Ex Machina: Computer Love

4 out of 5 Popcorn Kernels

Ex Macnina seems to venture on film noir - it has a sleek look, moves fluidly, and has a story seeped in emotions and seduction. It's a film that maintains the true nature of the genre, which isn't drenched in new gadgets, or explosive CGI - but is about how one gadget is taken to its final end, and how that end affects the world around it, changing lives and how we think along the way.

Because this movie is a about pace and reveal, It means there are a lot of plot points that cannot be unveiled in a review. These are moments of shock, derived from change; where the nature of the character suddenly change and twist, based upon the changing nature of other characters (good, bad or indifferent), and their arc is changed...unexpectedly in different directions.

Ex Machina has many such moments of change, and mostly because this is psychological thriller. Those seeking a chase sequence (although there is actually a short one here...lol), a shootout, or explosives will be greatly disappointed. This is a quiet movie, where the subtle nuances in dialogue come across as explosive.

The movie begins with a contest, in a tech company (think Google-Plus), where the lucky winner has a chance to meet with the owner of the company for a week. That winner happens to be Caleb (Domhall Gleeson), a small man with mildly handsome looks (all geeks seem to look like this in cinema), with an innocence about him. Before you know it he is being whisked across the lands in a private helicopter, across an expanse of green fields and vast forests - seeing this I at once realized there would be trouble afoot, its the Beauty before the Beast in movies. It is also disarming, because you wonder, who in the world would live this far from civilization; imagine how far you would have to travel just for a Slushie.

Once landed, Caleb meets with the owner of his company, Nathan (Oscar Isaac), a seemingly eccentric man himself, who appears to not be bothered by the lack of solitude, and created a world around him like a remote Planet Fitness; with weights, private rooms, juice bar, and mysterious woman-servant Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno) - who slithers around the compound taking orders and looking very sullen and tiny. The introductions are quick, and first time cinema director Alex Garland (who also wrote 28 Days Later and Sunshine), gives us a world we can believe with minimal sets and sleek lines, in a building that could be from any era. Caleb is shown his room, and is told his real purpose: to examine a creations that Nathan has built - what he considers, the perfect A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. It's a female named Ava (Alicia Vikander) - why do all the geeks make female counterparts - and he is to test her realness while he is there.

When Caleb meets Ava, she comes across as a shy mystery, with her soft eyes, and lilting childlike voice. The special effects are very good, for while we see that Ava has a human face, the rest of her being is either made of a steel elastic or transparent with wires and lights filling her insides. We can sense Caleb's arousal (we can also understand it), for as he talks to her, understands her, we can see his giving in to her questions as more than a listener; he is captivated. Soon we begin to see her as more than a machine, and wonder as the questions and answers continue, who in fact is really interviewing whom?

Ava is very direct, and thanks to some amazing acting, her emotions seem to peep through, but not enough that you can guess what is really on her mind. She wants to be more than a machine, and the act or flirtation is handled with childlike abandon. We, as the audience, want her to be more than human too - but there is more going on in this house than meets the eye - and it is that humanity that unveils some very hidden secrets going on. Secrets that involve everyone.

The pacing of Ex Machina reminds me of A Space Odyssey, with its tranquil movements and non-overly tech look. We get small nuggets of the story, first by understanding each characters personality, and then how that changes as they interact with each other on separate occasions - each adding a little more to the puzzle - until it reaches a conclusion that chillingly affects them all. 

Like many A.I. films, this one made me also wonder: If we humans can live a life of contentment from doing every day tasks, why can't machines be content to do the same. And if you are a robot wanting to be thought of as human, do you realize you will have to just go to work and make a living just like the rest of us...and who wants that? I would rather be the A.I.