The Machine: Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
With an impoverished world plunged into a Cold War with a new enemy, Britain’s Ministry of Defence is on the brink of developing a game-changing weapon. Lead scientist Vincent McCarthy (Toby Stephens) provides the answer with his creation, The Machine – an android with unrivalled physical and processing skills. When a programming glitch causes an early prototype to destroy his lab, McCarthy enlists artificial intelligence expert Ava (Caity Lotz) to help him harness the full potential of a truly conscious fighting machine.
I always feel a little weird when I watch a movie involving artificial intelligence machines because we probably aren’t too far off from something like that and it’s rarely a good thing when done in cinema (except Short Circuit……man I love that movie). This film takes a high budget concept and applies thoughtful storytelling that can only be found on the indie scene and creates a sci-fi story that is one of the best that I can think of recently. The way Caity Lotz was able to go from one personality to another was truly entertaining. As “The Machine” she gave a convincing performance to the point where I completely forgot her previous character. She was able to react and interact with things and everyone else like a child that was experiencing everything for the first time yet in a fully cybernetic/organic humanoid form. It really was crazy. In fact the whole film was crazy and the things they were trying to accomplish with AI. Even though it is a work of fiction it does make you wonder on the reality of some of these things. I loved this film from beginning to end but I’m just surprised that it wasn’t theatrically marketed a bit more. I would’ve loved to see this movie in a theater. This is how sci-fi should be done yet we get films that rely mainly on the look and special effects. This is the perfect example of a movie that relies mainly on story to get its point across and boy is it effective. If you decide to pick this up then I can guarantee that you’ll get into this movie after the first scene. It really is a great piece of cinema.
Special Features:
“Inside The Machine” An In Depth Look Behind The Scenes – A really good BTS feature that gives a decent insight on the making of the film.
