Ex Machina
By Ava Fineza
Image Source: IMDb
logline: A programmer named Caleb wins the opportunity to visit his CEO in his house and take part in an experiment to evaluate a highly advanced AI.
Unfortunately, I kind of spoiled this movie for myself by watching a Cinema Sins about it like four years ago. Ironically, I had looked up “cinemasins ex machina” because the guy uses that phrase in his videos so much and I didn’t know what it meant. You would think I would have forgotten the end since I finally just watched it about two weeks ago, but no. I still remembered :) Oh well. Besides the fact that I knew what was going to happen, I enjoyed this movie! I was surprised to see that there were only four people really sharing the screen for the whole film, but the shortage of characters didn’t make the film any less enjoyable. The cinematography was very artsy and beautiful - it’s A24, what would you expect - and the performances were great - I thought Alicia Vikander did an exceptional job playing a robot playing a human, which in my opinion looks a lot harder than it sounds. She perfectly captured the slightly stiff, not fully fluid movements, demonstrating the essence of Uncanny Valley (which I learned abt in this Trope Anatomy video o ho ho)(pls make a new video Trope Anatomy :0) - unsettling and uncomfortable. Nice. Not only was the cinematography great but the visual effects were top-notch, making Ava(who, moi?) look like a robot they built instead of the reality that almost everything was CGI. Lastly, I really liked the setup of the movie, splitting it up into sessions with Ava. As we see her relationship with Caleb develop we see how in many ways, Ava is not the only one being tested… Ex Machina gives an interesting and very original take on the concept of artificial intelligence and provides introspection on human conscience. It’s a fun watch, and if I enjoyed it having already known what was going to happen, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it much more going in fresh. Give it a watch!
My Favorite Character:
Alicia Vikander as Ava - Besides the fact that she shares my name and is one of the only four main characters, I do actually like Ava. I feel like she is more aware and more intelligent than Caleb and Nathan think, and while I can’t say much about her without spoiling it, Ava’s personality and mind are extremely interesting, even more so when you know it’s all programming. Vikander did an amazing job.
Fun Fact: Ex Machina won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, despite only having a budget of $15 million. It beat major blockbusters in this category, including Mad Max: Fury Road ($150 mil) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($200 mil).
Rated R for graphic nudity, sexual references, strong language(are non-bad ones weak then? mysteries of life with tim and moby), and some violence.
Where to Watch:
IMDb and Reddit Thread(Spoilers):
And of course, how could I forget this iconic scene: