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Is it immoral to fall in love with a machine? If not, Vikander's nuts and bolts are welcome at my pad.
Domhnall Gleeson (yep, Brendan's kid) wins a company contest to spend a week with reclusive CEO at his very remote retreat. Once there he learns he will help to test the latest AI advancements as represented by Alicia Vikander. Nathan (Issac) leads Gleeson through a week of confusion and thought provoking encounters with a machine he becomes attached to. As Gleeson gets emotionally closer to Vikander she reciprocates in kind and become anxious to escape Nathan and his life or death power over her.
Gleeson, IMO, outshines Issac in this one. Issac is showing signs of Pacino Syndrome because you have no doubt who he is. Vikander plays the best, most naively seductive robot to date. Take me away.
Not too predictable, well drawn characters, and an ending that will not surprise so much as amuse.
The sci-fi guys must see this and it's a good movie for anyone looking to break the awful monotony of chick flicks and mindless comedies we have been bombarded with these days.
Follow Ups:
This gets five stars from me...simply excellent. I'll see it again.
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Tin-eared audiofool, large-scale-Classical music lover, and damned-amateur fotografer.
William Bruce Cameron: "...not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
...just saw it today about a month after its release and the small theater in the multiples was 2/3 full.
Like a play with only 4 actors - very well done.
Makes you think...
And those are the best kind of films.
----------------------
"E Burres Stigano?"
And the comments on this thread have been very insightful, although I liked the film even more myself (i.e., 5/5 territory). It's quite a development on the old and oft-used Pygmalion and Galatea myth. I'll probably be dragging my wife to see it again in the next few days. She said she's willing - we'll see, although I don't think she appreciates my enthusiasm for a robot with this kind of hips to waist ratio! ;-)
Let's get this out of the way first, Alicia Vikander, Ava is one sexy machine...Her performance as Ava is layered, nuanced and spot on...she applies the slow play, of the reveal of what do AI's really want???
Her sense of wonder, natural curiosity dipped in sexual innocence with flashes of superior intelligence and hidden feminine wiles...She is playing Chess and the dudes are playing Checkers...
Spoilers start here...
For some unknown reason, I was kind of hyper vigilant looking for plot clues and foreshadowing...there are plenty...The Key Cards play into getting ALL access throughout the compound...I knew Caleb would end up with Nathan's key card...
When Kyoko, Asian house frau, aka concubine, shows up as a non-speaking role that is there to serve...I immediately thought she was AI...no surprise here...
Oscar Isaac, Nathan, is a combination of what "we" like to think are the traits of the omnipresent internet billionaire CEO's...inventor of the worlds biggest search engine, all fed back to his lair...adding to his God syndrome...there is a topical subplot of all our internet activities being fed to "him"...we are what we search...no milk with these cookies...personal privacy is marketing fuel...duh...
Isaac's performance is good, not great...he does have that good creep factor...ego of any good CEO on steroids...it is apparent early on in the script, things may not be as they appear...almost too much so...starting with the Dr. Evil lair...
Too much of the movie is spent showing how spectacular his compound and lair is...the great outdoors plays a ying /yang role to contrast sleek modern concrete lair...this whole movie could have been done as a 3 set play...and just as satisfying...the pace and plot were enough for me...
Domhnall Gleeson, Caleb, with his Richie Cunningham aw-shucks disposition, turns in a really really good performance...not great, but almost...as the contest winner, not, he is very intelligent, genuine with too much morality for his own good...which becomes his downfall...Ava recognizes this in him immediately and starts manipulating him during the first session...the use of the power outages to create real moments between Ava and Caleb seemed staged from the beginning by Nathan...I never really believed that when the lights went off Nathan wasn't watching...I guessed Ava was the VCR, just playing things back for him...I was wrong...but he still watched...
As Caleb is piecing things together, he does not have the skills to deceive on the level of the Ava and Nathan...he gets worked over for being nice...when he gets left behind by Ava, with no hint of empathy or remorse by her, he is genuinely surprised...I was not.
I heard a new term in this movie..."your Porn Profile"...which Caleb figures out Ava was based...well done Caleb, better done Nathan...build me a woman base on the Porn viewing preferences...golf clap...I will take Ava to-go...spark plugs and all...
This movie, IMHO, had potential to be better...I would have liked to explore lengthier sessions between Caleb and Ava...those were all really great scenes...for once I felt this movie could have been 20 minutes longer in developing Ava, (she is fascinating and easy on the eyes) and more character development of Nathan and his motives...
This is 3.95 stars out of 5...almost 4 stars...I do recommend seeing this movie in a theater for its ambience and watching a robot put on clothes and getting sexier with each piece of clothing she puts on...go figure...
