The Machine is a 2013 British science fiction thriller film directed and written by Caradog W. James. It stars Caity Lotz and Toby Stephens as computer scientists who create an artificial intelligence for the military.
In efforts to construct perfect android killing machines in a war against China, UK scientists exceed their goal and create a sentient robot.
The computer programming expert can achieve a province by making a artificial intelligence robot, but these robot fall in love. The defense ministry learns the situation and turns the robot into a powerful weapon. The movie, which is in the science fiction style, looks good compared to the IMDB score.
After helming the 2006 comedy Little White Lies, Welsh director/writer and producer Caradog James returns with his second, very different, feature length effort, The Machine. Set in a near future where an economically devastated Britain has been plunged into a new Cold War, with a dominant China the enemy, The Machine sits squarely in the realm of dystopian science fiction.
This low-budget tale unfolds within the confines of an MoD compound where cybernetics whizz Vincent McCarthy (Toby Stephens) dabbles, Frankenstein-like, with artificial intelligence, brain implants and wounded soldiers. Tormented by an incident in which a modified soldier went on a murderous rampage, and by his dying daughter’s illness-ravaged life, McCarthy is intent on helping the sick and injured . Altruistic though McCarthy’s intentions may be, the facilities head honcho, Thomson (Denis Lawson), is interested only in seeing the development of a highly sophisticated weapon – an android super soldier. When newly employed researcher Ava (Caity Lotz) is (conveniently) critically injured, Thomson is presented with the opportunity to coax McCarthy into creating such a weapon, and ‘The Machine’ is born/reborn.
Riffing on themes seen in several movies, such as Robocop, Blade Runner, Universal Soldier and Mary Shelley’s Gothic classic, The Machine is also partly a love story as McCarthy forms a strong emotional bond with Ava/The Machine, becoming resistant to Thomson’s military driven plans for the human/artificial intelligence hybrid. Ideas about humanity, self-determinism, exploitation and man vs machine run through a narrative that flits between (non) human drama, what if? scenarios and action movie traits. What James has tried to do is film a Hollywood Blockbuster on an independent British budget, and it shows. (https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk)