To be perfectly frank, it’s been a rough year for movies thus far. Ranging from bad to lukewarm, cinema in general has been sitting at a solid five out of 10 throughout the late winter and springtime seasons.
In a world where science fiction, thrillers, fantasy and genres of the like are comprised entirely of remakes and reboots, it is always a pleasure to see a completely new property break onto the scene. Ex Machina, written and directed by newcomer Alex Garland, comes packing not only with a completely original story, but also some of the most clever and compelling writing cinema has seen in many a moon.
Ex Machina tells the story of Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson), a talented programmer who is invited by his boss Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac) to visit his private mountain estate in order to assist in a secret project. Caleb is assigned to test a new artificial intelligence (A.I.) unit that Nathan has created in order to ascertain just how human this A.I. actually is.
Caleb begins working with the android, named Ava (Alicia Vikander), and is astonished at just how human she may actually be. She is capable of speech, reading emotions and experiencing emotions of her own.
When an accidental power failure briefly cuts Nathan’s surveillance feeds, however, Ava warns Caleb that his boss is not to be trusted. Trapped on the estate with only a cryptic warning to guide him, Caleb must search to discover the true nature of the experiment, all the while ascertaining where the boundaries between man and machine really lie.
Truth be told, the plot of Ex Machina itself isn’t entirely fresh. Self-aware machines are among the most common tropes in sci-fi and have even been featured in other films already this year like Chappie. Where the film excels, however, is not in its original concepts but in the sheer depths to which Garland was willing to explore such concepts.
Contrary to the “turn-your-brain-off” blockbusters we are sure to see in the coming months, Ex Machina is a thinking-man’s film. Its thrills come not from effects but from the richness of the writing: Much of the dialogue contains double meanings, the plot unfolds in a manner both familiar yet fresh, and absolutely nothing within the film is what it appears to be at first glance.
The film explores each question it poses down to its deepest, darkest depths and brings the audience along for each savage revelation. While many of the film’s moves would be seen as trite or clichéd if handled by a lesser writer, Ex Machina never stops being compelling. The ending in particular is handled in such an impactful fashion that it’s impossible for audiences to walk away dissatisfied.
The film’s strengths are owed in no small part to the cast, which is admittedly extremely small. Much of the film focuses on only the three main characters, played by Gleeson, Isaac and Vikander, along with occasional appearances by a fourth.
The small, tight cast allows the film to dedicate a great deal of time to exploring each character extremely in-depth, allowing audiences to connect, on some level, with everyone appearing in the scene.
The actors do not allow a single scene to go to waste, further developing the impact with almost every line of dialogue. Just as Caleb learns how human Ava is, so too do audiences learn how human the cast is.
Even the film’s setting pushes the plot precisely how far it ought to in order to maintain originality.
The entirety of the film, for all intents and purposes, takes place within Bateman’s estate as the experiments in question must remain contained. These confined quarters, while gorgeously constructed, imbue the film with a sense of dire claustrophobia which has two ultimate effects. The first is that it forces the audience, in a very real way, to be close to each character, only heightening the intense characterization the film has already achieved so well. Furthermore it imbues every scene with a sense of urgency and confinement, a raw energy longing to break free.
Ex Machina is, in this reviewer’s opinion, the very first must-see film of 2015. Less sci-fi than psychological, the film is hewn with such smart craftsmanship that it’s almost impossible not to recommend. A ruthless and unrepentant ride from beginning to end, Ex Machina proves to be the film to beat thus far in 2015.
Overall rating: 4.5/5
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