British filmmaker Caradog James makes the most out of a tiny budget with his new chilling sci-fi thriller movie “The Machine”. Playing an innovative and big idea about the originating of artificial intelligence, James keeps his focus on human element, which makes the movie thoroughly engaging and no doubt darkly haunting. At times, it may feel somewhat more of a serious movie, but the fact is that it also gets us thinking.
Scene set in the near future, the story revolves around a top hot-shot scientist Vincent played by Toby Stephens, who is recruited by the Ministry of Defense in order to create a sentient like machine that will promise the West win the arms-race against The Republic of China. Vincent already has a proficiency of performing robotic repairs for wounded soldiers and now begins working with sharp new assistant Ava played by Arrow's Caity Lotz. But with Ava's snooping, she gets herself in a trouble. Vincent decides to put together her knowledge of programming commands with his technical expertise to create thinking and feeling robot. And of course, Vincent's boss played by Denis Lawson immediately wants to put it to military use.
The film looks terrific, as writer-director James uses military imagery and creepy underground large bunker setting to build an immense overpowering sense of trouble. And even if the scrip barely cracks to the surface, the characters all seem to fit in shifty and dangerously as we discover more and more about them. Especially the military meat heads who have a corrective brain implants and can communicate between themselves in a secret coded language.