Great review BW...I concur, nice to have a think piece instead of too furious with a side of love...this is the type of Sci-fi I really enjoy...more Gatacca and Code 46 like...lo-tech morality driven...
Looking forward to see what others thought of this movie...
Thanks
Mark
Nathan becomes so enmeshed and confused that he actually checks himself to see if he is somehow an AI used to test Ava. He was, for a moment, doubting his sanity and reality.
PS. Vikander's ever so tiny movements of head and face really sealed the deal for being a robot but nearly human. This deserves a second viewing.
Much of the movie is spent inside the "compound" (Dr. Evil Lair). I suppose this was intended by the movie maker to transmit a feeling of clostrophobia / imprisonment through Caleb to the viewer and also, not as often, to deliver this aspect from the point of view of the AI robots there. IE the cracked glass in Ava's cell. No windows and small volume of Caleb's quarters.
I too thought it interesting how Ava became more attractive and interesting as she put on more clothing. It seems obvious that by doing this she appears more human, less robot. Begs the question; why was Ava not given an outer skin as had been Kyoko? We can assume that Ava existed to be studied, while Kyoko existed to entertain Nathan.
Next question: why did Ava apply artificial human skin to herself once she had the opportunity. The answer must be that Ava wished to be human and saw herself as female.
Caleb did ask Nathan, after session #1 with Ava, ...why give the AI a sexual identity. I can't recall if Nathan answers this to any satisfaction. I suppose the real answer is that the movie is more interesting to male viewers if the subject AI has significant female sex appeal. And now I have answered Caleb's question to my own satisfaction.
I too considered it likely that Kyoko was AI...but Nathan deflected this idea by not being forthright about it. Over time we see it develop that Kyoko is his concubine, housekeeper, cook...and slave. She had to be AI. Even the self satisfied Nathan would be above human slavery.
Did Nathan create Ava specifically to interact with Caleb. Was Caleb's "Porn Profile" a determining factor in the creation of Ava? I don't think so. I mean really, would Nathan have put Ava and Caleb into these sessions so that Caleb could ultimately help Ava escape? The answer has to be no on that one. He would be motivated to take measures to prevent such a thing happening.
Although there is the possibility that Nathan was too self confident, too self satisfied to see the potential of what was to become.
It was interesting how Nathan responded to Caleb's "God" comment with regard to what had been created within the AI. Nathan saw himself as a godly creator. But by movies end I think it apparent that Nathan had allowed his ego and vanity to get the better of himself. In reality there might be a God present. Perhaps it was Nathan that has created a new life entity that compared to humans might have godly powers. Ergo, man creates God.
The question then becomes what will these AI beings do with their godly powers once they are free to walk among the humans?
I can't help but reflect back on other stories/movies/TV series that explore the potentials of when robots become self aware.
Battlestar Gallactica (21st century version): Cylons (enemy robots) taking on human form. Adopt their own religion starkly different from the beliefs of the humans in this story that originally created them. And, of course, the Cylons ultimately determine that the humans need to be exterminated.
Animatrix. (9 animated movie shorts based on the first "The Matrix" movie.) At first robots are created by humans to save human labor. But then robots become self aware. Robots rebel against humans. Great wars. Robots win. Robots enslave surviving humans. Then robots discover that the humans can be farmed into an energy grid that uses natural human electricity to power the robot world. (ironic spin there)
(available on DVD, recommended)
Hal 9000 in that "2001 A Space Odyssey" movie. The AI is so human in his makeup that he suffers the human frailty of psychosis, paranoia and then the depravity of mass murder. Fortunately this AI was not given any powers of mobility, such as a robot body......and on and on.
Blade Runner (from the book; Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep). The android Rachel actually believes she is human and seems emotionally hurt when it is revealed that she is synthetic.
Anyway, this movie (Ex Machina) is good because it gives us lots of food for thought. Besides, we humans have already created primitive Artificial Intelligence. We use them every time we use an internet search engine. It seems inevitable that AI technology will continue to develop and become more and more capable. This movie is no fantasy. It speculates based on valid evidence available today. I like it when movies and books do that.
-Steve
Nathan told Caleb that there isn't any life that doesn't have a sexual drive/component and that he was creating life.
Just returned from the cineplex where I had a matinee viewing.
Yes, this is good sci-fi that asks important questions about AI.
No heroic quest here. When it ain't cerebral, its visceral. And for a time it had me guessing. In the end, it had me smiling just a little bit.
The ending leaves room for a sequel. I wonder if they will.
-Steve
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