Sci-fi AI thriller, ‘Ex Machina,’ provokes thought

BY

Ron and Leigh Martel
Movie Reviewers, The Friday Flyer

“Ex Machina” (“ch” pronounced like a “k”) explores Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a way less artificial and more intelligent than recent films on this topic. Johnny Depp generated mixed reviews with last year’s “Transcendence,” and earlier this year, innovative director Neill Blomkamp set the bar artificially low with his debacle “Chappie.”

Although expectations were equally low, patience is rewarded with this understated, yet mesmerizing sci-fi thriller. In his directorial debut, British screenwriter, Alex Garland (“28 Days Later”), assembles a worthy international cast. The AI chessboard and Jeopardy challenges are considered a given, so Garland explores the meatier issues regarding humanity that include interaction, emotion and even deception.

Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson (“Unbroken”) stars as 26-year-old computer nerd, Caleb, working for the largest Internet company in the world. Caleb has just won a competition to spend a week with the company’s reclusive CEO Nathan (Guatemalan born Oscar Isaac), at his private wilderness retreat. Caleb is a mild-mannered geek and a fish out of water in this futuristic home, but thrilled to spend time with the renowned mad scientist.

Clearly a genius, Nathan is young, hospitable, demanding and a possible alcoholic. Caleb is excited and honored to discover Nathan has really asked him there to help validate what he considers to be the greatest development of mankind: true Artificial Intelligence, subject to the most critical Turing test available.

Filmed primarily in Norway, the cold settings and piano interludes create a slightly disorienting eeriness. The home is spacious, sterile and remote; Caleb’s room features advanced technology but is windowless, and there are rooms he is forbidden to enter. The freedom to explore vast technologies is countered with a sense of captivity.

The AI prototype is beautifully embodied in a robot called Ava (Swedish model Alicia Vikander). Vikander offers a convincing performance balancing mechanical and human speech and movement. Starting with simple questions, Caleb is drawn to Ava’s pointed responses that get even more curious when she asks the questions.

Caleb is brilliant, but mostly just a very nice guy tossed into the worldly depths of Nathan’s eccentricity and technical experimentation. Nathan values Caleb’s objectivity, especially in determining how much emotion and consciousness Ava “feels” and how much is simulated. But, maybe we can ask the same question about our “friends.”

Caleb flatly states that only God can create new life. But, writer-director Garland insists if somebody like Google or Apple announced tomorrow they had made Ava, we would all be surprised, but not that surprised. After all, everyone has seen IBM’s Watson on Jeopardy, and Apple’s Siri is already part of our daily lives. It may seem plausible, but maybe the real question will always be, “How close to real life can they approach?”

These are the days of technological wonder, but much of the plot can be interpreted as homage to “Frankenstein,” written by Mary Shelley in 1818; so we’ve enjoyed this fascination for a very long time. The good doctor had every intention for progress, but it’s possible to create a monster that could eventually defeat the creator, and worse.

“Ex Machina” is 108 minutes and rated R for nudity, language, sexual references and violence. This low-budget, slow-paced feature is thoroughly captivating. The speculative fiction seems so reasonable, we can easily imagine and debate the power and danger of such perfect inventiveness by imperfect humans.

This thought provoking sci-fi thriller intelligently introduces moral conundrums, but the bigger question, “Is our society too dependent on a technology where nobody is in charge?” It concludes with, “One day, AI’s will look back on us like we look at an upright ape with crude language and tools, all set for extinction.” Yes, there could be something worse than the blue screen of death.

Ron’s Rating: B   Leigh’s Rating: C