Ever since the cold and dismal “Year Without a Summer” in 1816, when Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, we have been writing about the complications of trying to create artificial sentience. The sci-fi movie world has used this plot theme over and over. Back to Fritz Lang’s amazing Metropolis with its female robot “The Machine”, through all of the variations on Frankenstein movies, Robbie the Robot in The Forbidden Planet, androids in Blade Runner, and more recent films like Kubrick/Speilberg’s AI - Artificial Intelligence or the more recent Her, we have contemplated just what happens when you create a machine that can “think”. Back in the 40’s, early computer inventor Alan Turing considered this at a time when computers were barely up to the task of adding up your grocery bill; he came up with what’s been referred to as the Turing Test, which is whether a computing device can respond to a question in a way that would convince an objective human that the response is intelligent.
This time, the story is of an eccentric, genius billionaire Nathan (Oscar Issac), who has invited a brilliant programmer Caleb (Domhall Gleason) to evaluate Ava (Alicia Vikander), an engaging and attractive android, to see if Caleb can determine whether Ava can pass the Turing Test. The test is taking place in a forbiddingly isolated complex, apparently only inhabited by Nathan, Ava and his beguiling “servant” (who does not speak English) Kyoko. Caleb can ask Ava any question and discuss anything with her, but she is physically isolated from him behind glass walls; both are under 24 X 7 surveillance, except during brief power failures.
The plot takes a turn when, during one of the failures, Ava reveals to Caleb that Nathan can not see them when the power is out and reveals that she wants OUT of the complex. She is being held against her will. She says that Nathan is not what he appears to be and is dangerous. Caleb discovers that Nathan is erratic, potentially violent and that he’s a heavily drinking alcoholic. As the days pass, Caleb feels more isolated, trapped and unsure what he’s really doing and WHY he is doing it. By this time, the viewer is probably convinced that Ava has passed the Turing Test, but that doesn’t help; now the question is, just what is the real game here. Things are getting less clear rather than more for Caleb. His situation takes a turn for the worse when Caleb starts to probe into parts of the building that are none of his business and discovers more aspects of Nathan’s work and intention. Each revelation makes this wide open environment become more claustrophobic as Caleb realizes just how far away he is and how helpless.
Ex Machina is one of the more intelligent and theoretical films I have seen in a while. It’s worth being familiar with the concept of AI and the Turing Test. It’s the only film I can recall having seen that uses the word stochastic (look it up). It’s somewhat slow to develop, but, like Nathan, continues to become more menacing the more we learn. With a sparse cast, there are three performances of note, Oscar Issac as Nathan, Domhall Gleason as Caleb and a highly digitized Alicia Vikander as Ava. The cinematography is quite good and the highly digital FX of the androids is excellent. The film is the directorial debut by Alex Garland, who also wrote the script. His previous credits are mainly as a writer, notably for 28 Days Later and Dredd. He’s not a well known name in the US (he’s British) but, based on Ex Machina, he should be. If you like your sci-fi to be high-concept rather than monsters, running and shooting, this is definitely worth seeing.
