutionary Independence From Technology) oppose this advancement and shoot Will with a polonium-tainted bullet.

Doctors give Dr Caster a month to live so Evelyn suggests her beau continues his work by uploading his mind to a super-computer.

When this happens, he infiltrates every hard drive on the planet.

As Will's thirst for knowledge intensifies, experts attempt to create a virus that will protect mankind from his insidious influence.

Transcendence begins promisingly, but after the injection screenwriter Paglen struggles to sustain dramatic momentum.

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Film review: Transcendence (12A)