This review is my thoughts
on the movie, Ex
Machina. It gives away content that you
shouldn’t read if you have not seen the movie.
About
two weeks ago, my boyfriend and I went to see the movie, Ex Machina. Excited that the movie was nestled in the horror
science fiction genre, akin to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, I had very high hopes for it. Also, I’ve been hungry
for a good story because I haven’t had much time to read or write in the past
few weeks. A new job and a new house, both within a few months of each other
has left me mentally drained. I’ve been watching more movies lately because
they are quick entertainment, a story I can absorb in less than three hours.
Ex Machina offers plenty of suspense throughout
as a result of its quiet moments where you’re almost leaning into the screen.
The movie draws your attention. Mostly because of its silent promise of
something philosophical. You don’t want to miss a second and miss the message.
The
tension in the movie is also one of its well-done features, both social and
situational. You can feel tension especially between Caleb (the main character)
and Nathan (the creator of the AI). From the story, you find that Nathan is
very disconnected from other human beings. He lives in the middle of thousands
of acres, with no towns for miles. A helicopter must bring Caleb into Nathan’s
isolated paradise. Nathan either lacks some essential social skills or simply
doesn’t care anymore. He is an alcoholic and at times seems to want to Caleb to
form a sort of mock friendship with him. Caleb, on the other hand, behaves like
he is in the land of giants, and understandably so. He is faced with a standoffish
genius and a highly sophisticated AI, who wouldn’t be out of his element.
Ava
is by far the most interesting character of all. She is the AI creation,
Frankenstein’s monster. Her conversations with Caleb are daunting and each one
leaves you wondering. What was most troubling about Ava was a fact that I found
to be unanswered in the movie. I think that the writers tried to answer it or
maybe thought they had. If Ava was programed by Nathan to deceive for survival
did she ever really have true human emotions? At the end of the movie, Ava is
akin to what we would call a sociopath, leaving the man who promised to help her
to die the most horrible death, alone with the promise of slow starvation ahead.
Her creator treated her like an object to be manipulated and deprogrammed if
she failed the test. Yet, she has more compassion for him than Caleb. At least,
she ensures that he is dead before she departs.
However,
this element of the story makes the ending more potent. Without the ability to
age or feel pain, Ava escapes isolation and her shadow draws across a busy
intersection. Because Nathan kept his creation a secret, no one knows of the
presence of the machine, capable of manipulation for her own survival. The
ending leaves the viewer with the unsettling feeling that Nathan, like Dr.
Frankenstein has unleashed a monster on society.
