EX MACHINA (2015)

Studio:       Lionsgate
Director:    Alex Garland
Writer:       Alex Garland
Producer:  Andrew MacDonald, Allon Reich
Stars:     Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Sonoya Mizuno, Oscar Isaac

Review Score:

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Summary:

A reclusive tech entrepreneur tasks a young computer programmer with evaluating the human behavior of an advanced artificial intelligence.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Having won first prize in a contest, computer programmer Caleb is flown by helicopter to the remote estate and research facility of Nathan, founder of Bluebook, the world’s largest internet technology company. Caleb is issued a restricted security clearance card for the automated building. Nathan reveals that Caleb’s assignment is to administer the Turing test to evaluate an advanced artificial intelligence’s capacity for emulating human thought.

Ava: Session 1 – Caleb has his first conversation with Nathan’s A.I. creation, Ava, who is kept contained in a sectioned-off room with transparent walls. Using a monitor in his bedroom, Caleb also observes Ava as she draws at night. During a brief blackout, Caleb discovers that all of the building’s electronic doors automatically lock in the event of a power failure. Nathan later explains that the sporadic power cuts are a recent problem that has not yet been resolved.

Ava: Session 2 – Caleb meets Nathan’s silent assistant Kyoko. Caleb reveals personal details about himself as he and Ava continue growing closer. The power goes out again. With the disabled camera system leaving Nathan in a momentary blackout, Ava warns Caleb to not trust Nathan. While they discuss the session over dinner that evening, Caleb does not tell Nathan what was said during the observation equipment failure.

Ava: Session 3 – Ava tells Caleb that if she were ever allowed outside, she would travel to a traffic intersection so that she could people watch. Caleb becomes enamored with Ava when she wears a wig and a dress to make herself appear more lifelike. Ava reads Caleb’s expressions and identifies him as being attracted to her. Caleb later asks Nathan why he gave Ava sexuality. Nathan reveals that Ava is capable of intercourse. In response to Caleb’s inquiry about whether or not Ava was programmed to flirt with him, Nathan posits that it might be possible for Ava to have developed feelings for Caleb.

Ava: Session 4 – During the next blackout, Ava tells Caleb that she creates the outages so they can see how each another behaves when they are unobserved. Caleb confronts Nathan about why he was really brought aboard to test Ava and Nathan claims that Caleb was selected because he is the most talented programmer at Bluebook. Over the monitor, Caleb observes as Nathan visits Ava’s room and cruelly rips up a drawing she created.

Ava: Session 5 – During the next power cut, Ava confesses that she wishes to be with Caleb. In their discussion later, Nathan intimates to Caleb that Ava will be deactivated when he creates the next iteration of her model. After Nathan passes out from drunkenness, Caleb uses Nathan’s keycard to access the camera system and watch recordings of Nathan’s failed experiments with previous A.I. models that were subsequently dismantled. Caleb also finds closets housing defunct creations and discovers that Kyoko is another A.I. with a synthetic body. Caleb returns the keycard to Nathan seemingly without being detected. Questioning his own humanity, Caleb returns to his room and cuts open his arm with a razorblade.

Ava: Session 6 – Ava initiates another power outage. Caleb tells Ava of Nathan’s plan to overwrite her code as well as his own plan to help her escape by getting Nathan drunk and using the master keycard to reprogram the building’s security protocol. Caleb instructs Ava to activate another blackout at 10pm. In conversation later, Nathan introduces the idea that Ava might only be pretending to like Caleb as a means of escape. Nathan explains that he installed a battery-powered camera to monitor Ava’s sessions during blackouts and he eavesdropped on the escape plan. Nathan further reveals that the real test was to evaluate if Ava was capable of using cognitive function to manipulate an escape. Caleb was selected for the test based on his internet history and Ava’s physicality was designed based on Caleb’s pornography profile. The power goes out at 10pm. Caleb surprises Nathan by revealing that he already reprogrammed the security protocol to open all doors instead of sealing them. Nathan punches Caleb to the floor when he realizes that Ava has escaped confinement.

