The Machine

Fantastic Look and the Score is Effective, Minimalist and Silky. This is a Creepy, sometimes Frightening Film filled with War-Battered, Brain-Damaged Robots and few Humans.

The Low-Budget takes a Back Seat to the Imaginative Scenery and the Mood is all Melancholy. There is barely a Light in Sight and the Literal Darkness of the Scenes does Enhance the Gloomy Appeal of the Story.

Caity Lotz in a Dual Role is Stunning and Toby Stevens as the Scientist in Despair is OK. The Story may be Nothing New and the Ending will Not Surprise Sci-Fi Geeks. But Viewers will most likely remember the Feel of the Film and it is Unique in that respect.

Overall, Above Average B-Movie with its Sci-Fi Roots Showing most of the Time, although Not in the Foreground. It's an A.I. Trek that is a Welcome Inclusion in the Sub-Genre. Low-Budget Movies should all Look this Good and They Can with Fertile Imaginations.

I had no expectation for this movie, and can't really claim that I did any prior investigation into it before sitting down to watch it. And now that I have, I sit here with a somewhat hollow feeling.

While the movie was nice visually and atmospherically, then content-wise and story-wise, then "The Machine" didn't really lift the bar in any possible way. The storyline was nearly non-existing, or at least simple to the level of being pointless, which made the movie suffer terribly.

The concept of the movie does raise a valid question about robotics and their usage, but director Caradog W. James really didn't manage to establish anything in that sense. And the movie ended up being a rather shallow experience and a pointless one as well.

I will say that the acting was adequate, and people were doing good enough jobs with their given roles and characters. But everything was just a tad too superficial, and the actors weren't really allowed to shine on the screen.

Visually, then the movie was nice to watch. Now, don't expect a billion dollar Hollywood CGI fest here, then you will be sorely disappointed. But the effects team behind "The Machine" pulled it off quite nicely, and the effects came off as believable and real. Although, one thing did raise a question mark, as a machine, would would you see billowing steam exhaling from Caity Lotz's mouth during the "revolt" scene? That was just a stupid mistake (either that, or I pay way too much attention to everything in the movies).

I am giving "The Machine" a 5 out of 10 stars, because it was a mediocre experience that suffered from a horrible storyline, and had the effects and acting to lift up the movie despite the bad storyline. But come the ending, there really were no particular point to this movie.

The Machine is a rather successful attempt at implementing hard science fiction tendencies with a cyberpunk aesthetic. It may not be particularly adroit in terms of human and AI relationships, but I appreciate the rigor of the scientific explanation for the artificial intelligence. The film really excels at this in the beginning when Vincent conducts his own Turing tests as part of a secret headhunting operation. Then as he meets Ava things start taking a problematic turn. The military-industrial complex is invoked, but its purpose is sort of shadowy and never is contextualized in a way that would make the narrative more coherent.

The questioning of human identity is the strongest point of the film, but I suppose that, at the very core, this film was more interested in being a thriller, rather than an exploration of the philosophical concepts.

This movie is relatively good and it touches all the right buttons and themes when it comes to the impending singularity, but brings little original. It is decently done, is watchable, and has a nice atmosphere and is relatively intelligent. Its budget is surprisingly low - standing at only 1.5 million, ten times less than an already low budget Ex Machina, which was released a year later independently, and has some similarities (and is a slightly better movie overall). Though the movie is relatively strong, it does not bring anything really new, but all the pieces are brought together in a way not done before in this plausible way. Some of the references do feel pretty corny (HAL shutdown in particular), and there is something of Terminator, some Blade Runner, and similarities to some other movies. However, the story is decently underplayed (unlike over the top movies like somewhat prone to hysteric outbursts like Transcendence), and despite of it being a straightforward, direct take on the usual themes (consciousness, freedom etc.), it still makes a pretty good, understated sci-fi noir movie, well worth a watch if you are into these kinds of things. Acting, atmosphere and writing are all well done.

A.I. usually comes in four standard flavors:

1.) The program that resides in a singular non-robotic machine or device such as HAL in Space Odyssey.

2.) The ubiquitous program that infiltrates every computer related device on a network such as Skynet or the Matrix.

3.) The A.I. that inhabits a robot that is obviously a machine like Johnny 5 in Short Circuit or Chappie.

4.) The A.I. that inhabits an android type body of which is virtually indistinguishable from a human like D.A.R.Y.L., David from A.I., or the androids in Blade Runner.

The Machine is of the fourth type. The vessel was a very attractive female that was patterned after her creator, Ava (Caity Lotz). She was just robotic enough in her movements, gestures and speech to know she wasn't real, but still human enough to question your feelings about her.

This movie was dark, both literally and figuratively. I don't think there was any sun shown until the very end. The Machine (meaning the movie because the android was simply called Machine as well) had a mysterious element to it as is usually the case when governments are involved. The government wanted a weapon and Dr. Vincent McCarthy, the lead scientist for the government project, wanted something entirely different. The two parties clash in a violent way.

This is not one of my favorite A.I. movies but it is done pretty well. They never introduced a truly unique perspective on the topic so it didn't move the scales much. The acting was passable as were the special effects so I'd say the movie was between OK and good, leaning more towards good.