Lately we have been getting a lot of movies that are discussing the ideas behind what will happen when we finally discover artificial intelligence. One has to wonder if that is because we are so close to it. Some researches say we are only a few years if not decades away. Other researches say we are still a good one or two hundred years away. Either way a lot of people are deathly afraid of the idea of androids walking among us and it’s nice to see movies exploring this sci-fi idea which may not even be sci-fi for very much longer. Ex Machina is a perfect example of this new trend of exploring ideas behind artificial intelligence.
Ex Machina is about a young 26 year old programmer named Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) who wins a contest to go spend a week with his company’s founder Nathan (Oscar Isaac) on his estate which is isolated far into the mountains. When Caleb arrives at Nathan’s estate he is told by Nathan that he is there to evaluate a female A.I. named Ava (Alicia Vikander) in a Turing test-like experiment. Things go okay at first and Caleb is ecstatic for the opportunity, but he also notices that Nathan is a bit more than just an eccentric billionaire tech entrepreneur. Something about Nathan rubs Caleb the wrong way and he starts to question the reasons for him being there.
The biggest reason this movie works is the cast. Oscar Isaac is becoming one of my favorite actors. After I watched his performance in Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) I knew he was one to watch. He is right up there with other great modern actors such as Michael Fassbender and Tom Hardy. The character Nathan he plays here is sort of a new age Steve Jobs type of guy who drinks too much and compensates for that by detoxing and working out a lot. We can tell right away that Nathan is narcissistic and thinks of himself an alpha-male physically and intellectually, but there is also a feeling that he doesn’t get along with others hence why his house is really secluded from society.
Domhnall Gleeson’s character of Caleb is kind of the opposite of Nathan. He seems to be much more compassionate although we don’t know too much about him until a bit into the movie. We learn a bit about the character’s background through his conversations with Ava. Just like Oscar Isaac, Gleeson is another actor who has been impressing me. I’ve never seen his work on the Harry Potter movies, but he gave a really good performance in last year’s Frank which co-starred the aforementioned Michael Fassbender. The cast is pretty restricted considering there are only three main characters, but all three of them thrive in their performances making the movie that much better.
Ex Machina is interesting and makes you think although it isn’t so complicated that it would turn off a wide audience. I think what will turn off the wide audience though is that the pace of this movie is deliberately slow. I was okay with it being slow and I even liked where the movie went, but it didn’t quite live up to the expectations I had for it. Sure the movie talks about artificial intelligence in an interesting way, but it doesn’t quite take the concept anywhere we haven’t seen it before.
After having watched the trailer for this movie I instantly thought of a twist that they might do. Watching a lot of movies I automatically start to think of different twists because it feels like I’ve seen them all. Fortunately in Ex Machina they don’t do the obvious twist although they cleverly tease it. The movie is paced in a way that you kind of feel this dread seeping in slowly throughout the movie. That isn’t surprising since the writer and first time director of the Ex Machina is Alex Garland who also wrote other really good movies like 28 Days Later (2002) and Sunshine (2007). Ex Machina is a really good movie although I can’t say it is as good as either of those two movies.
Dave’s Rating- ★★★★(4) out of ★★★★★(5)
