Ex Machina

Plot synopsis:
Ex Machina tells the story of a computer coder, Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), who wins the chance to spend a week at the house in the mountains belonging to Nathan (Oscar Isaac), the CEO of the company he works for.Caleb is airlifted into the middle of a reserve owned by Nathan, and is then left to make his way on foot through the woodland to the house. Once he arrives at the house, Caleb is greeted by an automated system that issues him with a key card and lets him enter the property. Caleb is initially left to wander the house confused, but eventually finds Nathan working out.Nathan shows Caleb around and then tells him that the key card will only open certain doors in the "facility", before making him sign the "mother of all NDAs". Nathan claims that he wants Caleb to treat him as a friend, but their relationship is awkward and tense.Later that day, Nathan introduces Caleb to his "experiment" and says he wants Caleb to spend the next week performing a live 'Turing Test'. The subject is a fully humanoid artificial intelligence called 'Ava' (Alicia Vikander). She has a face, hands and feet of flesh, but the rest of her body is clearly that of a cyborg / robot / android.That night, Caleb discovers that the TV in his room is actually a CCTV network that allows him to watch Ava in her habitat. There is suddenly a blackout, and Caleb goes to find Nathan. He eventually locates him, with Nathan drunk and in a petulant mood. Nathan says that the power cuts happen on a regular basis and that he is "looking into it."The next morning Caleb is awoken by Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno), a Japanese girl who does not speak or engage with him in any way. He later learns that she does not speak English because it allows Nathan to "talk shop" and not be concerned about information leaking.Caleb meets with Ava again and she starts to flirt with him. There is a power cut and Ava suddenly warns Caleb not to trust Nathan. We soon learn that it is Ava who has been triggering these blackouts. That evening Nathan is abusive to Kyoko when she spills some wine on Caleb.As Caleb and Ava spend more time together, the two form a bond which peaks with Ava dressing herself in clothes to appear more human to Caleb. He is confused and excited by this, and tells Nathan that he thinks this is a trick, that Ava has been programmed to flirt with him. An enraged Nathan shouts at Caleb and then shows him his lab where Ava was created, explaining to him how her mind operates and that he has been using his own software to map the faces, voices and habits of the world population to build a fully self-evolving brain.One evening Nathan gets extremely drunk and Caleb escorts him to his room. There he sees some cupboards and is able to catch a glimpse of Nathan's 'observation' room.One evening during a shave, Caleb sees CCTV footage of Nathan entering Ava's room and ripping up a drawing she has been creating. Caleb begins to suspect Nathan of being abusive.In a one on one, Caleb asks Nathan what he will do with Ava if she fails the test, and he says she will be "updated" and this will result in her memory being wiped. This is a visibly upsetting prospect for Caleb. Nathan gets very drunk and passes out. Caleb steals Nathan's key card and enters the 'observation' room. Inside he finds footage on Nathan's computer that shows he has been building various female AIs over a period of time.Caleb goes into Nathan's room and finds Kyoko laying naked on the bed. He opens the cupboards in Nathan's room and finds all the destroyed and deactivated robots hanging up. Kyoko pulls the skin from her face to reveal that she is also an AI. Caleb leaves the room just in time to find Nathan stumbling around drunk. He palms Nathan's key card from the floor and pretends Nathan had dropped it.In his final meeting with Ava, Caleb encourages her to trigger a power cut and he reveals to her his plan to help her escape. He intends on getting Nathan drunk one last time and then locking him in his room.The next morning Nathan and Caleb share polite conversation, and in it Nathan confirms a helicopter will arrive the next morning to pick Caleb up. Caleb offers a drink to Nathan in toast, but he refuses and reveals to him that when he entered Ava's room to destroy the picture, he hid a battery operated camera in there, and he knows Caleb's plan. Nathan admits to Ava being geared towards Caleb's desires based upon information taken from his internet searches, etc. Nathan tells Caleb that Ava is not in love with him, that she is using him, he celebrates this as confirmation that she is a true AI, deeming the test a success.There is a black out and Caleb says he had already put his plan into action when he stole Nathan's key card, and that during lock down the system had been re-routed to open every door. Nathan knocks Caleb unconscious and leaves to kill Ava.Ava and Kyoko share a secret conversation, Ava then attacks Nathan and Nathan retaliates by destroying Ava's hand. As he drags Ava back to her room Kyoko stabs Nathan in the back with a sushi knife. Nathan breaks Kyoko's face apart and is then stabbed a second time by Ava. As Nathan dies he seems somewhat amazed by the irony. Ava locks Caleb in Nathan's room and then proceeds to raid the cupboards containing the old AIs. She takes skin and clothes to establish herself as almost human. She leaves Caleb locked in the facility and makes her way to Caleb's pickup point, where she is airlifted out of the area and into human society.

