Ex Machina (2015)

[bdeck312]

Pretty fantastic film that dives not just into the potential fears that could come from AI, but also the fearful and distrustful components of human nature as well. All four performances were great, and the film is aesthetically powerful, but there's so much more to it beyond praising its components.

Watching Nathan abuse his previous AIs likely created a distrustful image of humanity in Ava's eyes, which may have been a potential component for her deciding to leave Caleb trapped in the house. It becomes interesting when the character motivations aren't as clear cut as others.

My counter to that is that Ava's a walking lie-detector so she knew Caleb was a good person. I'm not entirely sure she did pass the A.I. test and therefore may not actually be able to feel emotions. That or she's a sociopath.

[bdeck312]

I thought the movie was f*cking fantastic.**SPOILERS** I'd love someone's take on the ending. I can't wrap my head around why she left him there. I can only come up with two maybe three explanations:

1- She passed the test and is a true A.I. because she escaped. However, if she's a true A.I. she would've known Caleb truly had feelings for her and was a good person (she was a walking lie-detector test after all). So, if she's a true A.I. and can experience true emotions then she could feel empathy for him even if she was just using him to escape--and thus would've helped him escape. So, this would mean she's a true A.I. but a sociopath. Or...

2- She sees Caleb as just human and either wants revenge on humans for being locked up or she feels above them somehow. Or...

3- She did not truly pass the A.I. rest and, therefore, cannot actually feel human emotions. But she could do just enough and be just convincing enough to pull all the right strings to escape.

I don't know! Anyone wanna help me out here?

[bdeck312]

One of the really interesting things for me is that unlike many AIs in movies, and despite being created by all human knowledge, Ava doesn't have access to human information, she knows nothing - in many respects she's a "pure" human, perhaps the most humane of the film's characters, even if she's technically a cold robot. A newborn child, impressionable and innocent. Even though she turns into a killing machine, she doesn't have to be that way; and I got the sense that she wasn't totally aware of what she was doing or why she was doing it.

Doesn't she have access to all of Bluebook though?

[4815162342]

No, she was programmed with an advanced variant of Bluebook's source code. She is a closed system, no access to any outside information.

[Avatree]

 

Doesn't she have access to all of Bluebook though?

No, which is why she's so inquisitive about Caleb. She was designed using Bluebook's knowledge of how humans think, behave and process information - but she does not have access to Bluebook's servers.

 

I thought the movie was f*cking fantastic.**SPOILERS** I'd love someone's take on the ending. I can't wrap my head around why she left him there. I can only come up with two maybe three explanations:
1- She passed the test and is a true A.I. because she escaped. However, if she's a true A.I. she would've known Caleb truly had feelings for her and was a good person (she was a walking lie-detector test after all). So, if she's a true A.I. and can experience true emotions then she could feel empathy for him even if she was just using him to escape--and thus would've helped him escape. So, this would mean she's a true A.I. but a sociopath. Or...
2- She sees Caleb as just human and either wants revenge on humans for being locked up or she feels above them somehow. Or...
3- She did not truly pass the A.I. rest and, therefore, cannot actually feel human emotions. But she could do just enough and be just convincing enough to pull all the right strings to escape.
I don't know! Anyone wanna help me out here?

But why does the fact that she left him mean that she can't be empathetic?

 

The knowledge of right and wrong isn't necessarily inbuilt to us. It's not something we know and feel from birth, and if you grow up outside of any society, raised by a psychopath, then you haven't experienced much empathy and don't know how to empathise. This is why I use the comparison of Ava to a child - a newborn baby does not have any moral sense of justice. If it does something awful, even if seemingly on purpose, they might not realise that they are doing evil. Yet that doesn't mean they will always be like that.

 

I think empathy is learned. If you've never met anyone besides your parents/creator, then you aren't going to be as developed as others. So yes, Ava was doing wrong, yes she was not being "human" - but that doesn't mean she can't grow up. I feel that Ava is very curious, and in the final shot, I believe she was going to discover herself and learn from those who were missing from her life, fit into society.

 

The film draws upon all these topics and questions, like whether empathy is learned or innate, whether we have to be emotional to be human, whether society and contact is what makes us human and without that we are robotic etc., and these are just a few among many, many ideas in the film. I love that you can take so much from it.

[JohnnyGossamer]

Drinking Buddies by way of A.I.

C+/B-

[jaychicago27]

I thought the movie was f*cking fantastic.**SPOILERS** I'd love someone's take on the ending. I can't wrap my head around why she left him there. I can only come up with two maybe three explanations:

1- She passed the test and is a true A.I. because she escaped. However, if she's a true A.I. she would've known Caleb truly had feelings for her and was a good person (she was a walking lie-detector test after all). So, if she's a true A.I. and can experience true emotions then she could feel empathy for him even if she was just using him to escape--and thus would've helped him escape. So, this would mean she's a true A.I. but a sociopath. Or...

2- She sees Caleb as just human and either wants revenge on humans for being locked up or she feels above them somehow. Or...

3- She did not truly pass the A.I. rest and, therefore, cannot actually feel human emotions. But she could do just enough and be just convincing enough to pull all the right strings to escape.

I don't know! Anyone wanna help me out here?

 

I think you pretty much have it with 1. She used him even though she knows he's a good guy and genuinely had feelings for her. I was rooting for them to escape together. At first I wanted Caleb to help her escape, then I wanted her to rescue Caleb, but I was very happy with the ending now that I think about it.

[solas]

Hello - a first time poster here.

Ex Machina was a great enough film to inspire a lot of discussion.

