Toby Stephens stars as brooding computer scientist Dr Vincent McCarthy (his name being a nod, perhaps, to real-world pioneer John McCarthy), who works in a shadowy research bunker for the Ministry of Defence. The west is locked in a second Cold War with China, and both sides are racing to build ever more intelligent machines. “The most technologically advanced society always wins,” is how Vincent’s ruthless boss Thomas (Wedge Antilles himself, Denis Lawson) puts it. Stephens is on good form as the distant yet sympathetic scientist, yet it’s Caity Lotz’s performance that really sticks in the memory. Perfectly decent as fellow AI researcher Ava, it’s when Lotz steps into the role of the Machine that she really impresses. Possessed with an almost spooky air of childlike vulnerability, dignity and restrained power, she’s watchable throughout. It’s this performance, along with James’s imaginative use of a relatively modest budget (of under £1m, reportedly), that makes The Machine something more than just another science fiction dystopia. Its bunker setting, guarded by ominously mute cybernetic soldiers with glowing eyes, is an eerie place, and the mixture of digital and prosthetic effects that bring them to life is sometimes seamless. There’s a moment where we see a robot ‘born’ for the first time, as metal and an oozing, viscous substance come together to make something resembling a human, and it’s mesmerising. There are some points in The Machine where the lack of budget does start to tell, particularly in one or two action sequences, but these aren’t the main reason to see the film in any case. For all its flaws, The Machine manages to build a believable, quite claustrophobic computer world, and through its gentle, innocent title character, poses some thought-provoking questions. If science could create artificial being indistinguishable from humans, wouldn’t they deserve to be treated with the same dignity as us? Second, and more disquietingly: if they were more intelligent than us, wouldn’t these beings also be more humane and compassionate than we are? As technology edges closer to our bodies, and the notion of cybernetic limbs and artificially intelligent drones begin to feel less outlandish, these age-old questions on the ethics and impact of science take on a more urgent dimension. The Machine explores them with intelligence and style. Cult gem status surely beckons. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.