A smart, low-budget science fiction film with something profound to say about humanity? Yes please.
Being a first time directorial effort from Alex Garland, Ex Machina is a very impressive film in all departments. Ex Machina tells the story of Caleb, who wins an online contest allowing him to travel to the secluded home of Nathan, the CEO of the world's most popular search engine. Here, he is tasked to perform the "Turing test" on an artificial intelligence Ava, to see whether or not she has a human consciousness. From then on, Ex Machina has some very profound and interesting things to say about modern technology, the nature vs. nurture debate, respecting one's own creation as well as what makes us human.
Ex Machina is a slow burning movie with tension which develops from the outset. Alex Garland allowed the tension to develop so naturally via his assured direction. It is for sure a movie with a slow pace, which works most of the time. It is slowly paced in the sense that while most scenes lead to an increase in tension or a quiet moment of character development, sometimes it takes a while to get there. There are a few scenes where it doesn't really amount to anything, which hurt the movie in terms of its pacing. But for the most part, I had a great time with Ex Machina. I like movies which make you think as an audience member, which is the biggest compliment I can give to any film.
I loved the way Garland directed this movie and most specificially how he utilised the location. Despite being located in beautiful countryside with expansive fields and beautiful flowing waterfalls, Nathan's house still feels incredibly cold, sterile and isolated.
However, Ex Machina is also really good because of its characters and the actors chosen to play them. Domnhall Gleeson played Caleb really well. Caleb, as a character, really hit the balance between being smart and intelligent alongside being socially awkward and emotionally confused. His performance was very convincing, and while his character's development is handled in a very obvious way, it still worked for the film. You feel as if Caleb actually develops as a person as the film goes on, and by the end of the film you will really care about him considering how much you know about him.
The best character in the movie was by far Oscar Isaac's Nathan simply because he was so hard to read. He's smart, eccentric, direct, he likes to drink, he likes to exercise, he's manipulative and at times aggressive. He is all of those things at once, like a real human being. That's what I liked about Ex Machina so much; the complexity of the characters. They felt like real human beings to me and that's down to the actors portrayal plus the attention to detail given in the script which allowed us audience members to latch on to characters who were very well fleshed out.
I can't finish the review without talking about Alicia Vikander, who played the AI Ava. While it would've been easy for her to act like a typical robot, Alicia added some very human perks to her performance. As a result, you as an audience member can constantly change you mind about whether or not Ava could pass as a human being.
The acting performances are all great as are the characters and Alex Garland's tension-geared direction. At times it has a slow pace, but for the majority of the time Ex Machina is an intriguing sci-fi which engages you and makes you think about the very nature of humanity. I liked the twist at the end of the film, but thought the very end was a little bit predictable. To talk about this, I will need to dive into some spoilers. You have been warned.
-----------------------------------------EX MACHINA SPOILERS-----------------------------------------------
It turns out that Caleb never won a competition, he was selected purposefully by Nathan. The role Caleb was supposed to play was never to perform a Turing test on Ava, in fact Caleb was the variable that was being experimented on. Nathan wanted to see if Ava could manipulate Caleb for her own self interests, by making Caleb want to help her escape. This reveal was a fantastic plot twist which made perfect sense in accordance to the rest of the film. It was an effective twist.
We the find out that Caleb had reprogrammed the security systems the night before meaning Ava was able to escape. Teaming up with Kyoko (who turned out to be an AI, which I was a fan of as I'm glad her character wasn't simply a loose end of the plot), Ava kills Nathan with no remorse or guilt. After fully dressing herself and looking like a human, she leaves Nathan's house with Caleb trapped inside, again with no guilt or remorse. For Caleb, his character arc ended in tragedy. Ava had been manipulating with his emotions from the very beginning and Caleb had become attached emotionally to Ava, like a real human being. Ava had simply been using Caleb as a means of escape.
Where Nathan ultimately failed was that he didn't respect the intelligence of his own creation, which led to his demise. Ava then boards the helicopter and the last shot sees her walk amongst other human beings in a public place. This shot was great as it focused only on Ava's and other people's shadows, metaphorically suggesting that Ava does in fact possess a human consciousness like those around her. But, this finale was quite a predictable one.
However there is still some ambiguity with the very end. In the film, Nathan and Caleb are discussing how there is a difference between a machine pretending to have human emotion and a machine which actually does possess these qualities. We don't know if this is the case with Ava. We know she spends the film trying to emotionally connect with Caleb so she can use him to aid her escape. But when she leaves, she leaves Caleb behind to die feeling no guilt or remorse. Were those feelings real? We are left to ponder the answer.
----------------------------------------END OF EX MACHINA SPOILERS-------------------------------------
Ex Machina is definitely a film to watch if you want something engaging and immersive. I had a great time watching it.
Rating - B+
Thanks for reading,
Matt
No comments:
Post a Comment