3.5/4 Stars
Rated R
Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac and Alicia Vikander
Directed by Alex Garland
Ex Machina’s young protagonist, Caleb (Domhnall Glesson), is a bright if nerdy programmer at one of the world’s most powerful high-tech firms. He is given a dream opportunity when chosen among all employees for a one-week session with the firm’s Steve Jobs, its founder-genius, Nathan (Oscar Isaac). Helicoptered to the remote fastness of Nathan’s half-subterranean house, Caleb is told he will help administer the Turing test to determine whether the firm’s latest prototype possesses artificial intelligence. He is startled to see that the prototype is an android in the form of a woman, Ava (Alicia Vikander).
For Caleb, the surprises keep coming. One of the finest new science fiction films in several years, Ex Machina is the directorial debut by Britain’s Alex Garland. Visually, Ex Machina draws from the cold, hard surfaces of Stanley Kubrick. Ava’s special effects are apt and unflashy. A lovely face with questioning eyes surmounts a shapely body composed from a flesh-like patina as well as exposed fiber optics. The well-told story touches on the anxiety that the human race is near the end. As Nathan tells Caleb, artificial intelligence is a matter of when, not if. Homo sapiens 2.0 will look back upon us as we look at the Neanderthals.
Caleb is star struck by the reclusive Nathan, whose casually affable manner is a thin cover for a sharp mind and world-conquering ambition. “You’re freaked out,” Nathan says, reassuringly. “Can we get past that?” Minor key notes are sounded early on by the optical recognition door card Caleb is given, which admits him to some of Nathan’s rooms but not others. Caleb hesitates a moment before signing a non-disclosure agreement granting Nathan unlimited access to his data. And then there are those cameras, electric eyes that follow him everywhere.
Ava seems determined to get to know her new human friend, who behaves like an awkward boy dreaming of his first date. And hovering overhead is Nathan, acting like a challenging professor in a demanding graduate seminar. “Answer me this,” says Nathan, demanding a clear articulation of Caleb’s response to an intelligent and seemingly self-aware computer with a beautiful face. “How do you feel about her?” Clearly, Caleb is falling for Ava.
Some turns in Ex Machina’s twisting plot can be anticipated from a distance; others will be unexpected until they occur. In advancing the story, Ex Machina touches lightly but profoundly on linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy and aesthetics. As Nathan puts it, a worldwide search engine isn’t just a map of what people are thinking about but provides a map of how people think—a model he uses in engineering artificial intelligence. There can be no consciousness without interaction, he adds, acknowledging a level of mystery in how humans are “programmed” by nature and nurture. In the end, Nathan, pleased to consider himself a godlike creator, and omniscient through technology, will also be surprised by the mystery of his creation’s mind.
Opens Friday, April 24 at the Downer Theatre.
