Ex Machina (2015)

[Rick Kitchen]

I loved this mind trip, and was glad for the ride.

 

Not counting his Bill Weasley roles, the first thing I saw Domhnall Gleeson in was "About Time", which I thoroughly enjoyed.  He plays the ordinary guy caught up in extraordinary circumstances, and he's really relateable.

 

Oscar Isaac has the douchebag character down pat, he's played it so many times, but he's good in this -- so good that I hated his character from the very beginning. I hope he plays against type if he's going to be the lead in the next Star Wars movie.

 

This is the first thing I've seen Alicia Vikander in anything, and wow, she's really beautiful.  Having to play a robot is difficult to pull off, and she managed it.

 

Will there be a sequel?

 

[bluvelvet]

Wow, that movie surprised me. She was playing him the entire time and then just left him there to die. That was cold!..but then again she is a machine.

 

I pretty much figured Keiko was a AI early on.

[ZoqFotPik]

I remember watching the trailer and thinking "He [Domhall Gleeson] is obviously a robot and is actually the one being tested.", so I kept waiting for that to be revealed. I was pleasantly surprised that that was not the case. It never occurred to me that she was playing him the entire time.  

 

 

Oscar Isaac has the douchebag character down pat, he's played it so many times, but he's good in this -- so good that I hated his character from the very beginning. I hope he plays against type if he's going to be the lead in the next Star Wars movie.

Both he and Domhall Gleeson are in the new Star Wars movie. Gleeson's role has not been revealed yet.

 

 

This is the first thing I've seen Alicia Vikander in anything, and wow, she's really beautiful.  Having to play a robot is difficult to pull off, and she managed it.

Agreed on both points.

[SallyAlbright]

Can't wait to see this, just based on the cast alone. I am a huge Domhnall Gleeson fan after the sorely underrated gem About Time, and Oscar Isaac was fantastic in A Most Violent Year. I have yet to see Vikander in anything but it looks like she's going to have a Jessica Chastain-type breakout year, she's in every movie I'm excited to see!

Edited April 27, 2015 by SallyAlbright

[Fukui San]

Watched this last night and enjoyed it a lot.  I've not watched many movies recently (beware of parenthood), so it was first exposure to all the cast except for Harry Potter movies, I guess. Wikander's a revelation, Isaac is a great a-hole and Gleeson was OK.

 

I appreciate how subtle things were in this sci-fi setup to make the robots seem inhuman.  Ava showing more human movements when she knows no one is looking. Her walking out of the complex her gait changes into a "normal" gait like Keyzer Soze walking out of the police station. 

 

She coldly let the guy die, of course. But I have to wonder what would have happened if Gleeson's character didn't get knocked out by Isaac's character. She isn't an obviously better fighter than a human. Isaac had a chance before getting stabbed by Kiyoko.  (Another subtle robot movement: How slow and controlled the stabbings were.)  One has to think she'd string him along and then push him over a cliff when no one's looking.  

 

I wonder how Ava is going to power up in the real world?  And unless she can learn how to repair herself, she's going to have a limited lifetime like the rest of us.

Edited May 19, 2015 by Fukui San

[BigBlueMastiff]

We watched this last night, and loved it. Can't remember either guy character's name, so let's just call them AH and Rube. Love how Ava played Rube, and how he played AH. My husband called Kiyoko as AI early (not me). I enjoyed the guy characters getting their comeuppance at the hands of the female AIs. This movie illustrated how tech guys objectify women and treat them as objects. The dancing on command, the use of Kiyoko as a sexbot, all grossed me out. That AH thought this was okay, and never considered the feelings of his creations showed him for the sick narcissist he was. Did he ever say what the purpose of creating these female AIs was, other than that he could? Uggghhh, the smugness and the entitlement, I cheered when the ladies stabbed him. Rube was more a sad, pathetic stereotype tech guy with no life, and few social skills when it came to women. He read AH, but was so smitten with Ava, he didn't evaluate her objectively.

