Danger, danger, artificial intelligence approaching!
Featuring
| Domhnall Gleeson as Caleb Smith |
| Alicia Vikander as Ava |
| Oscar Isaac as Nathan Bateman |
| and Sonoya Mizuno as Kyoko |
Every once in a while, a movie about artificial intelligence is made. Sometimes, they bring the wrath of Skynet down on us, others show us enslaved in a gestational pod. Other times, it’s a much more personal story, like the little kid from AI or Bicentennial Man. This latest effort,the small budget Ex Machina is like the latter type.
Caleb Smith works for Bluebook, a fictional conglomerate of Faceplant, Google and Apple as a programmer. He wins an internal competition where he gets to spend a week with the CEO of Bluebook, Nathan Bateman in his remote mountain home.
However, not all is as it seems in the Bateman household. The reason Caleb is there is to perform a Turing Test on a new artificial intelligence Nathan has built, called Ava. The tests are all to see whether Ava has true intelligence, or whether she is just a really sophisticated logic program.
For a movie with only four characters in it, including Kyoko the maid, Ex Machina makes the most of the well selected cast. Caleb is the awkward computer programmer, Nathan the smarmy tech CEO with an awesome beard and Ava the futuristic, sexy, artificial intelligence.
Now, I know that a lot of really positive reviews about this movie are floating around out there, and deservedly so. However, some of them might be overselling the product a little, by labelling it as a psychological thriller. It’s not really thrilling given its pacing, but it is quite an interesting study into the possible psyche of an artificial intelligence, but then, you could have done the same movie with a human being as well.
Ex Machina is a very well made movie about a character study into an artificial intelligence’s motivations and desires. It’s not a fast paced movie, and is quite a satisfying slow burn, but tends to fall just a little short in its conclusion. By all means, give the movie a try.
Rating
Good, solid AI disaster movie.
Watch this if you…
Enjoy a slightly dark and moody character study into something we probably won’t ever understand.
Don’t watch this if you…
Are expecting Arnold Schwarzeneggar.
Typed by McMoron 