Red & Black Films,
Toby Stephens, Caity Lotz, Denis Lawson, Sam Hazeldine, Lee Nicholas Harris, Sule Rimi, Stuart Matthews, Helen Griffin, Ben McGregor, Pooneh Hajimohammadi
Two Artificial Intelligence scientists come together to create the first fully self aware artificial intelligence. Vincent (Toby Stephens) wants to develop it to save his daughter who is suffering from an illness. But he can’t get the financial backing he needs except from the military. Meanwhile, the officials at the Ministry of Defense find Ava (Caity Lotz) and recognize her skills so they bring them together. The create this artificial intelligence and implant it in a nearly indestructible body, but the MoD steals their work and turns it into a killing machine.
This movie is a conundrum. One one side, it’s really hard to follow, even though it’s predictable as all movies of this genre are (evil military trying to take over a peaceful scientist’s work). What I mean is that the dialog is somewhat hard to understand. But on the other hand, it’s a rather decent throwback science fiction film like those of decades past. I wasn’t bored with the film, and I wasn’t blown away with it. I suspect that anyone who is a fan of real science fiction will like the story, but for the mainstream, this is a little to niche to work for most people. I am not a sci-fi fanatic, but I did spend my youth in the 60’s and 70’s with dozens of books from Azimov, Bradbury, Clarke, and other great sci-fi writers. This is also a bit allegoric, as it doesn’t really have to pertain to the robot, but more about mankind’s dysfunctional way of not being able to get along. Greed, jealousy, and search for power is bad, and hopeful, scientific curiosity is good. Well, we’ve heard that before. The acting isn’t great. None of the characters are that memorable, but the story itself is the key. So if you’re a sci-fi fan, you’ll probably enjoy it. Otherwise, maybe not so much.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
Movie Review - The Machine (2013) {R},
