Working at the largest tech company on the planet, Caleb Smith, a programmer, wins a competition to spend a week at the private estate of the company's brilliant CEO, Nathan. When he arrives, Caleb quickly realizes he is there to serve a purpose, with Nathan informing him that he will be the human-component in a Turing Test, asking Caleb to evaluate his latest Artificial Intelligence, ultimately deciding if the AI has a consciousness. The artificial intelligence is Eva, a hyper-advanced machine with the capabilities to show emotion and sophistication. Alex Garland's Ex-Machine is a beautiful-looking piece of Science Fiction thats best attributes revolve around the mystery, tone, and atmosphere the film creates. Alex Garland pumps this film with a tone of intrigue and mystery, relying heavily on the performance of Oscar Isaac as Nathan, a wise decision. I cannot write enough about how important to the film Oscar Isaac is, being a truly impressive performance that is subtlely brilliant at creating a character that is equal parts funny, charming, mysterious, and completely unpredictable. Ex-Machina is certainly one of the more interesting and intelligent science fiction films to come around in some time, a beautiful film that never relies solely on its visuals but rather its dialogue to create its ideas. The film essentially develops into a pupil vs. master power struggle between Caleb and Nathan, using these two programmers to develop one of the more interesting thematic conversations in recent cinema about consciousness and what it means to be human. Ex-Machina is interesting because it isn't scared to bring up a host of ideas centered around humanities relationship with technology, whether it be related to privacy or artificial intelligence. While I'd have a hard time saying I disliked Ex-Machina the film does come off the rails a bit in its climax, feeling incredibly rushed with its two-fold double-cross that simply doesn't fit the rest of the film's quiet intrigue and manipulation. The film's emotionaly climax is centered around Eva, which is a tough sell, and in the climax I didn't care too much about her freedom, though how she got there is what does work. Probably my favorite aspect of the entire film is how Garland plays with human kind's penchant for selfish manipulation, with Nathan, Caleb, and even Eva all being characters with their own agendas. One could make an argument that Ex Machina beautifully and brilliantly uses the debate of AI consciousness to comment on the selfishness of man, with Eva gaining her freedom after learning how to be selfish and manipulative from her human counterparts. While the film isn't perfect, Alex Garland's Ex Machine is a fascinating piece of science fiction that isn't afraid to tackle a host of ideas related to man's relationship with technology
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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