I stumbled over this movie when casually browsing the Netflix catalog yesterday. The plot is fairly unoriginal one but it is one I would probably have liked it, if it would have been well implemented. Sadly it was not. It was not even a half arsed implementation. I am at loss to understand how this disappointing movie can hold a rating at 6.1 at IMDb at the time of me writing this.The movie is quite a low budget one. I can live with that. It is also quite dark. I can live with that as well. Unfortunately I found it to be a slow, boring, illogical and stupid mess. Of course it portrays the MoD as the stupid, arrogant and lying bad guys. No surprise there when it comes to most movie-making today. Been there, seen that. Wasn't fun the first time.The implementation of the plot is also just poor with lots of stupidity and plot holes. These potentially dangerous people seem to some times be locked up in cages and sometimes be roaming around pretty freely. The lost speech part is also laughable. The idea that a RD center should not discover that the subjects communicated between themselves is just stupid.As for the acting it is mediocre at best. Not really bad perhaps but certainly not very good either. It is really a low budget B-movie so this could perhaps have been swallowed but there is really not a single likable character in the entire movie. Almost everyone is an arse one way or another and the cyborg, who could have been interesting, is just… meh.The majority of the movie is one long, slow and dark ordeal. Once we finally get some action it is pure B-movie style shoot a lot and f- ck logic kind of action. The ending? The less said about it the better.For me this one was a waste of time.

Ex_Machina is a good movie but The Machine completely outclasses it.I'm not really the type that overlooks imperfections or details nor am I someone that gives praise without caveats, however Caity Lotz performance in this movie is the kind that they should be giving Oscars for rather than the minute variations on the same old theme that is so often regurgitated in what the people with the votes consider an "oscar worthy" performance...Both the movie character and Caity Lotz performance is original, subtle and genuine in a way that only rarely make it as far as even being nominated for the brain rot that to a large extent has been the academy awards for so long.This movie is one of the few on my list of favorite movies(Thale, Age of Adaline, Mr Right, Watchmen, V for Vendetta) based on story/performance alone rather than action and effects, and I would even put it in the absolute top 3.Thoroughly recommended.

I actually enjoyed this film more than I thought I would, although the first half-hour didn't really work on me. I could see the low-budget in the initial shots. Because of this, I wasn't fully paying attention. However, I kept finding that I needed to keep rewinding to check out what I missed since the plot was actually moving along quite fast.Then at about the half-hour point, this movie really captured and kept my attention throughout. I really like the acting and the way the lead actress moved (including her dance and combat movements).As for scenes, the interior shots were set up well. The dark lighting was really effective and the eye glows worked very well. Editing was actually pretty quick and the story was compelling. I was actually concerned for the characters (which doesn't seem to happen for me very often in movies today).One of the real standouts is the visual effects work. It's phenomenal (especially considering the low budget). The intro credits look fantastic, the robot-creation sequence is just amazing, and the glow effect on the robot was pretty phenomenal. I have a feeling that the VFX teams did some serious overtime on this one. I also suspect the effects houses didn't make much on this production although I suspect the shots they did will make great portfolio material.If I had a qualm with this movie, it's the soundtrack. On one hand, it uses very cool CS80 sounds, similar to Blade Runner. Unfortunately the shots that used this instrument didn't have the 'weight' to warrant that sound. Believe me, I love that synth, but it needs to be used strategically. Then there's the other style of music which is typical of movies like Her or Ex Machina. I didn't think that score worked particularly well either. Perhaps something in-between the two styles would have worked better. The Blade Runner style was more mysterious and haunting than this film's presentation and the more modern score was too light and nondescript for the shots it was attached to. Regardless, there were sections of music that did work nicely. I seem to recall the music near the end of the film being spot-on.In general, this is a film that I can recommend to people who like science fiction and the topic of A.I., androids, cyborgs, etc.... It's actually quite a thoughtful film. Interestingly, I found that I prefer this movie over both Her and Ex Machina.

Even though there are some flaws with this movie, there are several moments of greatness, and it's overall good.This is made on a pretty low budget, under a million £'s. And that's not bad, because this movie looks very good. In stead of suffering from the low budget, it's more like, had it had a bigger budget, they could probably have done a lot more. What we actually get looks real good. Everything from the sets to the makeup to the effects looks nice.Caity Lotz does a pretty good job. There was one scene with her that I thought the acting was a bit iffy, but that was soon forgotten. Might even just have been me. She also has a couple of real good scenes.There's a lot of cool stuff in The Machine. I ain't no science expert, but most of the science seems relatively legit. Movie raises some interesting questions about AI and what it means to live, too. And, you know, I love Terminator 2 to death, so I guess I'm a sucker for this artificial intelligence + emotions-thing.The Machine can be compared to Ex Machina in a lot of ways, but they are also very different movies. The budget being one of the large differences, btw. Low budget sci-fi often tends to get boring, but The Machine did not bore me at all. Well played, Machine!