Review of Ex Machina (2015) by Ian F — 28 Nov 2015

The woman always picks. This is true of mammals. The equations of evolution select fitness over all other variables for procreation of the species. Hence, no male mecha. A female however has all of the advantages of manipulation at her disposal in order to survive.

Nathan builds only females, and he programs them to survive. Hence they are behind glass prisons at his estate in order to prevent them from controlling anything. Kyoko is programmed to take direction and not to survive.

This film does not pose the question "is Ava sentient ? " because Ava is very clearly not conscious. She cannot produce art, she does not realize time (she says she is one, when asked her age but does not understand time units of years when asked).

There are many such clues in the film that Ava is a program, a very special survival program. The big question people ask me is "why does the helicopter pilot allow her on board ? " The answer is that the pilot was instructed by Nathan to only allow her on board.

It was Nathan's plan to set her free to interact with humans so that she would learn about time from entropy and power loss. The power losses in the film are deliberate devices to recognize that the only way that Ava will realize time is if she controls her own power.

On the outside she must be able to innovate and manipulate the world to obtain power. This film has many themes: beauty and the beast, Frankenstein, and Prometheus are the most obvious. The great symbol of this film is Pollock's painting called "No.

5." Pure creative energy splattered onto a canvas: the ultimate test of humanity; can the mind experience the infinite beauty of pure art ? The egoist chess game between Caleb (the patsy) and Nathan (the genius) shows the stupidity of male dominance whilst competing for the attention of the female.

Nathan commits suicide by allowing his survival program to out smart him. In a way Nathan got everything he wanted from Ava. Ava instructs Kyoto to bring her the knife that ultimately ends Nathan. Caleb was never supposed to exit the estate.

Nathan allowed Caleb to be manipulated by Ava's survival program and intended Caleb to be defeated by Ava. Ava is number 1 because she is by far the most important element of the Nathan's equation of evolution for the mecha.

She is the first to leave the estate fully armed to survive and only a woman as beautiful as Ava has the power to manipulate mankind. This movie is sci-fi at its best. The film A.I. is Spielberg's existential vision of sentient mecha.

However Ex_Machina is not addressing the question of consciousness. The film pretends to address the question of consciousness, just as Ava pretends to be conscious. A perfectly balanced metaphor. Five star film.

Most critics knew the film was great but did not understand it as I have. That is a good thing because art should not be seen as one sided. Art takes on the beauty in the eye of only the beholder.