The Science Fiction genre has been a bit hit or miss lately. Especially when a female creation is a part of the structure of the story things can get a bit off-center or focused mainly on sex. Splice, for example, had promise yet did not deliver what its creators intended. Ex Machina has been out for a month now. This movie is all about misdirection along with how artificial intelligence interacts with humans. The misdirection is skillfully done with a limited cast and a stripped down story-line. Though the movie does bring out an element of desire into the plot it is subtle and builds up through out. This is a movie that if you blink you miss a key factor that will aid to confusion later in the film.
The only thing that was almost brutally honest for was the ending. The whole movie revolves around this average type of guy who thinks he has gotten the opportunity of a lifetime. There is also his boss who is, for lack of a better term, a train-wreck genius. Then there is the AI named Ava who stays in the same room for pretty much the entire film. The movie brings forth the question of pretend versus real. How do we as people learn and associate our feelings with situations in life? There is also a hint of determining what it truly real in this world and what is artificial. Caleb, the protagonist of the film has this as a task as well as figuring out if Ava can pass this test. At first everything seems normal then she starts doing little things such as drawing pictures of Caleb and wearing clothes. Ex Machina initially gives off a lingering feeling of a an AI uprising to happen. It did not. It turns out the creator, Nathan, figured out that Ava was going to manipulate Caleb in order to escape. The way they did it showed skillful writing and completely showed the misdirection on Ava's part as well as Caleb's. Though it only worked out for one of them.
Now the ending. The ending came off a bit sharp. Somewhat like hearing a music artist sing live and wishing they would have lip-synched. Spoiler, Ava kills Nathan in an awkward sort of way. She stabs him and then just watches him die. Yet that is not the part that is shocking. The whole movie I thought maybe she was going to make Caleb her new creator in order to get her into the world. She finds him on the floor of a room after being knocked out by Nathan and then tells him to wait there. At this point she knows he has fallen in love with her. She lets him watch her put on skin and hair and clothing to where she looks completely normal. Here a viewer would think she is going to let him out and they are going to run off into the sunset. Then it is revealed that when she told him to stay there she really meant stay there...As in forever. She locks him in that room, and as he screams her name she just leaves him there to die. Here is a guy who did nothing wrong and helped her escape and she completely set him up to die there. Proving she had no sense of right and wrong and in fact no soul or care for him at all. This could have been done to make the viewer sympathize with Caleb because he was just a key to her. If anything it jerked me out of that world because the blatant intensity was riveting. It was just sudden and cold compared to the rest of the movie.
If I had to give it a star count I would say 4 out of 5. That ending just really felt unfinished to me. I understand why they ended it like that, but now what is her purpose? That type of being walking around without any regret surely would cause a lot of damage. The funny part of the movie was how hard they pushed the fact that she could have sex and enjoy it. This along with several other scenes showed the light-hearted sense that was peeking through. If you have seen the movie what do you think? Do you agree or disagree with my rating? Comment and let me know. Also let me know what other movies I should watch and review.
M.
The only thing that was almost brutally honest for was the ending. The whole movie revolves around this average type of guy who thinks he has gotten the opportunity of a lifetime. There is also his boss who is, for lack of a better term, a train-wreck genius. Then there is the AI named Ava who stays in the same room for pretty much the entire film. The movie brings forth the question of pretend versus real. How do we as people learn and associate our feelings with situations in life? There is also a hint of determining what it truly real in this world and what is artificial. Caleb, the protagonist of the film has this as a task as well as figuring out if Ava can pass this test. At first everything seems normal then she starts doing little things such as drawing pictures of Caleb and wearing clothes. Ex Machina initially gives off a lingering feeling of a an AI uprising to happen. It did not. It turns out the creator, Nathan, figured out that Ava was going to manipulate Caleb in order to escape. The way they did it showed skillful writing and completely showed the misdirection on Ava's part as well as Caleb's. Though it only worked out for one of them.
Now the ending. The ending came off a bit sharp. Somewhat like hearing a music artist sing live and wishing they would have lip-synched. Spoiler, Ava kills Nathan in an awkward sort of way. She stabs him and then just watches him die. Yet that is not the part that is shocking. The whole movie I thought maybe she was going to make Caleb her new creator in order to get her into the world. She finds him on the floor of a room after being knocked out by Nathan and then tells him to wait there. At this point she knows he has fallen in love with her. She lets him watch her put on skin and hair and clothing to where she looks completely normal. Here a viewer would think she is going to let him out and they are going to run off into the sunset. Then it is revealed that when she told him to stay there she really meant stay there...As in forever. She locks him in that room, and as he screams her name she just leaves him there to die. Here is a guy who did nothing wrong and helped her escape and she completely set him up to die there. Proving she had no sense of right and wrong and in fact no soul or care for him at all. This could have been done to make the viewer sympathize with Caleb because he was just a key to her. If anything it jerked me out of that world because the blatant intensity was riveting. It was just sudden and cold compared to the rest of the movie.
If I had to give it a star count I would say 4 out of 5. That ending just really felt unfinished to me. I understand why they ended it like that, but now what is her purpose? That type of being walking around without any regret surely would cause a lot of damage. The funny part of the movie was how hard they pushed the fact that she could have sex and enjoy it. This along with several other scenes showed the light-hearted sense that was peeking through. If you have seen the movie what do you think? Do you agree or disagree with my rating? Comment and let me know. Also let me know what other movies I should watch and review.
M.