ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE POSES UNFORESEEN CHALLENGES – At The Movies With Kasey

May 8, 2015 Kasey Butcher

In Artificial Intelligence research, there is something called the Turning Test, which is used to determine if the machine can pass for human. This test, and the question of what exactly qualifies as human intelligence, is at the center of the sci-fi drama Ex Machina.

In Ex Machina, Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), a sensitive programmer, wins a lottery to be flown out to his boss’s remote estate for a week. The boss, Nathan (Oscar Isaac), is the genius behind Bluebook, the world’s biggest and best search engine (think Google). In person, he is eccentric and secretive, a combination of the reclusive genius archetype with a pretentious Millennial hipster prodigy. Caleb soon learns that he has been brought to the estate to participate in the Turning Test for Ava (Alicia Vikander), an AI Nathan created using software he developed using his innovations at Bluebook. Over the course of the week, locked up in a high-tech house/research facility with just Nathan, Ava, and the Japanese housekeeper Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno), Caleb starts to suspect that Nathan has not been honest about his research or his intentions. Meanwhile, Ava begins to show signs that her feelings are more complicated than Caleb had counted on, posing unforeseen challenges for him and the whole experiment.

For much of the movie, Ex Machina is elegantly made and passably suspenseful, but also seems an awful lot like last year’s Her, but with a pretty face attached to the AI. As he tests Ava, Caleb develops feelings for her and their flirtation is compelling, but I kept waiting for the story to have a point or offer something new. Eventually, the screenplay pulls out a couple of twists. One I saw coming a mile away; the other makes the movie. I feel torn, therefore, about how to rate this movie.

Ex Machina has a sleek, stylized appearance that balances out the stark, industrial interiors with the spectacular, green exteriors surrounding Nathan’s house. Similarly, the way the film depicts the creation of a robot who can pass for a woman meshes mechanical components with beauty standards in a fascinating and sensual way. Although its music and set design are pretty standard fare for the genre, the story goes more after the misogyny that underlies many sci-fi tropes in a subtle, but biting manner. At least I think so. The film actually walks a very fine line between critiquing sexism and reproducing it. It’s the film’s knowing use of the audience’s expectations that makes the twists it supplies work so well. I just wish it had been a little more innovative sooner and had more fun with the conventions.

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The performances given by the small cast are compelling and help build the tension of the screenplay. Domhnall Gleeson is characteristically charming and sweet as Caleb, whose sad past influences the way he interacts with both Ava and Nathan. In contrast, Oscar Isaac is so smarmy that it is hard to tell if Caleb’s misgivings are justified or if Nathan is just your run of the mill techie jerk. Alicia Vikander is tasked with walking the fine line between woman and machine in her facial expressions and she does so unnervingly well. Her performance, particularly at the end of the film, is chilling and beautiful.

Although Ex Machina has some gripping and suspenseful elements to the story, and the performances are nuanced and moving, I am still torn on the overall product. On one hand, it plays out much like many other films of its type and brings just one or two new elements to the conversation. On the other hand, I was so taken with those one or two elements that it made the conventional aspects of the movie feel worth it. I rate Ex Machina 3.5/5 stars.

Ex Machina was written and directed by Alex Garland. It runs 108 minutes and is rated R for graphic nudity, language, sexual references and some violence.

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Kasey Butcher

She is proud to be a Ft. Wayne native, a graduate of Homestead HS, Ball State University & Miami University.She became involved with journalism editor-in-chief for her high school magazine. She authors the "At The Movies with Kasey Butcher" review.

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