Ex Machina scares you in exactly the right way :: purely and existentially

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It’s hard to think about artificial intelligence as a concept that’s fresh and new, considering it’s been around literally since the beginning of movies (Metropolis in 1927). But the truth is, as technology continues to get more advanced and we get computers that seem to “think” better than ever, it’s not the craziest thing to explore. When you have folks like Elon Musk and Bill Gates talking worriedly about AI as bad for humanity, it’s … troubling. We like to think that we control our devices and technology and that it doesn’t really affect us, not really. That hey, we’re independent beings! Right? A robot would just be great, wouldn’t it?

Right?

Ex Machina comes from writer/director Alex Garland (his first film directing) and stars Domhnall Gleeson as Caleb, a young computer coder working for “Blue Book,” a Google sort of analogue. He wins a kind of contest and gets to spend a week at the mountain retreat of his brilliant boss Nathan (Oscar Isaac). But it turns out Nathan has a specific thing in mind for Caleb to do — because Nathan has built the first robot with anything close to artificial intelligence, and he wants Caleb to “test” her out. If the robot Ava (Alicia Vikander) can convince Caleb that she’s “intelligent” then she’s passed the test of a person, right?

It seems exciting, and Caleb jumps right into it, asking questions of the mysterious but beguiling Ava and getting questioned right back. But everything may not be as it seems, as Nathan and Ava both seem to have their own secrets, and Caleb is right in the middle of it all. Nathan seems like a charming, down to earth guy, until he doesn’t. And then he is again, so it’s all unclear, and we’re as confused as Caleb. As we wonder what’s the real game here, and all the while, Caleb is getting increasingly entranced by Ava. And wondering about the divide between humanity and machine.

Oscar Isaac is just awesome here. tweet

So how’s the acting? Kind of critical when you have such a small cast. Well, Oscar Isaac is just awesome here, funny at times and creepy at others. But the guy’s a talented actor, so not a huge surprise there. He’s got serious charisma, always keeping your attention. Domhnall Gleeson is pretty good, although I think he’s far better in the serious parts here where you can really focus on his face. I didn’t entirely buy the “intelligent problem solver” side of his personality. But what about the big character here, the robot who’s trying to pass as human?

Well, she’s great. Alicia Vikander, whom I recall as having the boring storyline in 2012’s Anna Karenina with a romantic subplot with, wait … Domhnall Gleeson? That’s weird. Anyway, she’s very good here, twinging that performance just right to seem humanlike but not quite human. You feel her pain, and then wonder if she was really feeling anything at all. It’s masterful manipulation. The movie plays around with a lot of these ideas, and to be honest, it doesn’t always work as being that clever. What works are the characters, despite the sometimes simplistic nature of the existential questions.

This may not be on the level of the life shaking movie Her, but it’s a great entry in the list of sci-fi movies that people should totally watch but probably won’t.