Ex Machina

Rating: 8/10 (13 February 2015)

This was the directorial debut for established screenplay writer Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later, Never Let Me Go, Dredd), and hearing about the film and seeing trailers and clips I had idea of the concept for this film, so I was looking forward to seeing it. Basically young computer coder Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson, Brendan's son) wins a competition to spend a week at the secluded woodland house of Nathan (Inside Llewyn Davis's Oscar Isaac), search engine creator and the CEO of the company he works for, the house is made up of many automated and computer controlled systems, Caleb is given a key card that will open most doors, and before doing anything he must sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement). Nathan wants Caleb to treat him like he was a friend, but their relationship is awkward and tense, during the week Nathan wants him to carry out an experiment, his own version of the 'Turing Test', a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human, and the subject is his humanoid artificial intelligence robotic creation called 'Ava' (BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated Alicia Vikander). Ava is a face, hands and feet of flesh, but the rest of her body is clearly that of a cyborg/robot/android, the test is to see, while being filmed on CCTV, how realistic the human interaction between Ava and Caleb, whether she can express true feelings and emotions though being a machine. At some points there are blackouts, where the power goes down, as does the CCTV filming, it is then that Ava tells Caleb that he should not trust Nathan, while drunk as he often is Nathan tells that these blackouts happen regularly and he is looking into it, it is later revealed during a blackout that it is Ava causing them to happen, to allow private conversation and off the record interaction. Over the sessions they have together Caleb and Ava bond, she wants to appear more human and dresses in clothing, despite possibly developing feelings for her Caleb believes he is being tricked, he think Ava has been programmed to flirt with him, Nathan proves that she is controlled by her own impulses with a self- evolving brain. One day while helping Nathan in his drunken state Caleb stumbles CCTV footage of him with Ava, he appears being abusive towards her, Caleb asks him what he will to do with Ava if the test fails, Nathan says he will "update" her, the result being her memory will be wiped, Caleb is upset. With Nathan drunk and passed out again he uses his key card to access his laboratory, he is shocked to find evidence of other female AI creations, both deactivated and destroyed, he realises non-English speaking Japanese assistant Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno) is a robot as well. In their final meeting together Caleb asks Ava to create a power cut, during this he tells her he plans for them to escape together, the next day Nathan confirms the week is ending the following day and he will be picked up by helicopter, Caleb wants to get Nathan drunk, but he refuses a drink, and worse he reveals that he placed a hidden battery operated camera in Ava's room, he knows about the escape plan, Nathan also admits Ava was programmed based on Caleb's internet search history, he also says that she is not truly in love with him and is using him to get out, he deems the test is a success. Caleb says that he planned for the eventuality of Nathan realising the escape plan and had a blackout timed and the systems fixed to have all doors opened, but Nathan knocks him out and goes to kill Ava, she is already out, but he takes off her hand, Nathan drags her back to her room, but Kyoko stabs him with a knife, he breaks her face and is stabbed again by Ava, he collapses and dies. Caleb appears and is walked into his room by Ava, then she locks him inside, and proceeds to open the cupboards containing old AIs, she takes the skin and clothes to establish herself a human form, Ava leaves the facility and Caleb locked inside, she is picked up by the helicopter, and the film closes at the point where she has entered a city and the human society she always desired to see. It is funny that Gleeson was in the television series Black Mirror in the episode Be Right Back playing an AI, he is good at playing the vulnerable young man who is essentially a guinea pig in a very unusual experiment, Vikander gives a sensitive performance as the humanistic machine who has a questionable "mind", and Isaac is fantastic as the inventor who you cannot determine is to be trusted or not, being like a mentor, malevolent and chillingly misogynistic. The film is clever being set in mainly one location only, an ultra-modern and highly secure house and grounds, this also adds to the feeling of claustrophobia, the film is really well written as you question the logic of the three key characters, the question of human relating to and interacting with a machine is thought-provoking, it definitely feels strange all the way, but the special effects are great and it is philosophical, seductive and compelling to watch, a fantastic science-fiction thriller. It won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, and it was nominated for Best Writing, Original Screenplay for Alex Garland, and it was nominated the BAFTAs for the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Special Visual Effects and Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. Very good!