Tags: suspenseful, cruelty, murder

Review:
A perfect setting for the subject that is explored in this tight, tense sci-fi thriller.Ex Machina is the best science fiction film on artificial intelligence since Blade Runner.
Thought-provoking and terrifyingly suspenseful, an induced state of paranoia may linger long after the end credits begin to roll.The less you know going into a film like this, the better your experience will be.
A reclusive CEO of a leading technology company hires a young whiz kid who works for him to test his latest development, a highly advanced android called Ava. Specifically he is tasked with using the Turing test on her to establish if her AI is sufficiently convincing to pass as human.Despite contributing several scripts for the screen, this is writer Alex Garland's first directorial effort.
Having wrote the stories to some of his biggest hits, first-time director, Alex Garland, has spent a lot of time with the masterful Danny Boyle: working on such films as The Beach, 28 Days Later and Sunshine.
Now, writing and directing his feature debut, Garland proves that he has been paying attention and taking tips as he tackles a complex sci-fi thriller about artificial intelligence.Featuring Domnhall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac, the stars of the upcoming Star Wars adventure, plus talented newcomer, Alicia Vikander – who stars in three films this month; Ex_Machina is quite well profuse.Jumping right in, we are introduced to Caleb (Gleeson), a twenty- four year old coder who wins a chance to spend a week at his CEO bosses luxury house.
An experiment that he classes as the greatest discovering of mankind; to test the world's first artificial intelligence system, which is housed inside the body of a beautiful robot girl (Alicia Vikander).Of course, the AI' concept has been tackled many of times in contemporary film - most recently in Wally Pfister's directorial- flop, Transcendence.
Over the seven days of testing, Caleb must perform the scientific 'Turing test' on Nathan's AI' system, nicknamed Ava; the idea of which is to deduce God-like theories and philosophical concepts – do robots feel a consciousness?
Whilst mainly set inside Nathan's enclosed premise (with no windows), the camera work is mounted aesthetically.Now, in her third film this month, Alicia Vikander shows that she is able to tackle any form of performance with extreme clause.
I feel this movie aces both.A secluded environment and very good original music set the mood for full focus on story and character development.
Character development feels perfect as each one gains depth without loosing essence.From a sci-fi point of view, it's not you're typical FX based movie, nor is it an action film.
Nevertheless some very good effects and acting make for an excellent merge between fact and fiction that lets you concentrate on the philosophical questions the movie asks about the nature of AI.
Nail bitingly tense, terse and most importantly thought provoking, well renowned British screenwriter and author turned director Alex Garland's incredibly competent feature debut is one of modern cinemas most memorable and original Sci-Fi's, a film that you sense will be oft discussed in years to come thanks to its wealth of questions asked and a heralding in of the era of young actress Alicia Vikander.While Ex_Machina deals with the old aged staple of A.I and the pitfalls of it and what it means to be a human, not a machine, Garland operates his tale with a pinpoint accuracy that mines tension and intrigue from the films first frame to its last and creates a small scale vision that feels entirely in a world of its own.
Garland's vision is a sight to behold and his direction is not far removed from the works of greats such as Kubrick, while Machina largely takes place within the confines of reclusive tech genius Nathan Bateman's stunningly designed home/ research facility, there is much visually wonderment to be found wherever you look.
From the beautiful surrounds of the wilderness outside, the handle-less rooms that operate Nathan's lavish digs through to the flawless design of Ava the artificial being at the centre of this cautionary tale, Garland has created a small scale yet undeniably impressive universe that manages to mix the smarts, the visuals and the performances into one.Filled with heart and humour (a trademark of Garland's works) Ex_Machina features what will be one of the years most accomplished trio of acting turns with well-rounded and pitch perfectly played acting turns.
In another sign that he is quickly becoming as good as his father, Domnhall Gleeson plays kindly tech guru Caleb with the right amount of smarts and heart while his scenes with his upcoming Star Wars co-star Oscar Isaac are brimming with underlying motives and tension suggesting that their pairing in this year's space adventure will be a sight to behold.
Isaac shows off a dark side to his growing screen powers and his Nathan is in equal measure sad and dangerous and while the two leads excel, they along with the film itself pale in comparison to Vikander's star making turn.With a beguiling beauty and a truly remarkable ability to possess the charms of a human and the persona of an artificially created living entity, Vikander's Ava is without doubt one of the year's most stunning creations in both a CGI sense and characterization sense.
While it's some time off one would hope that Ava see's Vikander find just rewards come awards season but Ex_Machina may be slightly to left of centre for the sadly outdated and out of touch Awards ceremonies that dominate the industry.While it's not flawless, some motivations and scenarios remain somewhat underdeveloped or questionable; Ex_Machina is a stunning Sci-Fi vision that is also a fully formed thinking man's thriller.
