Artificial intelligence movies can sprout in a number of paths these days. Of course, technological advances in special effects certainly broaden a film’s horizons in terms of visuals, but it’s the thought that counts. The genre uses its setup, more effective than ever within the digital era, to investigate whether robots can overtake mankind within functioning society if we let them in too much.
With as many directions the cyborg thriller can go, we see most of them take one. The inventive human with the intention of revolutionizing the world is in a rut. This motivator wants power, but it comes two ways, from invention of creation and from the dominance over it. The progressive overestimates the limits of dominance and enhances the invention side until it backfires. It’s a statement on whether we should worry about the independence of artificial intelligence, but we’re often too focused on the consequences of pride, and it’s human-oriented again. In the case of this movie, Ex Machina (written and directed by Alex Garland), there’s no doubt that this A.I. can think and perform on its own, a cognitive freedom. But it’s there alongside our species in such a way, it introduces a different kind of dependence, that of concept.
In this new addition to the robot chronicles, Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) is a computer programmer who wins a company lottery to spend a week alone with the CEO, Nathan (Oscar Isaac), in his private abode, worth millions from what we can assume.
A deepened sense of trust doesn’t come up before Nathan reveals the true nature of the lottery: he’s been working on a humanoid machine advanced enough to step the manufacturing game up a notch. Or ten. In the form of a strikingly attractive woman (Alicia Vikander), the robot, named Ava, unknowingly participates in a series of tests led by Caleb to make sure this is the real deal. And we find out that there is potential very quickly. The responses and emotional cues this machine sends is more human than Caleb at times.
That leads to the young employee picking sides. He questions Nathan. What is this program for? And the tests are led more and more by Ava, who hints there’s something fishy going on. How can she know that? Does her programming make her that aware? Caleb is in a sticky situation, a creepy exploration into how far he can confide in something that’s not technically human.
The best thing in the movie is the special effects. They’re brilliant. Subtle fixtures in Ava’s middle body and appendages take your eyes some training to truly admire, mostly because of how fluid they are. Other blockbusters would obsess over it, but the film gets this much right: if we are to consider Ava as normal, the baffle factor needs to be low. Speaking of which, Vikander is very good. We keep trying to decide if she’s a realistic A.I. that’s missing the complete human touch or a dazed woman who can’t put her thoughts together.
That’s what the film has Caleb decide, at least. The film is very centered around that aspect. It rarely veers off from the test itself, and Nathan’s goal is pretty cemented into the script. All the conversations they have, all the snooping around Caleb does, and, ironically, all the interactions we see have as much breathing room as the three main occupants, both human and robot, in this secluded penthouse have. Sure, there’s life, but a synthetic kind, generated by no other than us.
This kind of life could really expand and let our minds wander if the environment was more natural. The setting is beautiful (some kind of mountain range in what I’m guessing is...Europe? General enough?), but like on a sunny summer’s day, we’re wondering why we’re spending it indoors, both physically and mentally. A broader landscape for Ava could have loosened up some uncomfortable corners the movie falls into sometimes. Maybe it could let us explore rather than making us. For once, the angle of artificial intelligence a movie takes might give us that independence we’re looking for, where the control is rolled back and the only push a robot has is its own. It’s bound to come up soon, but most likely not here.
Nevertheless, good effort on the whole. It’s the confinement of the area that sends this creepy vibe throughout the film, fitting for moviegoers looking for some chills who could very well be rewarded for this low-key thinker. And seriously, special effects. Bravo.
