Review of The Machine (2013) by Talukan S — 07 Mar 2015

I found this movie to be intense. Not in the actions, the chills and thrills, but in the first five minutes with the beating of heartstrings by the hands of a power bard. Slow in stride but soulful and moving.

I watched as a man was seated and interviewed, asked questions that he never answered, spoken to by people he could not acknowledge, his injury blatant and ruinous.

I felt sympathy, deep and tense as I watched his expressionless face.

I watched as the testing began, the doctors searching for a cure, a way to restore him, make him a little more a man. I watched as the results unfurled and came to light... as the unexpected became reality and the extreme came to pass.

Realization, awe, shock, cold relief...

And then midway through, before the crescendo, I was plunged into hell as something amazing was promised to be taken away, violated, neutered, ruined, snuffed with slim promise of restoration.

I watched for the first time with true horror, cold and agonizing, as tears began to well and spill and a voice in the back of my mind and the pit of my throat began to scream and beg helplessly for a halt. By the end I felt wounded.

I watched as people barely people less voices moved like phantoms while watching, waiting, knowing, plotting behind mirror-glazed eyes.

I saw life, strange and innovative, close to home and yet so far, so deep, so fathomless; a glimpse of posthuman.

I saw wonder.