The Machine (2013)

2014 • 90 minutes

About this movie

London, in the near future. Britain is locked in a Cold war with China. Deep in a secret government base, leading scientist Vincent McCarthy (Toby Stephens) is employed by the government to create a game-changing weapon, an ultimate android killing machine. Aided by artificial intelligence expert Ava (Caity Lotz), Vincent creates the first fully conscious android, but at his moment of success he finds himself fighting for his his life, as he uncovers the MoD's true sinister intentions for his creation. Get ready for dark thrills in this non-stop sci-fi epic, packed with edge of your seat plot twists.

Ratings and reviews

After a very bumpy, awkwardly plotted start, this badly sketched film retreads all the clichés of the genre. World building is vital to sell SF stories, without it you just have shadow puppets on a village hall stage. Full of plot holes, it's a totally bleak film, with no emotional heart. All the characters walk around like they're robots and because of this, the daughter in peril subplot feels completely cynical. Avoid.

This is a movie that relies more on the story than it does on visual effects, and it benefits greatly from that. It's not a masterpiece of film making, but it's streets ahead of most movies of its type. It feels as if an effort has been made to make a good film, rather than the usual disappointing Hollywood tripe that we seem to be fed these days. There are sparse visual effects but they're used to enhance rather than make the movie. I think you will enjoy it.

The acting was fine but the plot a bit weak. There were large bits of speech that we couldn't understand & I couldn't find a way turn subtitles on using the play app on my tablet