Review by Ben Bussey
It’s one of the age-old questions of science fiction: where does machine end and life begin? At what point might artificial intelligence equal or even overtake that of humanity; and if/when it does, what will be the outcome? Countless sci-fi works over the decades have tackled these questions, and now writer-director Caradog James has taken a stab at it with this moody and engrossing movie. The Machine may not necessarily bring any particularly new themes to this well-trod genre territory, but it brings an interesting and uniquely modern outlook, which we’re told is modelled on genuine contemporary research in AI; and, most importantly, it brings these ideas to life in a compelling way, impressively realised on a relatively low budget.
Mild spoilers to follow.
At an unspecified point in the near future, a new Cold War has sprung up between China and the West, and Vincent (Toby Stephens) is Britain’s greatest asset in this struggle. A pioneering scientist, his objective is to successfully create artificially intelligent machines. However, like anyone he has to take the work where he can find it, and the best place to get his research paid for is the Military, who obviously want to use his creations in warfare. To this end, scores of mortally wounded and dismembered British soldiers have been revived with cybernetic brain implants and super-strong prosthetic limbs, but the real breakthrough – an effective digital recreation of a human brain – remains elusive. Then along comes another scientist named Ava (Caity Lotz), who is herself on the verge of a breakthrough, and collaborates with Vincent to advance matters.
However, where the world-weary Vincent would appear to have long since turned a blind eye to the shadier aspects of what goes on in the remote MOD bunker which they call the office, Ava is considerably less at ease with it all. After she asks one too many questions and peeps around the corner of one too many off-limits areas, an apparent enemy attack ends Ava’s life. However, Vincent is able to complete the work they set out on, putting a digitised recreation of Ava’s brain into a machine – which he also builds to look physically identical to Ava. Existential questions, ahoy…
The influences on The Machine are of course readily apparent, from Metropolis and Frankenstein to Blade Runner, and beyond. One of the things that makes this film stand apart is its overall aesthetic. While it by no means looks cheap, it’s readily apparent that Carradog James has considerably less resources at his disposal than some, and beyond one or two nicely understated shots showing a futuristic cityscape in the distance, we have no panoramic visions of a future wonderland, and nary a flying car in sight. Thankfully, this also means the use of CGI is sparing and judicious, with gratuitous visual FX eye candy kept to a minimum. The focus instead, as is ever the case in the best sci-fi of this kind, is on the relationship between the scientist, the creation, and the duplicitous authority figure that hovers overhead (an agreeably despicable Denis Lawson). Where one master wants to explore the potential of this new technology, the other just wants to use it in warfare; but will the Machine necessarily recognise either as its true master?
The success of the film really hinges on the interplay between the Machine and its Maker. Toby Stephens is one of those actors who’s been hovering on the periphery of leading man status for some time, and the meaty role of Vincent goes some way to showing what he’s capable of; brooding, emotionally distant but inherently honourable, with very legitimate personal reasons motivating his often questionable actions. It’s a role which might easily have come off a bit of a corny cliché in the hands of a lesser performer, but Stephens makes it work. So too with Caity Lotz in her dual role as Ava and the Machine; in many respects it’s pretty overfamiliar idealised female territory, but she is able to lift it that bit higher. There is also charismatic support from the drone-like reanimated soldiers, notably Pooneh Hajimohammadi; her slick side parting really makes the brain surgery scar look good, which I’m sure is no accident. (Fun fact picked up from the Q&A; the drone soldiers speak their own indecipherable language, and to create this Hajimohammadi taught her fellow soldier actors to speak their lines in Farsi, which was then heavily digitised in post.)
While there’s little question that The Machine really isn’t a horror movie, it’s still plenty dark, doomy and dystopian, as of course all the best sci-fi should be, and it does have its fair share of rough violent moments. All this considered it was a very comfortable fit for the Abertoir crowd (the fact that it’s largely a Welsh production probably didn’t hurt), and it wound up coming third in the audience vote for best film of the festival. Release dates are not yet confirmed, but all being well The Machine should be out there for all to see sometime in 2014, and at that time I thoroughly recommend seeking it out.