REVIEW: EX MACHINA
If you've stepped outside in the past month, or have consumed a beverage, gone on the internet or have generally been alive in the year of our lord Joss Whedon, then you will know another little robot movie has been getting quite the buzz. While that review is coming out in the next week or so, I'd like to serve up to you a little side dish of cerebral intelligence, a smaller movie that's gotten rave reviews and an expanded release date: Alex Garland's directorial debut Ex Machina.
Other movie critics have been very discreet in revealing the plot summary, but...I don't think so. This movie doesn't have a Fight Club type twist, but maybe if you don't think too hard about what the "twist" could be it'll come as a surprise to you. So I'll go ahead and give you the skinny: Domhnall Gleeson's Caleb is an intelligent programmer who works for Oscar Isaac's Blue Book, a Google-esque search engine, wins a lottery and is selected to come visit the reclusive genius. They meet and Isaac's Nathan begins to tell him about a creation of his that may change the world: an artificial intelligence robot that he wants Caleb to test out. All he has to do is determine whether the AI has truly evolved past its robotic creations, and can emote real human feelings.
I think that's a good place to leave off, to get the eager movie-goer's tongue wagging. I avoided trailers like the plague because I expected that big twist, but from what I hear they're deceiving. This is probably the studio's way of marketing a really quiet, thoughtful sci-fi movie pushed forward more with dialogue and big ideas than explosions and gunfights. Little violence occurs, it's all (gasp) characters interacting with each other and discussing, mostly, the idea of artificial intelligence. And while you don't get as much backstory as you do with Caleb, Isaac certainly has the movie's most interesting role. Here's a boy genius (he developed the code for Blue Book when he was 13) who has probably an equivalent of money as Mark Zuckerberg who's grown up lonely, possibly burdened by an intelligence and now he takes it out on himself with drink. Gleeson gets the job done as Caleb, but his performance is could use a little more energy at times. Sometimes he's too calm, and even an advanced programmer like himself would be freaking out at the chance to go an eccentric billionaire's mansion to test out his new toy that's going to change the face of technology.
It is Alicia Vikander who has the breakout role here, as Ava, Nathan's creation who slowly begins building a relationship with Caleb. She doesn't just stiffen her joints and look out at the world with dead eyes. She feels like an automaton acting like a human, like it's inches away from her reach. Speaking of breakthroughs, I need to end this review with a discussion on what might be my favorite part of this movie: the score. Not since The Social Network have I been so engrossed in music, there are parts where Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow's pulsing electronic soundtrack had me gripping my armchair and nearly sweating with anxiety over a cinematic moment. Like the film itself it's light and futuristic in one scene, and heart-pulsing intensity in the next. If you just like music buy the soundtrack to Ex Machina, if you want what is sure to be one of the year's best science fiction think pieces, go see the movie before it disappears.
Rating: 3.5/4 stars
Other movie critics have been very discreet in revealing the plot summary, but...I don't think so. This movie doesn't have a Fight Club type twist, but maybe if you don't think too hard about what the "twist" could be it'll come as a surprise to you. So I'll go ahead and give you the skinny: Domhnall Gleeson's Caleb is an intelligent programmer who works for Oscar Isaac's Blue Book, a Google-esque search engine, wins a lottery and is selected to come visit the reclusive genius. They meet and Isaac's Nathan begins to tell him about a creation of his that may change the world: an artificial intelligence robot that he wants Caleb to test out. All he has to do is determine whether the AI has truly evolved past its robotic creations, and can emote real human feelings.
I think that's a good place to leave off, to get the eager movie-goer's tongue wagging. I avoided trailers like the plague because I expected that big twist, but from what I hear they're deceiving. This is probably the studio's way of marketing a really quiet, thoughtful sci-fi movie pushed forward more with dialogue and big ideas than explosions and gunfights. Little violence occurs, it's all (gasp) characters interacting with each other and discussing, mostly, the idea of artificial intelligence. And while you don't get as much backstory as you do with Caleb, Isaac certainly has the movie's most interesting role. Here's a boy genius (he developed the code for Blue Book when he was 13) who has probably an equivalent of money as Mark Zuckerberg who's grown up lonely, possibly burdened by an intelligence and now he takes it out on himself with drink. Gleeson gets the job done as Caleb, but his performance is could use a little more energy at times. Sometimes he's too calm, and even an advanced programmer like himself would be freaking out at the chance to go an eccentric billionaire's mansion to test out his new toy that's going to change the face of technology.It is Alicia Vikander who has the breakout role here, as Ava, Nathan's creation who slowly begins building a relationship with Caleb. She doesn't just stiffen her joints and look out at the world with dead eyes. She feels like an automaton acting like a human, like it's inches away from her reach. Speaking of breakthroughs, I need to end this review with a discussion on what might be my favorite part of this movie: the score. Not since The Social Network have I been so engrossed in music, there are parts where Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow's pulsing electronic soundtrack had me gripping my armchair and nearly sweating with anxiety over a cinematic moment. Like the film itself it's light and futuristic in one scene, and heart-pulsing intensity in the next. If you just like music buy the soundtrack to Ex Machina, if you want what is sure to be one of the year's best science fiction think pieces, go see the movie before it disappears.
Rating: 3.5/4 stars
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