Ex Machina (2015) Review by: Money Train

Caleb, a 26 year old coder at the world’s largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain retreat belonging to Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location he finds that he will have to participate in a strange and fascinating experiment in which he must interact with the world’s first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot girl…Written by DNA FILMS

I have not seen a serious and well-written Artificial Intelligence (AI) film since Her (2013) which starred Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson. Lately, there are some new stupid, big budget AI films like Chappie and Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron that have been a real disappointment because I never though these AI programs were smart enough to operate a DVR let alone be the star of a whole film. And the even dumber AI big budget blockbuster summer film is Terminator Genisys that offers up more mindless and soulless robots and androids obsessed with killing every human. No, I was kind surprised watching Ex_Machina because Garland treats his audiences with much respect and patience to let us appreciate the real ramifications of man developing a fully functional AI. Ex_Machina basically is almost a theatrical stage play because we really only have three central players in this mind twisting sci-fi/horror thriller. Nathan is the secretive, tech genius billionaire played very realistically by Oscar Isaac (X-Men: Apocalypse), Caleb is the humble, shy and Nathan’s star struck employee played methodically by Domhnall Gleeson (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and the mega-bright shining star of the film is Swedish born actress Alicia Vikander (The Man From Uncle). I loved the cat and mouse inter-play between Caleb and Nathan because it seems so natural and authentic. These two solid actors knew exactly how to carefully and gradually build up the deadly tension between a tech mentor and mentee.

But let’s face it Ex_Machina rises or fails as a film on whether Ava was going to be a boring, repetitive and bland AI fictional characters like David (Haley Joel Osment) of A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Sonny (Alan Tudyk) of I, Robot (2004) and Dorian of “Almost Human” (2013-2014). Or would Ava be a truly great, iconic and transformative sci-fi cinematic AI characters such as Hal (Douglas Rain) in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Ash (Ian Holm) in Alien (1979) or Rachel (Sean Young) in Blade Runner (1982). Fortunately, for us Ava is a highly unique AI character just like Scarlett’s Her. What sets her apart for me is that she really embodies sexiness as a woman without being shown in an exploitative manner. Alicia is a beautiful and sexy actress, but Garland’s deliberate decision of showing some parts of Ava’s inside mechanical anatomy while covering Ava’s breast, hands and buttocks allows one to easily understand how Caleb could be simultaneously attracted to Ava as well as being guarded because she is not human. Also, Garland was much in control on how much of Ava’s facial expressions which ranged from bright eyed optimism about meeting a new person like Caleb, solemn inquisitiveness whether Caleb can be her friend or blank terror when she tells Caleb no to trust Nathan when she thinks the cameras are down during a power outage. Alicia masters giving off a steely gaze. Ava is very much like a professional poker player not giving up her “tell” when freely talking to Caleb as he was giving her the Turing test to finally prove if she could be treated as a real human being.

“Coined by computing pioneer Alan Turing in 1950, the Turing test was designed to be a rudimentary way of determining whether or not a computer counts as “intelligent”…The test, as Turing designed it, is carried out as a sort of imitation game. On one side of a computer screen sits a human judge, whose job is to chat to some mysterious interlocutors on the other side. Most of those interlocutors will be humans; one will be a chatbot, created for the sole purpose of tricking the judge into thinking that it is the real human.”…Alex Hern…The Guardian…June 9, 2014. I will not discuss the plot points of Ex_Machina because I don’t believe in dropping major spoilers in a film review. Especially, for a small cast film like Ex_Machina whose story can turn on a dime about certain nuances, slight off camera looks and key phrases. But I do take issue with Ex_Machina for not letting Caleb be smart enough from the jump to suspect that Nathan’s muted Geisha/companion Kyoko (Sonyo Mizuno) was an AI like Ava. I mean this is the year 2015 and unless Kyoko was raised in cave in isolation all her life to one day work for eccentric tech billionaires–I seriously doubt Caleb would easily believe that Kyoko never spoke because she did not understand English. Thus Nathan could trust her to be able to discuss his groundbreaking AI designs and his other sensitive business matters. Caleb was not even suspicious of Kyoko being an earlier version of Ava even after seeing Kyoko and Nathan doing the most unconventional and memorable disco dance number since Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper’s equally brilliant and mesmerizing final dance number in Silver Lings Playbook. But as a new actor with no lines Sonyo did an impressive job to add another layer of weirdness and fear to Ex_Machina. Other than my misgivings with how Caleb interacted with Kyoko I really do not have any other significant faults with Ex_Machina. I’m gonna go real old skool and suggest that I actually had flashbacks to Richard Attenborough’s Magic (1978) which was a creepy and well-written horror film about a manic ventriloquist and his pre-AI demonic mannequin. And to me a lot of whether one likes or not likes Ex_Machina will always turn on how one perceives Caleb or Nathan to be at fault for what happens to Ava at the end of the film. I also suggest that anyone can watch Ex_Machina several times and learn or appreciate new aspects of the film that you may miss or not pick-up watching it once in the theater. I also believe that if Ex_Machina had been released in the late Fall instead of during the early summer than it would easily be a critic favorite for multiple Oscar 2015 nominations. But it could still happen. I give Ex_Machina $$$$ and I strongly recommend that folks see it soon.

David L. $Money Train$ Watts  •  FuTurXTV  •  HHBMedia.com  •  [email protected]  •  www.hhbmedia.com  •  David Velo Stewart