Rent Ex_Machina (2014)

Robot Love - Ex_Machina review by PT

Not being a huge sci fi fan I surprisingly really enjoyed this movie. Great performances from the 3 main protagonists, clever script, and a wonderful directorial debut.

For me it was a question of, could you become emotionally involved with a robot? With AI this advanced, encased in the beautiful feminine body of Ava, I could totally believe that logic would be cancelled out by emotion and sexual attraction. So for me the answer was a resounding yes. Very good movie.

I so wanted to enjoy it more. A good central performance can't disguise the flaws of this film - Ex_Machina review by TB

I remember when this film was released in 2014, there was a massive amount of critical praise, as well as the debate of the questions/future that this movie posed. As someone who isn't that into Sci-Fi, it wasn't a film I was clamouring to see & the only reason I rented it, apart from remembering the critical praise, was seeing that the 4K remaster had just been released.

But as much as I wanted to like it, for me it just didn't work that well. For a start, I could see within 20 minutes what was going to happen. The "twists" were so clearly & blatantly set up, the film thinking it was playing all these cunning sleight of hands, but it was obvious where things were going.

The main story focuses on Caleb, a programmer at an enormous internet search company, who wins a competition to spend the week with the multi-billionaire CEO at his luxury estate in the middle of nowhere. Once he arrives, he is then told that the real reason he is there is because the CEO, Nathan, has created a groundbreaking & completely revolutionary new android robot called Ava which he wants Caleb to "test." These tests, based around the Turing test, basically is to see if Caleb ever feels like he isn't talking to a machine with all its limits, but a real sentient being.

As the story progresses, you see Caleb start to slowly become fascinated and infatuated by Ava, as well as Nathan slowly start to play the kind of mind games which are the last bastion of someone who has more money than God & nothing else that gives his life meaning. But even though Alicia Vikander is excellent in her role, plus the set design & graphics/CGI cutting edge for when the film was made, the rest of it basically left me cold. The sort of existential big questions the film posed were powerful, but the way it was put onto the screen did not resonate for me.

For many people, this film is amazing, plus I do respect it's ambitious scope, especially for a first time director. But it wasn't something that worked overall for me.

Pretty robot for once. - Ex_Machina review by NC

Nice to see something a little different, with a budget, and some new faces, although a couple may ring bells. Bren Gleeson's lad up the front........

Lot of work for someone to do on their own in middle of nowhere!

A glimpse of a possible future - Ex_Machina review by DR

With AI expected to take on growing importance, I decided to view this film.

I had found Alex Garland's novels more suited to an under-35 age group.

This however, is a serious film, with an unfolding narrative.

Anthropomorphic robots are what this is about, their possible thoughts, their possible motives, their possible pretexts, their possible ethics, their possible superiority to flawed human masters.

To what extent are female emotions merely calculation? One might well ask in a general context.

The ending of the film is not the ending of events. Anthropomorphic robots like these will need to socialize with each other.

Sci-fi with a difference - Ex_Machina review by TB

The difference being that this could so easily be comprehensible in years to come with our dangerous obsession with the misuse of technology. A slow moving but engaging thriller, that keeps you guessing at the outcome right up until the end.

Quite simple but, intriguing story with excellent effects and gorgeous setting. - Ex_Machina review by Bullitt 68

Enjoyable and beautiful film made with three excellent actors and a relatively small budget.

Another twist on the A.I. theme. I own this Blu-ray and look forward to watching it again soon.

A robot woman you say, a certain group of men were going to be very, very disappointed. - Ex_Machina review by Strovey

Caleb works for the biggest Internet company in the world, one morning he receives a message telling him he has won a company competition to spend a week with the companies CEO, Nathan, in his isolated private home. When Caleb arrives on his ‘adventure of a lifetime’ he finds it not the expected holiday to hang out with and pick the brains of one of the world’s leading geniuses but in fact he has to take part in a ‘working’ experiment as Nathan, wants him to interact and study his most exciting project. An apparently fully autonomous robot which is for all intents and purposes a beautiful young woman.

Alex Garland is no stranger to writing interesting and different stories but this is his first dip in the waters of directing a film. He jumped in fully clothed and swam with utter confidence in those waters too. Make no mistake this is science-fiction for grown-ups. Whilst the special effects are up on the screen, there is a robot, there is a mystery, this film asks many questions once we get to Nathans ‘fortress of solitude’ but like good stories it doesn’t lead you by the nose and it doesn’t provide you with answers. Those are for you to make up for yourself. Therefore Ex Machina has as many endings and motivations to the tale as you want.

Certainly, we are here in the territory of Blade Runner, Channel 4’s Humans and the newest video game Detroit: Become Human among a few that come to mind. In all honesty, it is a topic, subject and line of thought that endlessly fascinates me and if it is approached with some skill and thought then I’m in. I’m biased. So it stands to reason I was always going to like this film.

Throw into this mix of great ideas a three-handed cast of top young actors with the film-making universe at their feet, Oscar Issac, Domhnall Gleeson, film by film eclipsing his father, and the utterly perfect Alicia Vikander and you have a fantastic prospect before you.

For a film the really does look at some very heavy and philosophical topics the story, running at just over 1 hour and 45 minutes, doesn’t drag and zips along at a pace. As I have said the film is asking nothing new nor will it stop you in your tracks, Phillip K. Dick had been asking these type of questions in his stories nearly fifty years ago so to my mind it is not the question but how it is asked. Ex Machina asks them in such an entertaining way that I was ‘in’ from the start.

The single location, for most of the story, is simple, uncluttered yet semi-futuristic and does not distract, it is the sort of the place you imagine the next centuries Elon Musk would inhabit. The visual effects are sublime with the slight Vikander looking as much like an advanced robot as you could wish. It may sound as if Ex Machina is a solemn, serious and pompous science-fiction film yet the story is infused with a playful sense of humour and yet richly dark vein as well.

Plot holes? Of course there are, this is a film about a robot so advanced you cannot tell if it is a robot or not so they are there. I enjoyed the questions it asked as much as the story. Oh dear I think I’ve said the thing about ‘asking questions’ about three times now.

I highly recommend this film to anyone unless you really are just an action film aficionado and even then give it a go.

Consciousness. What is it?