Certification. 15
Running Time. 1 hour 48 mins
Director. Alex Garland
Cast. Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Sonoya Mizuno, Alicia Vikander.
Rating. 71%
Alex Garland first came gained prominence at the turn of the century as an author. His first two novels, The Beach and The Tesseract, were inherently cinematic and unsurprisingly, both ultimately adapted for the big screen. Garland then wrote the screenplay for 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Never Let Me Go, before releasing Ex Machina in 2015, the first film he had written and directed himself.
But, Alex Garland is first and foremost a writer, and the script of Ex Machina is one of the film's great strengths. The intelligent screenplay is exquisitely layered without being overwhelmingly bogged down in science. Ex Machina is a confident directorial debut.
In Ex Machina, computer coder Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) is afforded the opportunity to meet the reclusive founder of the technology company he works for, Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), at a week-long retreat. However, over the course of the week, Nathan instructs Caleb to conduct a series of tests on Nathan's artificial intelligence female, Ava (Alicia Vikander). In essence, could she pass as human? Whilst Caleb initially questions Ava to study her - finding out how she functions and testing her cognisance with a series of Turing tests - slowly, the dynamic flips, and Ava begins asking questions to learn more about him. Though her purpose in doing so is unclear through most of the film, this makes for a magnetic dynamic between these two characters, and as the trio challenge each other, it becomes increasingly clear that all three have their own agenda.
Whilst Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac produce solid performances, it is Alicia Vikander, in an early film role, that catches the eye. Vikander is just expressive enough to make you believe she has true intelligence and emotion, but unnatural enough to be convincing as someone that was made out of code and components. Vikander's precise performance combined with breathtaking CGI and rotoscoping animation in post-production, add up to a character that always looks plausible in situ.
Ex Machina has an eerie, uncomfortable atmosphere throughout, but this is balanced with moments of extreme beauty. And whilst the subject matter, the blurred line between humanity and artificial intelligence has been explored many times - 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, The Terminator, A. I. Artificial Intelligence, I, Robot, Chappie and Avengers: Age Of Ultron - the ominous and existential threat of artificial intelligence is current (even though Ex Machina was released in 2015).
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