Ex Machina (2015)

[TNGTony]

[CONTAINER][MOVIE1]Title: Ex Machina

Tagline: There is nothing more human than the will to survive

Genre: [GENRE]Drama[/GENRE], [GENRE]Science Fiction[/GENRE]

Director: [DIRECTOR]Alex Garland[/DIRECTOR]

Cast: [ACTOR]Domhnall Gleeson[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Oscar Isaac[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Alicia Vikander[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Corey Johnson[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Sonoya Mizuno[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Claire Selby[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Symara A. Templeman[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Gana Bayarsaikhan[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Tiffany Pisani[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Elina Alminas[/ACTOR]

Release Date: [RELEASE]2015-01-21[/RELEASE]

Runtime: [RUNTIME]108[/RUNTIME]

Plot: [PLOT]Caleb, a 24 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.[/PLOT][/MOVIE1][POSTER1]

[/POSTER1][/CONTAINER]

 

[TNGTony]

I am still trying to digest the story of "Ex Machina". It is another movie that shows me that we are in the age of the "real" sci-fi movie. Another really well produced movie that deals in science fiction without need of aliens, space ships, moon bases, or flying cars; fantasies sold as science fiction. Simply put science fiction is a fictitious story about real science or extrapolations of current scientific fields of discovery. Star Wars was/is fantasy from the first words on the screen to the moment the princess bestows medals to the heroes that rescued her. As enjoyable as it is, it is still a fantasy by definition. A fantasy set in space with space weapons and space ships-- a fantasy in a futuristic setting (that happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away) but a fantasy non-the less.

"Ex Machina" is a sci-fi movie about artificial intelligence. This is the kind of story I have only read and never seen in film. It was a wholly new experience. Unlike Spielberg's amazingly bad movie AI, this movie explores how one can tell if something is truly intelligent or whether its responding to a sequence of code.
The movie takes place in the recognizable future (no flying cars). There are whiz-bang gadgets, but other than the AI/Android itself, it is something that would not be out of place today.
The movie takes place inside a secluded house owned by a gazilionaire who invented the AI. ...a brilliant coder who developed a great search engine everyone uses like Google. The name of the company is "Blue Book". I can't be sure, but I think it is more than coincidence that this is also the name the U.S. Air Force used for it's program to check out the validity of UFO and Alien encounters reported in the 1960s,
Throughout the entire movie, a young coder who won a contest to administer the Turing Test* is trying to figure out if this new program inside an android is truly intelligent, or just responding along the set of parameters of an intricate program. But the story takes a turn, After a short while you are not sure who is being tested. The movie becomes a puzzle. Which of the characters is really under the microscope? Who is manipulating whom? The movie becomes a psychological thriller. Thriller here does not describe any action, because there is precious little action. There doesn't need to be any. The situation carries the story just fine.
I cannot go into detail without giving the story away. However I found the ending was unsatisfying. One of the characters is able to manipulate his/her/its way. The end.

In some ways the movie is too predictable. Some of the situations are obvious. Some of the devices too convenient. Some of the motivations too transparent. But all in all, still kept me glued to the screen until the big reveal. I was at once surprised and not surprised at what came about. I found some of the actions at the end completely unnecessary. Either the director did not lay the foundation for the ultimate ending to one character's story or the action was unnecessary.
I know this is cryptic, but it is the basis for my ultimate dislike of the movie. The rest of the movie is fantastic in the say it tells a very complicated story in very few words, and with a limited picture pallet.

I still recommend this movie. It is really well worth watching. Due to its subject matter, presentation, and some situations, it's not suitable for those under 13.
_____
*Turing test is named after Alan Turing (the Imitation Game) who first proposed a way to tell if a machine was intelligent in 1951.

 

[SignalHill]

I enjoyed it

 

[mike123abc]

I liked it, and will probably watch it again.

 

[. Raine]

Some stuff was like TNGTony said, very predictable, but it was still good.