Ex
Machina is all about surfaces and what lies
beneath. Compared with the 2013 film, Her, which also explored AI, Artificial Intelligence, it
does not have as much depth, but has more shine.
Ex
Machine is set in the isolated laboratory/home/hideaway of Nathan (Oscar Isaac), the
billionaire inventor of the world largest search engine. He is now experimenting with AI, and invites on of his young
programmers, Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), to engage in a kind of Turing Test of
his most advanced creation, Ava. But
this test is not about testing Ava’s adaptive intelligence, but her emotions. Ava is a robot with a beautiful body, and the face of
Alicia Vikander, so it is no wonder that Caleb finds her attractive. The question is, does she find him
attractive? Does she have feelings for him? Nathan argues that all consciousness
is embodied, and the bodies of all conscious organisms are gendered, so that
our sexuality is intimately (sic) connected with our intelligence. So is Ava really feeling, or simulating
feeling, or thinking that she is feeling while actually simulating feeling, an ability acquired by incorporating billions
of mobile images of hacked human conversations. Is she empathic, or simply a skilled mimic
of empathy. And does she ‘fancy’
Caleb? Does she actually love him?
Ex
Machina is scripted and directed by Alex Garland,
who wrote the novel, but not the script
for, The
Beach, and then the scripts of 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Dredd, and also adapted Kazuo
Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go for
the screen.
This is Garland's first attempt
at directing, and he does a good job. He was no doubt aided by his producers, who
include Scott Rudin, who produced a number of the Coen Brother’s movies, No
Country for Old Men, Inside Llyewyn Davis, and True Grit, plus Paul Greengrass’s Captain Phillips and Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel and Moonrise Kingdom.
Garland also has three ‘hot’ stars, all of whom have other movies recently, or
soon to be, released. Alicia originally trained for ballet and she moves with
grace and acts subtly. Oscar
Isaac was a musician before becoming an actor and was the lead in Inside Llyewyn Davis. He is
now to be seen with Jessica Chastain in A
Most Violent Year. I have seen him in number of movies, but did
not recognize him here. A shaven head
and beard disguised him, but is suspect
he is also a chameleon-like character actor.
Domhnall Gleeson’s star is rising high,
and he and Alicia played lovers in Anna
Karenina, and they
work well together.
The set is brilliant, and appropriate. Nathan’s isolated mountain hide-out is constructed of
concrete, stone and opaque glass walls. The glass hides rather than reveals. Access to some rooms is electronically denied to Caleb. Access to some information is denied to
Caleb. So soon we know we have a
thriller on our hands, and it is a good one.
As in Gone Girl we also have a
beautiful and ambiguous female lead. Taken
on it’s own terms this is an engaging and enjoyable film, and I recommend
it.
But when compared to Spike Jonze’s Her what we do not have is a really thoughtful
exploration of AI. I was disappointed by
that. Her, in which Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson also play mind
and sex games, seemed to be a much more
thoughtful movie. There was more below
the surface. Jonze’s history includes
music videos and the Jackass
franchise, but he is also directed and
wrote the screen-play of Where The wild
Things Are, a powerful and very
adult exploration of the psychological truths underlying Mark Sendak’s original
children’s book, and directed Charlie
Kaufman’s Adaption and Being John
Malkovitch, two complex and intelligent films. Her is not a thriller, it is a moving
exploration of how knowing, growing,
learning and loving affect humans and
may affect ‘beings’ with AI. It was a
brilliant decision to have Samantha as a the voice of an intelligent programme, not as a robot.
So I enjoyed both films, but Ex Machina is so much about its surface
and I will go back to watch Her to further consider its depths.
