My Thoughts on the Movie Ex Machina

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. 

The Council: Book Two of The Elementals

I just finished writing The Council: Book Two of The Elementals, and put it out last month. Writing books in law school is no easy task, but I am so glad that the book is finally completed. Now, I am working on the yet to-be-titled third installment in the series. I'm hoping to get a decent head-start before I go to work in the fall. I cannot think of a better way to spend my summer!
If I finish, fingers crossed, I'll start work on my next book. I have a collection that need to go through the editing and typing up process, but I'm not sure yet which book I will put out next.
Now that law school is finished, and I'm graduating this May, I think that I will have substantial time for writing and editing. I'm getting a lot more done now and more quickly.

Buy The Elementals

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Writing is Fun. Editing is Not.

I remember from the ages of 12 to 17 it was all about the writing. I was writing every summer between school. It was enjoyable and cathartic. It didn't feel like work; it felt like expression. 

The only problem with writing twelve novels by the age of 17 is now I have to edit them. I wish I could write "Dear 12-year-old self, Learn to edit after you write." But then I was 12. I would probably have to edit again even if I had edited back then. 

A college professor whom I deeply respect once told me: "Editing is never finished. Things can always be perfected." It is a true and very hopeless notion. I know my work doesn't touch perfection, but if I feel it has to be overhauled now at the age of 24, what will I think of that same work at the age of 50? 

The troubles of a young writer! 

Right now my red pen is bleeding through the pages as I edit Volume 2 of The Elementals trilogy. 

I sit with my red pen and my notebook because if there is one good thing that comes from editing it's new ideas. It can also be a problem as the book grows and grows and grows. Sometimes you just want to deal with what is there. But other times I am very grateful. I've never had writer's block. 

Editing is a pain. 

My First Book

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New Blog!

This is the first post of my new blog. I just finished my first book, The Elementals. The editing was by far the hardest and most time-consuming thing I've ever done, except law school maybe. But the funny thing is, I enjoyed the process, even the hard parts. I'm just passionate about writing, and I guess when you're passionate about something, ever the hard stuff becomes exciting or even fulfilling.

My journey with this book began when I was seventeen. It wasn't my first book (I wrote my first book when I was 12, and though my dad and a few of his friends swear it was great, I have my doubts). This book was actually my fourth but there's something about it that draws me in more than any of my other books. It's probably because the heroine is drawn into a path that she didn't choose, but later she decides to go against the odds and forge her own path.

For just about 7 years, I sat on this book and did nothing about it, and then when I went though my first year of law school, I realized life is short and I'm almost 24, and I've done a lot of great things that other people praise me for, but I needed something to praise myself for.

I've had lots of ambitions, but I feel like this one, writing, is the only one that is truly mine and no one else's. I spent a lot of time struggling with that and I don't really know why.

At my breaking point, I wrote to one of my professors from undergrad and told him that I felt that I was not pursuing my passion in life. He told me that I have to pursue my passion as he did. He juggled with the idea of becoming a dentist for some time, but said that he wouldn't trade his courses or his students for the world.

It's a funny thing. Sometimes a person gives you advice that you already know in your heart to be true, but it wasn't really until that person said it that you decide to act on it. That's how it worked for me.

I was in a slump, and then my eyes were opened. I can't thank that professor enough for that.