EX MACHINA (2015)
Directed by Alex
Garland
DNA Films/A24, 108
minutes, R (language, nudity)
* * *
Alex Garland doesn't foresee a rosy future. Ex Machina marks his directorial debut,
but previously he has written scripts for dystopian future films such as 28 Days Later (a killer virus), Never Let Me Go (organ harvesting from
clones), and Dredd (cops with
instant-sentencing powers). But then, a guy whose heroes include Wittgenstein,
Ray Kurzweil, Stanley Kubrick, and post-apocalyptic video games can't really be
expected to be a rosy-eyed optimist, can he?
Ex Machina derives
its name from the Greek drama device deus
ex machina in which gods made their appearance by being lowered onto the
stage by cranes. When gods appeared, it was seldom a good thing for mere
mortals. Neither was it a good thing when hubris
struck, that reckoning for arrogant pride in which humans behave in ways
reserved for deities. This film takes us to a not-so-distant future in which a
corporate entity called Bluebook (!) has perfected data mining. Caleb (Domhnall
Gleeson—Bill Weasley in the Harry Potter films) is doing coding for Bluebook,
when his screen flashes with the exciting news that he has been chosen to spend
a week with Bluebook's reclusive CEO, Nathan (Oscar Isaac, last seen in Inside Llewyn Davis). So it's a
helicopter ride deep into Norway's mountain glades to hang out with Nathan.
The character of Nathan is a mash of Facebook's Mark
Zuckerberg and Google's Larry Page–that is, equal parts genius and sociopath.
Nathan's keycard-activated/security camera-heavy compound is remote for a
reason: he's a misanthrope alone in his sprawling eco-paradise except for a
housekeeper/sex partner named Kyoko (Sonya Mizuno), who speaks no English. He
is unsure whom (if anyone) he can trust with a big secret: his advanced
experiments in AI (Artificial Intelligence). How advanced? Caleb is allegedly
on site to see if his prototype, Ava (Alicia Vikander) can pass the Turing
Test. Fans of Blade Runner will
recognize the Turing Test as the method by which one is supposed to be able to
determine if a being is an android or fully human. Nathan is so confident of
his creation that only Ava's face and hands are humanoid in appearance—the rest
of her comely body is a see-through frame of sensors, circuitry, and machine
parts. That setup has drawn comparisons to Frankenstein,
which is mostly apt, though Ava is essentially Star Trek's Mr. Data with the elusive emotion chip in place. Like Frankenstein, though, we suspect
something more sinister is afoot and that hubris
will rear its head.
Ex Machina is psychologically
tense and stylish. It's also very claustrophobic, though, as most of it unfolds
within Nathan's sterile retreat, especially its clean rooms and windowless
areas. There are reasons for this that make plot sense, but we the viewers
often feel as if we need some fresh air. The acting is good, though Isaac's
dark side is way too obvious and Gleeson overplays the naïf role. Score two for
the ladies, as both Vikander and Mizuno make the best of what they are given.
The script is rather male-centric, though again there are plot reasons that
make internal sense.
Ex Machina
garnered decent reviews and it doubled its $15 million price tag, but it
stalled as a sci-fi niche film in both the US and UK markets–perhaps because
Gleeson lacks star power, or perhaps because such a film invites comparisons to
the vastly superior Blade Runner or the
heart-thumping action of I, Robot. Or maybe it's because we can too easily
infer where deus ex machina and hubris will take us. At heart it's about
whether, metaphorically speaking, we are building a better hammer or if,
literally, we are planting the seeds of human destruction. And don't we all
love our little electronic buddies too much to consider the second option?
Rob Weir
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