 

I wonder what Ava's story was to the helicopter pilot?

[hardy har]

My hands down favorite movie moment this year is the scene where Ava tells Caleb to close his eyes and after he does she sort of double checks to make sure he's not peeking. So good. A friend and I got into a fun debate about whether or not we would treat AI's like we'd treat human beings if said AI's were as advanced as Ava. Anyway, I didn't really see Ava as being cold. I get that she's an AI, but she was self-aware and knew that she was being held in a room and treated like a guinea pig. She knew she only had one chance to get out of there and ol' girl took it and ran. Poor Caleb was just collateral damage.

 

For those of you who've never seen Vikander before . . . check out A Royal Affair. I believe it still streaming on Netflix. She and Mads Mikkelsen are so goddamn good in it. Vikander and Gleesen played Valentin and Kitty in Anna Karenina a few years ago too. They were the best part of that movie.

Edited August 7, 2015 by hardy har

[Chas411]

This terrified me. Most films with AI human like bots does because without doubt they'll always turn on the humans by the end.

It was weird that she didn't kill Domhnall Gleesons character by the end but rather left him there to die. Something a lot colder. Was it just that he had served his purpose so she didn't give him another thought?

[bluvelvet]

I also thought her leaving him to die was very cold. She could have programmed the house to open up after she left but I got the sense that she just didn't care. That is her being a machine.

[SeanC]

I also thought her leaving him to die was very cold. She could have programmed the house to open up after she left but I got the sense that she just didn't care. That is her being a machine.

I thought it was because she wants to vanish, and she can't do that if there are people out there who know that she exists and that she's a robot.

[beetnemesis]

Watched this with coffee in the morning and was captivated straight away. Beautiful story and great FX. One of those films you think about long after watching it. Bravo 8/10

[Fukui San]

I thought it was because she wants to vanish, and she can't do that if there are people out there who know that she exists and that she's a robot.

Eventually they'll go to the house when the rich dude goes missing for a while. Then they'll discover the house. If Caleb has access to a pencil and paper he'll be able to write up all the details of Ava before he buys it.  But she'll have a head start before the world learns of her existence. 

 

Ava leaving him to die was probably the safest move for her if she didn't actually care if he lived or died, which apparently she didn't.  She wasn't a sure bet to kill him by hand based on her previous fight with Nathan. And taking him with him (even if she's planning to discard him later) she'd be in danger of him turning on her and putting her at a disadvantage at any moment.

[Ronin Jackson]

I enjoyed the film. To me the central question of the film was weather or not leaving Caleb behind made Ava more or less human.

[Bruinsfan]

I watched a 10-minute preview of it via OnDemand, and found the two characters featured (the men) so boringly unlikeable that any urge to see the movie disappeared.

[catrox14]

It was interesting and I really enjoyed Oscar Issac, who I'm also enjoying in Show Me a Hero. He has a real authentic quality to him. Meaning he feels like the character and not the actor if that makes sense.

I don't understand who the helicopter pilot was and when she called him? I'd like to think it was another AI that was already out in the world. I was really surprised Nathan didn't program the AI to auto-destruct when getting past a certain point off the compound if he was that concerned about them getting into the world.

[SeanC]

I don't understand who the helicopter pilot was and when she called him?

The pilot was there to pick up Caleb at the prearranged time.

[catrox14]

Ah thank you. I clearly missed that part LOL

[benteen]

I saw this a couple of weeks ago and I really enjoyed it.  Very thought-provoking.  Fantastic performances by the three actors, especially Oscar Isaac.  His dance floor line had me laughing out loud.  I'm so glad that both him and Domhell Gleeson are going to be in the new Star Wars film.

