Review of Ex Machina (2015) by Yorkman — 15 Jan 2016

Ex Machina is film that tries to be too clever for its own good. The premise is simple enough...

Guy working for a big 'search engine' style company "wins" a competition to spend time with the company's mysterious and God-like CEO at his top secret research facility/retreat.

Upon arriving he discovers the CEO is an incredibly eccentric man, overbearing, aggressive, drinking heavily and using stimulants to 'recover' the morning after.

The guy is introduced to the CEO's latest and most far-reaching idea. Artificial Intelligence, a digital consciousness drawn from the billions of inputs made into the company's search engines and refined into an adaptive algorithm.

This consciousness is personified into a robot, a stunningly attractive female robot (naturally), and the guy is asked to go in and interact with it/her and discover any flaws in how she reacts/responds. The idea being whether she possesses the capability to mimic human responses and whether it can constitute emotional depth in what is a purely digital/binary construct.

As the film progresses it becomes clear the CEO has some mental instability issues, and there is a darker, more subversive rationale for why he seeks the answers.

The guy becomes the one developing emotional contexts, to the point where he has to 'help' the robot escape the limitations of a couple of rooms in this way out in the middle of nowhere facility.

And the robot? Is she mimicking the deviousness and instability of the CEO, whilst developing a deeper sense of empathy for the guy? Is she the one who is manipulating them both???

The three stars of the film play disparate characters.

Oscar Isaac plays the CEO and billionaire Nathan Bateman, heavily bearded and over the top, his performance is probably the nearest to being 'by the book', the depth coming at the beginning of the movie as he monologues about the idea of AI and the infinite possibilities that could exist.

Domhnall Gleeson plays programmer Caleb Smith, the 'nobody' who is plucked from his desk and and computer to 'work' on assessing the AI and how it learns and reacts. His performance is more muted, and bridges the middle part of the film.

Alicia Vikander plays Ava, the robot with the latest version of Bateman's AI. Clearly the standout acting part of the movie she captures both the innocence and naivety of what is a 'new' life-form, whilst also trying to hide her own insecurities and sense of self preservation.

In terms of film-making, it's well directed and scored. The cinematography is also excellent, with fantastic use of different techniques to produce the fantastic visual effects. As the (debut) Director and screenwriter, Alex Garland's desire to translate his own thoughts and ideas onto the Big Screen does resonate throughout, and this is also highlighted by the great performances from everyone in the film, not just the three 'stars'.

However, for everything that is great about the movie, it's all undone by a muddled script. Great story and screenplay are all for nought if what is being conveyed in the words people are speaking either makes little or no sense, or relies on vague explanations that don't give you an insight into the characters thought process.

OK, we're not talking about something as hapless as 'The Architect' and his nonsensical monologue at the end of Matrix Reloaded, but it's a lack of consistency in both expositional and character developmental dialogue that I found difficult to accept.

It just uses the 'catch all' trope of creating a scenario that exists to facilitate the movie, rather than the movie facilitating a means for something creative and thought-provoking to exist. Which was very disappointing indeed.

Overall, it is an interesting film in that you approach a well worn path from a different direction. Alicia Vikander lights up the screen whenever she appears on it. And the twist ending ties up all the loose ends nicely, and leaves open a possibility for a potential sequel.