Ex Machina

I was going to see Chappie a few weeks ago, but I ended up not going because I read that the movie… didn’t quite deliver what I wanted.

So, instead, I saw Ex Machina. What did I think about it? Hm…

Just a fair notice: unlike previous reviews, I’m keeping the spoiler part separate. If you want to read that and my speculations, it will be in a spoiler tag near the bottom before the final rating. Enjoy.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Caleb, a skilled programmer, wins a contest to work with the esteemed programmer, eccentric genius, drunk, recluse, and creator of not-Google, Nathan, who lives in his high-tech lab far from the civilized world. Once there, Caleb learns that Nathan has created a robot – Ava – with true artificial intelligence. Caleb’s purpose is to test the robot in order to determine whether it truly passes the Turing Test. During the test, Caleb begins to question Nathan’s intentions and what Nathan has in store for his creation should she fail the test.

This is a movie with, essentially, four actors – only three of whom actually speak. With such a small cast, your attention will be drawn to the bad actors, which will bring the movie down. That said, the actors… they all did an amazing job. I have absolutely no complaints. Everyone played the characters that they were supposed to play superbly.

Nathan (Oscar Isaac) is extremely relaxed and seemingly open. The fact that he comes across as so genuine makes you seriously question the man’s motives. Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) comes across as the intelligent, yet naïve individual that he is. Nathan and Caleb work well together; beneath the playfulness, the friendliness, and scientific discussions, there is always something dark under the surface. Ava (Alicia Vikander) managers to appear innocently… cold? I don’t know how else to describe her. But it works, and her acting is not stiff. She manages to be emotional and unemotional at the same time, with subtle facial movements during conversations.

I read that this is the director’s (Alex Garland) first time directing a film. In that case… bravo. This was marvelously directed. He also wrote this movie, and it shows: the pacing is great; there is tremendous tension with… nothing happening. Scenes involving nothing come across as incredibly tense, because you begin to sit and ponder like the protagonist. The flow of the movie feels great – there was never a moment when I felt bored, or that a scene was unnecessary; in fact, I feel that there will be some interesting deleted scenes on the DVD.

The movie clearly had a low budget, but that is not a bad thing. It utilizes space well; it makes use of the house / lab and the surrounding mountains. Also, despite the low budget, I really liked the CGI in this movie. Ava looked really good in most of the scenes. There were some… weird moments toward the end regarding the CGI, but still. It was nice.

I’m a sucker for philosophy and discussion of linguistic theory… so yeah… this movie pulled me in with that stuff. I like hearing about how language evolution works and the theories behind the relation between language and reality.

Spoilers are as follows. Skip past it to the rating.

This is… this is what I wanted. It’s more than I wanted, in fact. I expect great things from the director/writer and the actors in this film.

This gets a solid 9/10 from me.