Where occupying provinces for strategic
advantage used to be what pitted nations against one another,
in the near future it's technology that is the new
battleground and this cold war puts the Super power China
against Super Power Great Britain… uh… okay. Anyway,
neural robotics expert Dr. Vincent McCarthy has been working
on this fancy tech to help severely damaged soldiers recover
faster and as we can see from one of his early tests, it's
time to go back to the drawing board in the worst way.
What Vincent needs is a new form of Artificial Intelligence
and he actually has farmed this task out to the brightest and
the best in the field in the form of a competition, and while
most of the participants were lacking in some way or the
other, Dr. Ava (Caity Lotz) has broken the code with her A.I.
and now she's on the team to help make a bigger, better,
smarter soldier.
There are a couple of things though, Vincent could care less
about weapons and is just trying to use the neural advances
he's creating to help save his autistic, terminally ill
daughter. It seems Ava also doesn't care much about
weapons either since she seems to have an ulterior motive for
worming her way into this super-secret, high level military
industrial facility. The boss however, Mr. Thomson
(Denis Lawson), has no ulterior motive and just wants weapons
that will kill and when he sees Ava snooping around things she
should not be snooping around… let's just say he's not happy
about this.
Now Vincent is working alone again, but at least he has Ava's
tech and he combines it with the advances he's already made to
create a most awesome machine, and to honor Ava he creates
this machine in her image.
It doesn't take long to realize that this
machine is special. It is childlike, but it wants and
needs to learn. It seems to have emotions, and it wants
to understand the deeper meaning of life. This probably
is not a good thing for a machine if one was to ask me, but
there it is. There is also some strangeness going on at
this facility in the cybernetic enhanced soldiers that guard
this place that seem to be plotting something or another, not
sure what though. But it can't be a good thing, if one
was to ask me.
Thomson could care less about this machines ability to think,
learn and love. In fact those things are all
counterproductive to the one thing that he needs this machine
to do. And Vincent had best fix this situation or there
will be consequences and repercussions.
Recognize that this machine doesn't want to be 'fixed', and
while there will be consequences, I don't know if these are
the kind of consequences that Thomson was looking for.
And don't forget about those cybernetically enhanced soldiers
either. If this was a different kind of movie, there
would be a new age dawning before us. Fortunately, at
least as of today, this isn't that kind of movie.
Writer / Director Caradog W. James film 'The Machine' is an
interesting film, and a misleading one of you based your
desire to see it off of the trailer. The trailer would
have you thinking that what we have with this is movie is an
action packed, sentient machine gone wacky scenario when in
reality it is really nothing of the sort. There are
action sequences in the film, but these scenes are sporadic
and evenly placed. And at no point does the
machine lose control. She fights for her survival, but
she doesn't 'lose control'.
No, what 'The Machine' really happens to be is soulful science
fiction. One based more on concepts and ideas over
action, and a story that places the bulk of its weight on its
characters. True, some of these ideas and concepts may
seem a little derivative to you, but not as derivative as some
would have you believe. I've read of references to 'The
Terminator', but besides the fact that both movies feature
robots sheathed in skin, there aren't that many
similarities. Now somewhere down the line I would fully
expect these robots to kill us all and take over the world,
but then again… it's not that kind of movie. I have also
read references comparing this to 'Blade Runner'. Maybe,
I mean I can see some Roy Batty in Ava the machine, but that
would be a fleeting reference if you were to ask
me. If anything, this movie has closer blood ties
'D.A.R.Y.L' but that's going way back and is crazy obscure so
we will probably have to pass on that reference as well.
What sells 'The Machine' is the solid story that it is built
upon, and a very good performance put forth by Caity
Lotz. Initially, one would think Ms. Lotz acquired this
role more for her physical gifts and her athleticism, and
while the young lady is physically gifted and athletic, she
also imbues Ava the machine with a childlike wonder which over
a believable period of time transforms into a brutal will to
survive. Toby Stevens was good in this movie too, though
he had a permanent mad-on.
There were empty spaces in the film where it tended to drag,
and the pacing was at times erratic. I also don't think
the cybernetic soldier storyline was developed well enough as
there seemed to be more that could have been done with
it. But all that being said, 'The Machine' is authentic
Science Fiction with a slick look and fine performances that
make it a very good watch.
