Ex Machina (2015) [Blu-ray]
Drama | Sci-Fi

Tagline: What happens to me if I fail your test?

A young programmer (Gleeson) is selected to participate in a breakthrough experiment in artificial intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a breathtaking female A.I. cyborg (Vikander) created by an egotisical genuis (Isaac).

Storyline: Caleb, a 26 year old coder at the world's largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain retreat belonging to Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location he finds that he will have to participate in a strange and fascinating experiment in which he must interact with the world's first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot girl. Written by DNA FILMS

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, July 8, 2015 -- There's no deus in Ex Machina, unless you count the seemingly semi-divine intelligence of Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), a character who might be thought of as something of a cross between internet and computing entrepreneurs like Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and/or Bill Gates. Bateman is described as a "Mozart" of coding, having invented a search engine called Blue Book when he was still a teen, a search engine which in this film's universe has come to handle well over 90% of internet snark hunts (take that, Google). You might throw a soupçon of Howard Hughes into this character's psychological makeup, for Bateman has largely withdrawn from the world to an isolated high tech manse out in the wild which is accessible only by helicopter. As Ex Machina opens, a Blue Book employee named Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) is gobsmacked to find out he's won an in house lottery which offers a first prize of going to Bateman's home and staying with him for a week. That sets up an intellectual cage match of sorts, for when Caleb gets to the house, he finds that he's not there for a mere vacation, but has instead been selected to administer a so-called Turing Test on a new prototype artificial intelligence program Bateman has been working on. This is not some "gray box" software that Caleb must determine is self aware, but instead a fully functioning robot named Ava (Alicia Vikander), a "machine" whom Bateman keeps locked away in a glass cage until he has "proof" that she (or it, as the case may be) has achieved full consciousness and is not simply mimicking human thought processes through complicated algorithms.

After quickly detailing the lottery win, the film segues immediately to Caleb's helicopter ride into Nathan's fortress of solitude. When Caleb asks when they'll be getting to Nathan's estate, the helicopter pilot laughs and informs him they've been flying over Nathan's estate for two hours, an indicator of just how isolated Nathan's home is. The helicopter pilot isn't even allowed to get very close to Nathan's actual domicile, instead dropping Caleb off in a field and telling the excited but anxious kid to "follow the river." The waterway does indeed finally reveal a home seemingly literally tucked into the verdant hillside. When Caleb pauses for a moment outside, a robotic voice suddenly asks if he is Caleb, at which point it gives him instructions on how to proceed and gain access to the home. After his "ID key card" is issued (in a somewhat humorous moment), Caleb enters the rather luxe house, which does indeed seem to be one with the surrounding countryside, to the point that some rooms actually have walls made of the mountainous rocks surrounding the home.

Caleb finds Nathan as the entrepreneur is completing a workout, evidently one of his preferred methods to overcome a hangover. In one of the film's more curious formulations, Nathan is a rather hard drinking type, something which would seem to be at odds with his rather outsized achievements, especially considering the fact that his AI exploits are at least relatively recent. Nathan pretty much forces Caleb to sign a non disclosure agreement, after which Nathan discloses that he wants Caleb to conduct a Turing Test on Ava. There then ensues several "sessions" between Caleb and Ava (each with an interstitial title card just for good measure) where the young coder attempts to ferret out whether or not Ava is truly conscious. A recurrent power supply issue afflicts a complex series of closed circuit cameras Nathan has had installed around his labyrinthine facility, and during one of these "technical breakdowns," Ava, aware that she's finally not being monitored, quickly whispers to Caleb that Nathan can't be trusted. And so seeds of dysfunction and even paranoia are sown which will then spill out as a somewhat hackneyed plot then unfolds.

Writer-director Alex Garland is helming for the first time here, after having written 28 Days Later, Sunshine, 28 Weeks Later, Never Let Me Go and Dredd 3D. Though he only occasionally employs patently artificial symmetry in his framings, there's nonetheless a Kubrickian quality to Garland's direction here, especially with regard to a somewhat languid pace and a tendency to favor long (or at least longish) takes, sometimes with little to no dialogue. Several scenes have dialogue playing in the background while Nathan's mute housekeeper Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno) is front and center, evidently taking it all in, despite Nathan's insistence that she doesn't understand a word of English. (The subplot involving Kyoko is not especially subtle, and any "surprise" about this character's genesis will probably be obvious to anyone who's ever seen "The Lateness of the Hour" from The Twilight Zone: Season 2.) Frequent static looking interstitials of the rather awesome looking countryside reinforce the Kubrickian ambience, while also drawing none too subtle parallels between Nathan playing God in his underground laboratory while an actual creative Divinity is working wonders outside.

The film's screenplay is intentionally dense, but it also tends to simply state conundra rather than trying to "solve" logical problems like what if anything a Turing Test can accomplish. Within a context of a kind of stoner (or beer guzzling) buddy tête–à–tête, Garland has Caleb and Nathan gloss over any number of philosophical and even existential phenomena, giving things a pseudo-intellectual patina that just may not bear really fulsome scrutiny. That said, the film, while somewhat brooding in a Kubrickian way, ticks off its plot points resolutely and firmly, with Caleb slowly becoming aware that he's at best a pawn in a chess game he doesn't fully understand, and at worst a puppet with several sets of hands (human and robotic) pulling the strings.

As silly as this may sound, Ex Machina ends up playing out as a somewhat more high minded prequel to fare like Eve of Destruction, with a self aware android simply wanting people to stop fencing her in. The film's denouement in fact seems to suggest that Ava's adventures are only just beginning. Strong on tone and mood if at times slightly lacking in the logic department, Ex Machina proves that human intelligence, at least in the form of Alex Garland, is alive and kicking.

Ex Machina posits some interesting if ultimately fairly trite ideas about machines achieving true consciousness. What perhaps works better than any high falutin' philosophizing in this film is the incipient paranoia which slowly takes hold of Caleb as he attempts to complete his Turing Test. Performances are uniformly excellent here, and Alex Garland proves he's a directorial talent to watch. Technical merits are generally excellent, the supplemental package is decent, and Ex Machina comes Highly recommended.

[CSW] -4.2- The director maintained a nicely clinical, critical distance throughout which felt wholly appropriate given the material. Nathan the super-rich internet and computing genius, turned artificial intelligence robot designer had the right mixture of charisma and insanity. Caleb was both knowledgeable, naïve and a bit socially inept making him the perfect target for this test. Ava exudes femininity, intellect, seductiveness, sexuality, and damsel-in-distress all at the same time. Combined they made the perfect mixture. The storyline is well written with enough philosophical ponderings to keep thinking people intrigued. The ending to this movie was fantastic… but it also tends to make this a once-is-enough film that I probably won't add to my collection. Still, don't miss it.
[V4.0-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box motion codes were available at the time of this rental although they are available now.


º º