With a jaw droopingly good turn from the soon to be megastar Vikander, Ex_Machina is another excellent example of what makes the Sci-Fi genre such a harbourer of thought provoking classics and further proof that Garland is one of the most consistently good storytellers working in the industry today.4 and a half dancing showcases out of 5 For more movie reviews and opinions check into - www.jordanandeddie.wordpress.com.
-Dr. Susan Calvin, in the robot short-story 'The Evitable Conflict'.'Ex Machina' is an interesting and well-filmed SF movie.
Very quickly he became established as a horror/science fiction writer with the screenplays of 28 DAYS LATER , SUNSHINE and DREDD so it's only natural that if he was going to progress to directing then the sci-fi genre would be an obvious choice That said I've never felt Garland was a great screenwriter and his work is highly derivative .
It's a rather talkative introspective sci-fi drama and you can understand people wanting to reward this simply because it's not some noisy over-edited spectacular but even so you're left thinking the film might have been better than it actually is.
I went to see the movie in a promotion that cinemas were cutting off prices in tickets,saying this i had no expectations with ex_machina,fiction movie,good trailer,cheap tickets why not......and what a movie i've seen,it scrambles your sense's,plays with your emotions,makes you doubt of your own intellect and moral choices...Amazing Almost perfect movieDamn i didn't want it to end,will we have a 2nd movie!?
this movie is a disaster , so stupid , an emotionally deprived programmer is chosen by a sex obsessed employer -in which for no rational reason hides his high tech AI inventions- for Turing testing a robot , what's worse than that the robot starts to fall in love with the programmer is that the programmer falls in love too so unrealistic because the way the employer and programmer think and work and the whole science and company ideas all are unprofessional totally killed it this movie is rated 7.7 it barely deserves a 4.
"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson)Ex Machina is a thoughtful science fiction about Artificial Intelligence, whereby, to no fan's surprise, the current female robot, Ava (Alicia Vikander), has human qualities that cause trouble for inventor, Nathan (Oscar Isaac), and visitor, young Caleb.
And Isaac's character is so mercurial, at once comforting then tyrannical, that the film could be remembered if only for his star turn as the mad but charming scientist.After all, Ex Machina is as much about a scientist playing God as it is about the bridge between robot and man.
The advancement of artificial intelligence to human levels has been a favorite subject for science fiction writers since the concept was invented, and it's been a popular subject for sci-fi movies for a long time now.
Domhnall Gleeson stars (and is easily the least interesting of the basically four person cast) as a programmer who is selected by internet genius Oscar Isaac to test his new, advanced robot, Ava (Alicia Vikander).
The guys giving this movie high scores either work for the production company, or have a very very weird sense of good films.Lots of uncalled for nudity, and bad language.Lot's of repetition and weird sick sexuality.It's one of these films that you see and think: Oh GOD, sitting on the toilet for the same amount of time would have been more productive..
Having watched Under the Skin last year, which was an OK film but also disappointing in its jarring approach and lack of full bodied story, I was hoping that Alex Garland could tackle the subject matter in a fresh way.
Ex Machina's premise is simple enough: an aspiring computer programmer Caleb Smith (Brilliantly portrayed by Domhnall Gleeson) is chosen to visit the CEO of BlueBook, the company he works in in order to conduct a Turing test for an AI droid that the CEO, Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac) has been working on.One brilliant aspect in this film is that the audience doesn't know whom to trust even as the secrets start unraveling.
Ex Machina isn't an action packed film but never feels boring with its constant tension and intriguing ideas,which includes what it means to be human and the safety of AI.
I recommend this movie to young hipsters who don't read science fiction novels and have not seen Blade Runner or A.I. Dear makers of the film, having naked and semi-naked women pretending to be androids isn't that appealing.
Visually, Ex Machina was a beautiful, well-made and well-acted piece of film, but the dialogue seemed to fail to develop interesting, complex, human characters we could really care about and empathize with.
It's also a strange romance and a character study...of three different characters.The film follows Caleb (Dohmnall Gleeson) who wins a week at the home of a brilliant scientist named Nathan (Oscar Isaac).
The catch is that the A.I. robot is in the form of an attractive woman named Ava (Alicia Vikander.) As we go along we learn that Nathan has some shocking secrets and the film becomes an intense and thrilling ride to see not only if Ava passes the test, but to see if Caleb uncovers the truth behind his trip.
Ex Machina is easily the best Sci Fi film I have come across in recent times, It captured me sucked me in and blew me away with it's intelligent way of showing the pro's and cons of Artificial Intelligence.
Another tip for viewers is don't expect an action film of any sorts this film is a tense thriller and unfolds as it proceeds.This film showcases some very cool and convincing cgi mixed with practical effects, interesting thought provoking philosophy, and even in it's moments of nothing more than talking it manages to grasp your attention, as a matter a fact I can't think of a single scene that lost my attention.In conclusion this film is a must see and is also in my opinion the best artificial intelligence film I've seen.
