The Place For The Latest Movie Reviews
Cast: Caity Lotz, Toby Stephens, Sam Hazeldine
Two computer programmers fall in love as they create the first-ever piece of self-aware artificial intelligence, designed to help humanity. But things go terribly wrong when the British Government steals their breakthrough and teaches it to become a robotic weapon.
"The Machine" takes place in Britain in the not too distant future. Vincent McCarthy is a scientist working with the MOD. His work involves making war veterans whole again both mentally and psychically. What he is doing will also be used in robotic soldiers and the more peaceful robots as well. Vincent also has a very sick daughter which also drives his passion for his work in hopes of saving her as well.
While searching for an assistant he finds Ava who has developed software which makes the robots more human-like in that the learn things and feel more emotions as well. Ava's software can be the breakthrough Vincent has been waiting for to use with the robots and for his daughter as well but when Ava starts to suspect things are not as they seem it ends in a tragic way. Vincent then takes the software and uses it with a cyborg that looks like Ava as well but the higher ups have other ideas for Vincent's new creation.
"The Machine" has been compared to "Blade Runner" which I agree with. It could of been a prequel of sorts. One of the first things that struck me about the film was how well it was made, the cinematography and sound is fantastic. The basic story line is simple enough but it is told in an intelligent way focusing on atmosphere and characters to drive it forward. All that combined with excellent effects and a few excellent action scenes and you have one of the best Science Fiction films to come out in a while.
And then you have the amazing cast that makes the film even better. Toby Stephens is great as Vincent but the stand-up here was Caity Lotz as Ava, this is a fantastic performance that needs to be seen.
I really enjoyed the smart Sci-fi a lot more than I expected to. Everything about the film was top notch and I loved the ending. If you like a good Science Fiction film then this is the movie for you. Available on DVD and Blu-ray, both come with Special Features that include:
Behind The Scenes
Trailer
You can order the DVD HERE and the Blu-ray HERE.
Released by Xlrator Media
**** 1/2 Out Of *****