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Usually after watching something amazing, I'm left with a feeling of mediocrity or disappointment with the next movie I decide to watch, whether it's at home or in the theatre.
Luckily, Ex Machina continued my little streak of films and does so in a fantastic fashion.
Ex Machina is an indie film that focuses on the social consequences of Artificial Intelligence. It features a small cast with a very (for the lack of a better term) 'real' scenario. On top of that, Ex Machina wasn't released world wide simultaneously, slowly coming out to select areas over the course of two months. Movies like this don't tend to do well in the box office, at least initially, but word of mouth will carry it to success. But you know what, that's ok. Unlike big box office smash hits like Avengers, Ex Machina isn't looking to simply entertain or make the big bucks, it's offering a very in depth look at an important issue. In a sense, Ex Machina is attempting to be art and provoke conversation.
Needless to say I believe it does this very well. Debates about artificial intelligence have been quite common in research institution and throughout many different forms of media and subjects of study. Because of this, Ex Machine may not be the first to tackle the subject of A.I. but it's perhaps the best example of it in film. The only other film that I can think of that made me think deeply about A.I. was Her, another excellent film about human relationships with A.I.
Unlike Her, Ex Machina focuses less on romance and relationships and rather on the general idea of what makes an A.I. truly intelligent.
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| Subtle body language helped with characterization. There was so much to find out about a character even if they've only been on screen for 5 minutes |
Ex Machina features 3 main cast members/characters. We have Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) who's a lucky contest winner and employee of the mega corporation Bluebook (think Google) who wins a chance of a lifetime to spend a week with the companies owner Nathan (Oscar Isaac). Nathan lives in seclusion and is working on creating the worlds first artificial intelligence. Upon arrival of Nathans secluded mountain range getaway, Nathan informs Caleb that he'll be interacting with his latest A.I. named Ava (Alicia Vikander) in hopes of her passing the Turing Test and officially marking her as a legitimate intelligence.
Without spoiling anything, Ex Machina takes the audience on a ride full of paranoia, deception, and philosophy. Pacing is done extremely well, with enough time between pivotal moments (in the case of the movie, sessions) to think about the concepts introduced each time Caleb talks to Nathan and then moves on to talk to Ava. There's enough time between these sessions to build up tension and suspense. What will happen in the next session? Will Nathan's ideas and concepts go unheeded by Caleb? Does Caleb consider Ava to be a real person? A flood of questions will come to you as you watch the film. This I believe is it's greatest strength, it's ability to keep the audience engrossed at all times.
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| My favourite scenes consist of Caleb and Nathan talking to each other |
Acting from all 3 major cast members is across the board phenomenal. Oscar Isaac as Nathan steals the show for me, successfully portraying himself as the modern genius while at the same time providing a sinister undertone to throw the audience off track. Every scene he's in kept me interested and much more engaged than others. I was more interested to hear what Nathan had to say about A.I. than the conversations between Caleb and Ava.
This is by no means a criticism of the 'session' scenes. Here, Alicia Vikander demonstrates her acting prowess by superbly capturing the movements of a robot. Her facial expressions and general speech placed Ava in such an uncanny place that I could have sworn she was an actual robot. It might not sound hard to mimic robotic movements, but it's definitely a feat to make the movements look like a mix between man and machine. Congratulations Alicia Vikander on this stunning performance.
Lastly we have Domnhall Gleesons performance. While in my opinion the weakest of the three, it was still a great performance. His portrayal of Caleb as an eager employee of Nathan was believable. His speech, his delivery, his expressions as he converses with Ava...all of it was believable. Though Caleb is personally my most disliked character, I believe it's thanks to Gleesons performance that made me dislike the character. It's not a criticism of his performance, but instead of praise of how well he portrayed him.
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| Excellent framing was a highlight of Ex Machina's cinemetography |
I do have a couple of small gripes with the film. They're focused on certain characters and several small plot holes that bugged me. I can't go into detail here due to spoilers, but they definitely bugged me enough for me to talk about it. Overall, they don't detract from the overall film, they're just several discrepancies that should be taken into account. After all, no movie is perfect and even the best directors will end up making mistakes or cutting corners. Thankfully, the plot holes in Ex Machina were nowhere near disaster level nor were they comparable to some of the worst offenders out there (I'm looking at you Prometheus).
All in all, I thouroughly enjoyed Ex Machina. It's cast and story are deffinitely some of the best I've got to experience in 2015 thus far and along with an emotionally stirring sound track and some impressive special effects, I believe Ex Machina has a sure fire shot at winning several awards this year.
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| A less subtle cinematographic method consisted of colour changes to scenes, mirroring the tone that takes place during each scene |
Verdict: 4.5/5
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