Ex Machina - Movie Review
1"Ex Machina" (2015) written and directed by Alex Garland is an A24 distributed film which was very impressive for it's time but has become slightly more difficult to fully appreciate properly since A.I. is such a common thing in today's world now. That being said it's still very strong, excelling in multiple areas.
Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) wins a company contest and gets invited for a one-week stay at the CEO's luxurious secluded home. The CEO is named Nathan (Oscar Isaac) and he's actually brought Caleb there for another reason. It is going to be Caleb's job to do a Turing test (A test which evaluates a machine's ability to pass as a human) on his secret A.I. he has been developing called Ava (Alicia Vikander). Ava has a hidden motive and she uses her ability to shut down the facility's power to achieve that goal, whilst Caleb begins to both fall in love with Ava and lose his mind.
Ex Machina is definitely worth a watch if you haven't seen it before. I would classify this as a "high art" film which contains some decent horror and sci-fi elements. The performances are great, Oscar Isaac being the best among them, he is truly creepy and narcissistic in this, and it makes for a great villain character. To be honest, and I say this as respectfully and tactfully as I can, even if you are initially off put by anything about this one, the entire thing is worth watching purely for the incredibly beautiful Alicia Vikander and her full frontal nude scene in this.
For negatives, first of all the character motivations and their thought processes can be a little confusing at times. Caleb rather abruptly self harms himself because he fears he may be an android himself, but I honestly found that very hard to believe especially considering he really is not one and I personally never thought for a second he could be one as there is nothing to indicate it whatsoever. Nathan's entire "plan" also makes no sense because he's planning to "kill" and upgrade Ava anyways, so I don't exactly know (the real reason) of why he's bringing another man to his facility, but I guess we can chalk that up to stupidness, pride in wanting to show his invention to someone else, or just being a drunken lonely man in general. Ava's strong urge of wanting to escape also doesn't entirely make sense to me because she is a program without emotions, but I suppose that's the point of the film, that A.I. can have their own conjured up thoughts, desires, and feelings.
Ex Machina is good but the logic is a bit weak and the novelty of A.I. has completely come and gone. Back in 2015 I probably would have given this one extra point but this will be my score for 2024 standards.
Video by Rainy Nights.
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