Just as Britain is starting to get its
collective head around emerging from an economic recession into a period of
recovery, a homegrown film is released that says that we shouldn’t be too
complacent about it as economic collapse is looming.
Vincent (Toby Stevens) is a computer
scientist trying to create artificially intelligent software that will pass the
Turing
Test in order to implant into the heads of recently killed soldiers to
bring them back to life. His work brings
him into contact with Ava (Caity Lotz), a radical graduate who has created a
program that is more advanced than any Vincent has ever seen. They begin to work together at the Ministry
of Defence under the supervision of ‘Thomson’ (Denis Lawson), a shady military
hawk who is trying to develop robots as the perfect weapon.
Needless to say, things don’t go to plan
and the technology puts the progressive Vincent against the authoritarian Thomson
over how best to use Ava’s technology…
2014 is a particularly sensitive year
for British identity: a referendum on
Scottish independence, a European election that looks to be dominated by loud
separatists (UKIP) and a World Cup that we are bound to lose. The last thing we needed was a sci-fi film
predicting that we are soon to be in the deepest financial recession in history
(again), and in a state of permanent cold war with the Chinese.
The plot borrows heavily from 90’s
technophobia around fears of the Internet and increasingly intelligent
software, and the recent concerns about online identity protection. The government in The Machine (the M.O.D) is capable of downloading your memory into
a computer and then transplanting it into another body without your permission
– which is a classical sci-fi theme updated for the NSA/GCHQ/Edward Snowden era.
The director/screenwriter Caradog James has borrowed the sexy
robot from Metropolis, the
programmable martial arts from The Matrix,
the robotic solidarity from Terminator 2
and the Guantanamo style detention from Children
of Men to create a low-fi British dystopia that has works as a miserable counterpoint
to Spike Jonze’s recent intelligent design rom-com Her.
To top it off there is a ‘happy’ ending
that in reality is so bleak it could only possibly be made in Britain. I won’t spoil it for you, but just think
about the implications of the final minute of screen time when you see it…
There has been some really impressive
British sci-fi in the last decade and although The Machine has a tiny budget and will not benefit from A-list
actors, it should be recognised as a worthy addition to the UK genre canon.
The Machine is out in cinemas / VoD from the 21st March 2014
THE MACHINE – Film Premiere tickets: Weds 19 March 8.30pm, VUE Piccadillly London
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