Dark Psychological Thriller About Artificial Intelligence

Rating: 8/10 (12 May 2018)

The history of computers and artificial intelligence seems like it's been a short and at a light-speed pace; but in truth, it has its beginnings in the development of ENIAC, the first so-called "electronic brain" in the years following World War II. At that time, of course, such machines, consisting of vacuum tubes, could take up whole buildings. By the late 1960s, however, their size had been reduced to taking up mere single rooms; and in our day and age, that technology can fit onto one's arm or onto one's ear. And it won't be long before the kind of artificial intelligence that legendary sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke (of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY fame) talked about, where one wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a human voice and that of an artificial intelligence, will be possible. But as with any technology created by Man, the idea of artificial intelligence can have its dangerous drawbacks. That idea was explored in "2001" by Clarke and director Stanley Kubrick, and expanded upon in 2001 (ironically enough) by Steven Spielberg in A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. And in 2014, Alex Garland, who had written the screenplays of such films as 28 DAYS LATER and SUNSHINE, made his directing debut (again, also writing the screenplay) with a new study in artificial intelligence entitled EX MACHINA.
In EX MACHINA, Domhnall Gleeson plays a computer programmer who ahs "won" a contest to spend a week at the isolated retreat of his company's CEO (Oscar Isaac). But it's not like any "vacation" that Gleeson has ever been involved with. Indeed, it's not a vacation at all, period. Gleeson will be put under isolation for a week (the most ironclad non-disclosure agreement, as it were, in modern history) as part of a study being conducted by Isaac on human interaction with artificial intelligence; and in this case, Gleeson will be studied in his interactions with one of Isaac's "cyborgs", Ava (Alicia Virklander). The test, known as the Turing Test (named after the English computer scientist Alan Turing) is to find out whether Gleeson can detect "real" feelings in Ava, who after all is an artificially created being. But Gleeson gets a little taste of confusion when Virklander, during each of the seven tests, automatically turns off the power in Isaac's mansion, and warns him that all is not what it seems in Isaac's "experiment". And indeed it isn't long before Gleeson finds out that his boss/mentor is in the business of basically "reprogramming" artificial intelligence, which pretty much would amount to the technological equivalent of homicide. Very soon, Gleeson's wonder at Virklander, whom he believes has achieved actual human consciousness, has morphed into a kind of paranoia that Isaac is now a genius of the most dangerous kind, a kind of 21st century Doctor Frankenstein of the world of artificial intelligence and cyborgs.
What is unique about EX MACHINA is that, while the technology and the special effects are seamless, Garland didn't exactly have a budget in the hundred million dollar range to fool around with in making it. Indeed, with only minor location shooting in Norway and the rest at Pinewood Studios in London, Garland made EX MACHINA for a ridiculously low $15 million, just $2.5 million more than what Kubrick expended on "2001" back in the late 1960s. And while EX MACHINA may not have ambitions or the scope of "2001" (something that Garland himself admitted very much in interviews, even going so far as to say that his film didn't go as high on the intelligence scale as Kubrick's had), it nevertheless has a lot more substance to it than most other films that are priced at five to ten times the budget Garland worked with. Gleeson and Isaac work quite well, sparring with one another over the issue of Virklander's "humanity"; and Virklander herself makes for an extremely appealing cyborg. The design of Isaac's mansion is also quite scary at times as well, mirroring the Overlook Hotel in Kubrick's 1980 horror classic THE SHINING.
While the sex and language are a little bit much at times, and there is one brief but slightly graphic display of bloodshed, as Gleeson "tears" his own skin apart, perhaps to see if he himself has become a cyborg as part of Isaac's weird "experiment", EX MACHINA wisely sticks to the parameters about computer technology and artificial intelligence that were so daftly explored not only in "2001" and A.I., but also in past films as diverse as 1970's COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT; 1973's WESTWORLD; and the 1982 Ridley Scott classic BLADE RUNNER. EX MACHINA won the 2015 Oscar for Best Visual Effects, as they were very important in Garland's ability to create a real world out of man-made technology. Fortunately, he had also remembered to include the human element in the forms of Gleeson and Virklander; and those two, as much as the visuals make EX MACHINA a solid sci-fi/psychological thriller.
EX MACHINA will get an '8' rating from me.