Ex Machina (2015)
Certified: 15
Duration: 108 minutes
Directed by: Alex Garland
Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac, Sonoya Mizuno, Symara A. Templeman, Elina Alminas
KRS Releasing Ltd
Science fiction is supposed to make you think, to be at the forefront of ideas, to come up with inspiration, to shock you into your senses and to make you aware of what is happening to the world around us. Ex Machina is all this. This is an intelligent movie with brilliant ideas and is superbly executed toemerge as a very satisfying and enriching movie experience.
Author Alex Garland, who penned the cult novel The Beach and is the screenwriter of such genre movies as 28 Days Later and Sunshine, makes his directorial debut from his own script.
This is an intelligent movie with brilliant ideas and is superbly executed
The film avoids spectacle for claustrophobia and grand scenarios for intimacy, with the result being cutting edge in its approach and sweep. It focuses on Domhnall Gleeson (About Time, Calvary and next to be seen in Star Wars) who plays Caleb, a coder who is one of the best in his field. He works at Bluebook, a search engine, and he is taken from his daily routine to work in the secret hideaway of Nathan (Oscar Isaac), Bluebook’s eccentric and genius owner. The project is top secret.
Caleb finds himself working on an experiment, but at times he feels he is also part of it. The aim is to create an artificial intelligence that will revolutionise the field. Here he meets Ava (Alicia Vikander), a robot that has been given a humanoid figure and a human face. As the days go by, Caleb comes at a crossroads and begins to doubt everything, most of all, Nathan’s intentions and real motives.
Ex Machina comes with such sheen to it, such an all-round overall air of perfection that it ensnares you completely. Garland’s film looks like a jigsaw puzzle, one that comes with an air of expectancy to every piece that is added and, besides, it comes with a sense of urgency to it that is very palpable.
The film does not focus on over-the-top action but it emphasises its concept by focusing on the characters, the environment and the atmosphere. It presents science fiction that is plausible. And this sense of realism, coupled with the way the story develops and the scintillating lights it seems to emit make Ex Machina a worthwhile watch.
Isaac and Gleeson are two character actors who are destined for greater stardom. The two balance each out very well: Isaac brings menace and an aura of ambiguity to his every action,while Gleeson is the perfect counterfoil as he looks more innocent and is pushed into this labyrinth that will test his character and sanity.
The star of the show, however, has to be Vikander who recently starred in Son of a Gun.
Aided in no little manner by the film’s production effects, she looks both human and mechanical – both steel and menacingly sensual.
Her role is central and she gives this cyber thriller a central pin on which to hold on to as it extrapolates on the ethical issues of how man is slowly becoming more adept at bending the environment to his will and exercising more god-like power attributes.
Ex-Machina manages to deliver a warning that one should do well to heed as society needs quite a wake-up call.