Thought-provoking (at times mind-blowing) look at upcoming AI from the perspective of an erotic Turing Test

Rating: 10/10 (25 October 2017)

British Director Alex Garland's splendid, compelling, well-acted, well-put-together, cerebral and erotically-charged film sees a somewhat-geeky Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) travel to a remote stronghold where the ultimate boss of the online-search company he works for, the enigmatic Nathan (Oscar Isaac), has been developing artificial intelligence to the point where he believes he can be victorious when exposing his guest to the Turing Test.
That is to say that Nathan believes Caleb's interaction with the peak-achievement (so far) robot Ava (played by Alicia Vikander) will prove so convincing that he will no longer feel he is interacting with a machine. Hence the title, and a number of philosophical discussions about artificial intelligence which all seem timely enough.
Wonderfully, all of this "artificial" stuff takes place in sterile-ish built surroundings set in the midst of immaculate natural beauty (the bits that aren't filmed at Pinewood near London are done in Norway). Nathan takes Caleb out to see meltwater running spectacularly down forested slopes from blue-ice glaciers, and the views are at moments divine. Perhaps we are meant to be tempted back to the wonderful nature that surrounds us and where we belong, along with cousin bird and cousin tree and cousin moss? Surely these are places where DNA-free AI constructs may not feel at home and do not belong?
Yet soon enough we are back in the well-protected high-tech confines of Nathan's spectacular home-cum-lab, with nobody for company expect Ava, and of course the gorgeous Japanese serving girl Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno), who does not even speak...
I watch the film (for the second time, though the first time at home) at a time when news items about sex robots (and indeed about human beings' willingness to interact with them) are all the rage, and indeed there is that strong erotic side to Caleb's repeat encounters with Ava. To add to the challenge, Nathan has ensured that Ava is visibly still a robot, given that numerous parts of her are see-through, with flashing lights and very visibly machine parts, even if ones on a super-high technological level. In the midst of all of this artificiality, Nathan carefully informs Caleb that "key parts" of Ava do actually work!
But Ava's robotly wiles are far from crudely sexual, and it rather rapidly becomes apparent to the viewer (and certainly to any viewer capable of fancying women) that Caleb is not the only one taking the Turing Test!!!
When Caleb meets her, the seductively-voiced Ada (shades of Scarlett Johansson in "Her", by the way) is a mind-blowing mix of innocent and sophisticated, open and conspiratorial. She throws back questions at her questioner, is coquettish, but is also devoted, exclusive, interested and interesting-cum-intriguing-cum-fascinating.
Pretty soon Caleb cannot stop thinking about her, and many of us out here in audience-land are not far behind him! It's weird how it happens, but it happens...
There's a key point in the film where Nathan reveals that he has actually designed Ava having first taken a look at Caleb's online history of watching porn, so he has a head start (if you'll pardon the expression) in knowing what's going to be attractive to his visitor.
But that of course brings us to an "electrically" fascinating juxtaposition of circumstances. Something of a loner (indeed inevitably so given his lack of family), Caleb is more than ready to "interact" (shall we say) with real women portrayed on what is actually a 2D screen. Now he's got a real-life interaction, not with a real woman, admittedly, but with somebody who nevertheless has plenty of time for him, takes an interest, is flirty but also (apparently) sincere, needy, keen to please him even by coming up with a high-class drawing of his face...
Given that kind of choice, it's really no contest, is it?
Needless to say, Ava is a tricky customer indeed, far more subtle and devious than we may imagine, but - to the shame of this watcher at least - she remains an alluring figure even when her desire for self-preservation brings her to the point of violent attacks committed pseudo-innocently, and certainly entirely without emotion.
A scary prospect indeed, hence the film's regular references to Oppenheimer's feelings about his bomb as a new kind of weapon that changes everything, and indeed the musical reference to OMD's hit "Enola Gay" (this being the name of the USAF bomber that dropped the bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima).
Doubtless, we guilty filmgoers who fancy Ava something rotten are going to excuse ourselves by saying that we all the time know in our heart of hearts that it's actually Alicia Vikander, a flesh-and-blood actress and an extremely good-looking one at that.
Yeah, right!