Review of Ex Machina (2015) by Kelly L — 26 Dec 2015

I was drawn into this movie within the first 5 minutes- the clinical style and sparseness of the cinematography, the characters of the bro-scientist who pumps weights & swigs beers to the nerdy coder (the protagonist), you feel something's definatly up with this film. If you're over 35 years old, you may remember this popular PC game by LucasFilms called "The Maniac Mansion". I thought of that game's main appeal (find & muddle your way through the doors) without the aliens when our leading character lands via a helicopter into the scientist's heavily secured palace. Let me be clear, Ex-Machina is an intelligent movie with plenty of things to think about our own society & our social interactions.

I sensed the homage to the S. Kubrik's cult classic "2001: the Space Odessy" at many moments in the film-what I like about it was that it knew it too and was openly comfortable with it. The slow intentional pacing, the soul-less sheen of the environment, and the creepiness of the machines (in female form). In the Space Odessy, HAL's voice was certainly a male, this film gives you a woman who spins you on your head with her desperation to be human. Both HAL & AVA (I guess any AI characters we've seen in the movies) want the liberty to live & survive-which provokes an interesting thought: if we humans build these machines in our own image and aspire them to become like us (out of science or vanity? why should we build to be like us in the first place??) then why get surprised when they don't inhibit the dark-side of our humanity?

Great performances by the actors who portrayed the eccentric (and definitely flawed) scientist, the nerdy leading man, and the android AVA. They were believable while the script going to dark places of the mind where you can classify this film as a thriller instead of sci-fi. There was moments of comedy in there too (thankfully to at least come up for some air) when the scientist shows off his disco moves one night-have to love that beard and darting eyes lol! Without giving anything away, certainly I love this type of movies where the true villain is not who you think it is until the end.