The Machine (2013) - Review

In the heady days of my early twenties I went to something of a wild club and at a certain point in the evening a performer came to the stage wearing heavy makeup, a garish outfit, and bowling balls strapped to her feet. She was helped to the stage, whereupon the club began blasting a song from the Blade Runner soundtrack and she crooned a made-up song about how much she "loved that movie Blade Runner."

Screening The Machine, a British film written and directed by Caradog James, I couldn't help but remember that moment from long ago. Because, by gosh, Caradog James loves that movie Blade Runner. Which is OK, because so do I (check the title of this blog). And if you're going to stage a science-fiction film with an influence, you could do a lot worse than Blade Runner.

On the other hand, there is a fine line between letting something influence the film and allowing that influence to smother the movie. James doesn't quite cross that line, but he does certainly walk (with bowling balls strapped to his feet?) right up to it.

The Machine stars veteran actor Toby Stephens as a brilliant scientist working for the military in the near future on brain implants. We're told at the beginning that the western world has fallen into deep recession and is on the verge of war with China. So the British military, hopelessly outnumbered, is looking to create an artificial intelligence super-soldier that it can use to tilt the balance in its favor. To that end the military is employing Stephens to experiment on brain damaged soldiers. He implants the soldiers with brain implants and bionic arms and such, after which they lose their ability to speak (or so the military thinks) and they become guards at the secret facility.

Stephens brings on a brilliant, but subversive assistant played by Caity Lotz (The Pact). Eventually, this assistant becomes the model for the military's ultimate goal: a perfect artificial intelligence machine with computer brain that reaches full consciousness (it's not clear why they feel the need to experiment with consciousness). Stephens goes along with all of this because he hopes to use the artificial intelligence to save his daughter, who suffers from a disease that renders her trapped inside her own mind.

From there, the movie serves mostly as a meditation on the nature of humanity and a cautionary tale about messing with artificial intelligence (or is it?). The film addresses the self-destructive ambitions of a military-industrial complex that often puts finding the latest technology ahead of any actual thinking about the dangers such technology brings for the very people holding that weapon. And there's a violent action movie climax to boot.

There's plenty to like in the movie, which steadfastly refuses to become a generic action movie. James plainly has ambition to turn this into a serious science-fiction film that ponders our technological future and the pitfalls that we face in that future. While the film never quite finds a great hook and never reaches any great philosophical insights, it is nonetheless interesting throughout and to be celebrated for the respectful ambition it brings to the science-fiction genre.

But while the film's greatest asset may be its ambition, its greatest weakness is also its parallel lack of ambition. While it wants to be a serious movie and is solid, James also never seems quite interested in moving past his influences - particularly Blade Runner. The soundtrack is nearly a rip-off of Vangelis' classic Blade Runner score (a friend that saw the movie with me and is a major film score geek suggested to me that the soundtrack for The Machine borrows heavily from the Robocop score as well). James tries to shoot everything in shadow and dark, and with plenty of smoky air, just like Blade Runner. Why does everyone in this lab work in the dark? Don't get me started on the constant lens flares.

While working from a foundation of Blade Runner influence is fine, at a certain point there has to be some bigger ambition than splashing your love for Blade Runner and other old films on every frame. The film lacks any real visual inventiveness and James doesn't assert himself as a filmmaker with a grand new vision or with much to add that will take the science-fiction genre to another level. It somewhat challenges movies to return to more serious sci-fi fare while itself not moving beyond material released some 30 years ago. So we're just left with a solid, decently interesting film that isn't particularly memorable or special.

The actors are solid but not great. Lotz is in a bit of a tough position. The director celebrates her attractive, adult body (although he also relentlessly tries to render it in shadow and silhouette), but has her playing the replicant as if she's a five year old girl. Lotz isn't able to pull off, or perhaps isn't given the material to pull off, a kind of Lolita act as a mix of childish innocence and burgeoning sexuality (the body ahead of the mind), so it just kind of comes off as a weirdly split performance and a character that doesn't feel quite fully realized. Perhaps the most interesting performance in the film is from Pooneh Hajimohammadi. She plays another of Stephens' former assistants that has received a brain implant and alternatively has become the top assistant to the facility's military supervisor and also the secretive leader of the bionic soldiers in the facility.

I won't give away the third act of the film, but while it is interesting it does not quite find a profound statement. I wanted to see a deeper statement about the nature of humanity and a questioning of whether, in terms of what we consider essential human elements such as empathy, compassion, and love, this group of enhanced or artificial soldiers had in fact surpassed humans 1.0. It approaches some interesting insights but does not quite get there.

I definitely think The Machine is a worthwhile watch for science-fiction fans. This is especially true for those looking for something more ambitious than the Hollywood studio spectacles that typically have their ambition power-washed away in the development process. It's solid enough to appeal to niche audiences, but does not quite reach a level that would help it transcend into something truly special or that is likely to have much influence of its own.

Screened in the theater. The theatrical run is extremely limited here in the U.S., so you can check it out on VOD on Amazon here.