Ava and Kyoko confront and kill Nathan with a knife, although Nathan is able to terminate Kyoko first. Nathan also cuts off Ava’s arm during their struggle, but she replaces it using a limb from a different prototype. Ava dresses herself to resemble a human and exits the building, leaving Caleb trapped inside as he futilely pleads for her to release him. Ava boards the helicopter scheduled to retrieve Caleb and is next seen observing an intersection crowded with pedestrians.

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Review:

Billionaire tech magnate Nathan has the dangerous brilliance of Robert Oppenheimer, the sage savvy of Steve Jobs, and enough wily ego to have been a co-founder of Facebook.  His is a polarizing personality where the notion of clinking beer bottles in hopeful friendship is irresistible in spite of a sixth sense warning to not turn your back should he brandish a knife.  Nathan’s unrivalled cocktail of cunning, charisma, chutzpah, and intellect makes him the only mind capable of crafting Ava, an artificial intelligence possibly in possession of an advanced ability to evolve code into self-aware cognitive function.

That’s where Caleb comes in.  Selected from a pool of programmers toiling in the trenches at Nathan’s world-changing search engine company, Caleb has the desired mix of nerdy know-how and naivety to play the human conductor in an impartial evaluation of Ava’s humanity-emulating prowess.

This version of the Turing test is to last six days, but it takes only one for Caleb’s idolization of Nathan to be eclipsed by infatuation with Ava.  A second session soon suggests that this seemingly simple study is more than mere scientific research.  Nathan may have developed an A.I. whose cunning can supersede her creator’s.  Now all three intellects are engaged in a faceoff where the smartest mind in the room may not be the one everyone else thinks it is.

Mentions have been made of “Ex Machina” being a “thinking person’s” sci-fi movie.  In popular media criticism, such sentiment often acts as a forewarning that suspense builds slowly, or as a preemptive tongue jutted at any downturned thumb lulled by lack of onscreen action.  What it should indicate in this case is that the movie’s value beyond straight suspense entertainment comes not from requiring thoughtful reflection, but from inspiring it.

Amok A.I. has been a cornerstone of cautionary science-fiction since man first feared displacement from factory-fabricated automatons.  What separates the fable of “Ex Machina” from the futuristic fears fueling its peers is its implication that technological enslavement won’t come from revolutionary robotics asserting physical superiority through corrupted computers and laser-powered weaponry.  The deeper danger is humanity’s own hubris in manufacturing an artificial ability to outsmart instead of to overpower.

Often quiet with deafening silence, “Ex Machina” sits atop a bomb of unrelenting tension so deceptively reserved that its continuous fuse crackles almost imperceptibly.  The film is folded into a presentation as beautifully sleek as its setting, where any sense of security is false for characters and viewers alike, and the command for attention is a dare to find a distraction.

Nuance exists in every detail.  Dialogue rings of being completely conversational, yet each word is meaningful and carefully chosen.  When Nathan tells Caleb, “it’s not that I think you’re too dumb,” the qualifier “too” is deliberately included so that such a sentence says more about what Nathan believes than is initially implied.

It’s hardly an eyebrow-raiser that noted screenwriter Alex Garland delivers a script layered with subtext.  More impressive is his capacity as a first-time director to bring every subtlety off of each page by pulling them from the performances.

With just three links in its acting chain, “Ex Machina” has no leeway for weakness in casting.  And it isn’t needed.  Alicia Vikander’s soft beauty is an appropriate fit for Ava, though she leans close to the casual head tilts, wide eyes, and speech patterns seen often in previous portrayals of artificial intelligence embodiment.  Domhnall Gleeson is wonderful in a role reversed from the one he played in the second season premiere of “Black Mirror.”  Oscar Isaac stands out with his combination of admirable, affable, and contemptible to create the complex character that Nathan is in each onscreen moment.

Together as a solid ensemble, their trio perfectly pulls off the Rock, Paper, Scissors game played by Ava, Caleb, and Nathan.  That game is ultimately won by whoever can most accurately anticipate the behavior of the other two, with the loser likely to be undone by emotion instead of by intellect.

There is a question of staying power for “Ex Machina.”  Revisiting the film in 20 years time or more will probably result in a frozen time capsule of primitive perspective on the relationship between behavior and technology, and what is feared most about bridging the gap between the two.  For now, “Ex Machina” stands as a poignant contemporary allegory, and as an intriguing near-future thriller.

Review Score:  90

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