[LeGrandElephant]

Just finally watched this. One of the main things that bugged me about her leaving Caleb to die is that it wasn't practical. Even if she was faking liking him, there are plenty of further uses for having someone around and on her side who can help her. Would have made more sense if she tried to hide from him that she had killed Isaac, escaped along with him, and then maybe turned on him if he expressed horror when finding out she killed Isaac and threatened to turn her off or turn her in to some kind of authorities. I think it made her seem less human because her motivations didn't make sense - even a sociopath could still find a lot of uses for Caleb at that point. So maybe the fact that it didn't quite make sense was the point - she isn't human and her motivations and goals are not always comprehensible.

[paramitch]

I hate being one of the few voices of dissent (I'm a people-pleaser, dammit!), but while it was beautifully produced, I thought this was only okay, predictable, and wildly overpraised.

 

My first and hugest problem was the timeline. No way would a brilliant programmer fall in love and scheme to save an AI (Hot Girl or no) in only 4-5 sessions. The movie's compressed timeline really bothered me logistically and from a character-building standpoint.

 

And it took away from any subtleties. Everything felt like, "We're on a deadline, people!" So Caleb doesn't really get to know the asshole boss (which felt like a wasted opportunity to me -- so much more interesting if there had been some unexpected nuance or even real bonding there. And Caleb must fall almost instantly for Ava, which, hey, she's a gorgeous female robot, so I guess the writer just felt like that was a given. Forget actually giving her a real personality. The scene where she donned the "date outfit" (multiplied forever in every scene afterward with Caleb) I guess was supposed to suffice. We never got to know her. We never evidently got a single real word out of her -- what a waste. 

 

So, to me, Ava just felt like pandering. She never felt real to me. I'm a proud nerdgirl, but Ava felt every bit as unrealistic to me as the cartoonish "hot girl" creation in that old John Hughes movie "Weird Science" -- created for hotness, created to serve a specific and very male purpose, and even though she twisted that purpose in the end, it felt so telegraphed, so absolutely (of course) essential to the story. It made me angry on so many levels.

 

What I disliked most of all is that thematically, the movie gets to have its cake and eat it too. The AI is a Hot Girl. Of course she is. She flirts ridiculously with the stupid hero, who of course buys it. Because of course he does.  We gradually realize just how cruel and transparent the asshole genius's needs and designs actually are. While of course ogling the poor vulnerable women at every step.

 

And so basically -- it gets to utterly objectify Ava and all the female AIs and then at the very last second, Ava's act is somehow (I think) supposed to be both "girlpower" and the all-too-predictable "Skynet is here, we're all dooooooomed" thing and... I just can't. Ava's victory in the end doesn't legitimize the hour and a half of soft-voiced pretty defenseless ingenue bullshit we had to endure from her to get there. I can't help it, I found it insulting. Maybe if Caleb had bought it over 50 sessions. But 5? Seriously? Gah.

 

I didn't think it was terrible. It was well-done across the boards. But I did think it was a wasted opportunity. There were no new ideas here for me at all. It was just the same-old, same-old -- Frankenstein with a dash of Galatea and the whole scientific hubris thing.

Most of all, I found myself regretting that Ava is not just a predictable femme fatale, but that she's such a blank. We never learn a thing about who she actually is, what she actually wants, at all. She's a blank. But a beautiful blank.

 

Compared to the fantastic richness of "Mad Max: Fury Road," this was a disappointment for me. (It looked cool and smart but was so empty at its core -- the total opposite of MMFR for me.)

Edited January 31, 2016 by paramitch

[ChelseaNH]

Caleb didn't win a lottery; he was selected because he was already biased towards falling for Ava.  Not that you have to be in love with her to see her as a sentient being who's being held prisoner by an asshole.  The whole sexbot angle is super-creepy, but I suspect it's meant to cloud the issue of her imprisonment, and the possibility that there's a valid reason for not letting her free.

 

I'm not saying you should like it, just that some of your criticism is unwarranted.  Programming skills really don't have anything to do with emotional vulnerability, after all.

[BetterButter]