Ex Machina looks at artificial intelligence without re-working the trite old moral issue of 'can we switch off a machine that is self aware?' that every movie on a similar theme has since plagiarised from Spileberg's A.I. over a decade ago.And what's more, the interesting script and rich mise-en-scène are strongly balanced with brilliant CGI that actually supports the film rather than competes with it (finally!).The film has an original style, an engaging script and a directorial ability worthy of Kubrick himself.
There are 4 things which make this film a great film: Oscar Isaac's character (very fascinating to listen to and watch; he's one of those really smart but definitely not nerdy geniuses, kind of like Tony Stark/Iron Man in a way) and Ava's character (brings a touch of humanity to the plate, ironically, as she is shown to be vulnerable but not all that she seems character), the dialogue and interactions between the characters (all of it, from the discussions on AI to aspects of life to what it means to be human, which is always a huge plus for me), the suspense towards the end and the twist, and the overall exploration of AI.
It is certainly one of the best films I have seen this year.Alex Garland, known for his writing on both 28 Days Later and Sunshine, makes his directorial debut and believe me when I say that it is one of the most impressive debuts I have ever seen.Garland's film explores themes such as artificial intelligence and the human mind, in particular how it can be manipulated and the question of whether you can really tell what a person is really thinking.If I'm honest, I felt throughout that something bad was going to happen however saying that, I was utterly shocked at the way it did go.
Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander and Oscar Isaac all delve so much in to the psyche of their characters, Vikander in particular making it believable that she isn't human after all.Ex Machina is one of the most thought provoking films of the last decade.
It doesn't transport viewers into a vision that could transpire for the 21st Century, but back to the 19th and misappropriate lust for the automaton of the "Tales of Hoffman," with a little "Bluebeard" thrown in for good measure or for bad.That's why as I science fiction purist, I felt myself increasingly pulling away from "Ex Machina." There's a tawdriness that permeates the film and the story of the sweet-faced female robot being held prisoner by her Google-Age Dr. Frankenstein.
To be honest, I really only watched this because of the incredible reviews it was getting, so to say that I was let down is an understatement.The concept of artificial intelligence is one that has intrigued me quite a bit lately, so I thought this movie might be an appropriate introduction to the subject.
Unfortunately, the story just doesn't hold up, especially near the end.There are some very interesting and suspenseful scenes in the first half of the movie, and what I love most is the fact that the film creates genuine tension by what is happening, not via cheap scares or tons of special effects being thrown in your face.
And the ending is the worst of all: it's both incomplete and extremely depressing.I really wanted to like this movie, because it embodies so many things I look for: a focus on story over action, careful attention to detail, and an intriguing and thought-provoking concept.
Like many films about robots, the narrative is more interested in the emotion of its characters than their intelligence.
Isaac delivers the character in a way that, much like Gleeson, has the ability to be offputting but, instead, is riveting.Finally, there's more to "Ex Machina" than artificial intelligence, which, as I began to realize following the credits, wasn't what the film seems to really be about.
Alex Garland (screenwriter of 28 Days Later & Sunshine) delivers a tremendous and thought-provoking story with great performances from (the always great) Oscar Isaac, (the young in everything) Domhnall Gleeson, and (the wonderful) Alicia Vikander.The film is a slow burner, but when it does burn, damn!
I've now watched this film 3 times in the last week and I have to say, no sci-fi movie(or any genre for that matter) in recent memory has impacted me quite like this one has.
All 3 of the main actors deliver stellar performances in "Ex Machina", and i'm actually surprised Oscar Isaac didn't get a best supporting actor nod for his work in this film.
It was only a matter of time before screenwriter Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Sunshine) found himself stepping behind the camera, and he takes a fresh new approach to artificial intelligence with his directorial debut, the riveting sci-fi thriller Ex Machina.
I rarley saw a movie which confrontate us with psychology, philosophy, language, sexuality, technology and religion in one thing.The main actor Nathan (Isaac) has created a female robot named Ava. His colleague Caleb (Gleeson) is tasked to give it a "Turing Test" through a series of interviews to find out whether she, the robot, demonstrates true AI (artificial intelligence).
Gleeson plays Caleb, a young programmer chosen to visit the remote house of the company's CEO Nathan (this takes up probably the first 2 minutes-keeps the pace going, the mystery of the story intact, and the ability to fully develop the characters through their actions in the film itself).
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).
Ex Machina does something very few sci-fi films have been able to pull off; it is a brilliant science fiction movie that is also deeply intelligent and thought provoking.
But if you like your films deep and thought-provoking, as well as deliciously tense in places, then this might be for you.The writer and director is Alex Garland, and this is actually his impressive directorial debut.