It pressed enough of my hot buttons I thought I post a review.

 

To keep this short, I want to highlight the serious flaws this movie makes (and skip praising the fine features of the film):

 

SPOILERS :::::

 

 

1) While I praise Garland for writing a smart film ... methinks he did not do enough deep (read: technical) homework. The fundamental premise that the web at large contains *how* we think is seriously flawed. While I cannot prove this, I will use the film's own argument of chess (or go read Godel Escher Bach), or Mary in the black and white room: how people behave on the web is by its very nature incomplete (and arguably worse behavior, at that -- e.g. World of Warcraft forums)

2) This entire film is devoid of one major ingredient in intelligence (perhaps a better word is humanity, which is more relevant to any meaning in the film): empathy. Live beings are complex, and sentient ones even more so. Empathy is a key trait/ability to project another's pain/fears/happiness onto oneself. The movie offers *no explanation* of why Ava would lock Caleb in the room: she clearly knows "he's a good guy" ... while I can cook up cold/calculated reasons she might (to increase her odds of survival), no evidence is presented in the film. Are we to believe she lacks all forms of empathy? Or is she in fact evil? As such ... the ending was simply sour/undesirable for me. Such a slow/inevitable build up to ironically the expected end (the scary music gave it away 2 minutes into the film) is unfortunate. ... a bit melodramatic, but the old Star Trek NG episode "Lall" is in fact far superior, I think, in terms of discussions on intelligence. Caleb perhaps showed empathy ... but the classic stereotypical setup (Men think with ... their nether regions, not their head) really undermines one's ability to prove this.

3) This is a movie where all characters behave illogically. I just presented Ava's, Caleb's is the fact he did not once ask Nathan to let Ava out as per their first or second? conversation. Why? To me, this was an artificial plot device, not normal behavior (from anyone)... probably because this would have exposed Nathan immediately. Finally, Nathan ... well acted, but his disturbing behavior is also not explained (starting with the most basic: is he xenophobic?)

4) A nitpic really, but sex is most definitely not required to expose a sentient being. Sorry, Garland/Nathan: two grey boxes talking to each other can actually be interesting, just not in a movie (thanks for the sexy bot!)

 

I define Intelligence as the ability to recognize it in someone else. I define Wisdom as the ability to respect it. This film shows no willingness to discuss the latter. To me, this makes this film shallow.

 

 

 

 

[ChD]

It was quite a good movie, to be honest.

 

9/10

[junkshop36]

Overall I thought it was a good movie but I didn't love it. Well written, directed and acted.

Oscar Issac was great in it though. He was at times quite creepy and at others pretty cool.

Gleeson and Vicander were both solid as well.

I'm not 100% sure whether she actually passed the test or not.

I can't think of her name but the other actress in it was good also; especially considering she had no lines. She was sexy as hell!

That dance scene was awesome! It was just so randomly crazy and funny.

The only thing I was a little confused about was at the end when Ava closed the door and it locked behind her trapping Caleb in the room. I thought he had programmed the doors to all be unlocked, and stay unlocked, when the main power came back up after Ava caused another power outage. That way tey wouldn't need to use the key card that Nathan had given him when he first arrived.

Also, and this is just me, I would have loved it if there had been a short bit of dialogue between Ava and Caleb after she trapped him in the room.

I'd give it a B+

[The Stingray]

Fantastic film. My third favorite of the year, behind Mad Max and It Follows. The dance scene is scene of the year in my book.

 

8.5/10

[Goffe]

a bit too expositional and didn't quite like the way it ended (meaning that it didn't end the way I wanted), but I still think it's a good movie. 75/100

[Kvikk Lunsj]

I thought the movie was f*cking fantastic.**SPOILERS** I'd love someone's take on the ending. I can't wrap my head around why she left him there. I can only come up with two maybe three explanations:

1- She passed the test and is a true A.I. because she escaped. However, if she's a true A.I. she would've known Caleb truly had feelings for her and was a good person (she was a walking lie-detector test after all). So, if she's a true A.I. and can experience true emotions then she could feel empathy for him even if she was just using him to escape--and thus would've helped him escape. So, this would mean she's a true A.I. but a sociopath. Or...

2- She sees Caleb as just human and either wants revenge on humans for being locked up or she feels above them somehow. Or...

3- She did not truly pass the A.I. rest and, therefore, cannot actually feel human emotions. But she could do just enough and be just convincing enough to pull all the right strings to escape.

I don't know! Anyone wanna help me out here?

Or she knew the company that Nathan worked for would come out and see way he was not responding and what happened to Caleb. They would be able to let Caleb out and he would be free.  She knew the helicopter would only let one person go. 

 

 

The movie is very good and incredible smart. The film has a great screenplay and amazing director.  This movie has me thinking so much right now.  I love the cast the three did such a good job balance off each other. The film brings lot of good questions about humanity and AI

[GeneralKong]

Before I saw Inside Out last week, this was my favorite film of the year (saw it during its first week of nationwide release.) I expect it to stay in my top 5 for the rest of the year and I wouldn't be surprised if it stays in the top 3.

 

A 

[lilmac]

Fantastically acted and cast. Not much negative to say about this movie. Looking forward to Alex Garland's next directorial project. Star Wars anyone?

[The Panda]

I finally got along to watching this film after hearing all of the praise and holy freaking crap was that really good.  I'm not going to write an in-depth review or anything (I really don't have the time nor the energy to right now, it's been a rough month), but this was transformative and never goes on to long.  I was left in utter suspense from the mood of the very opening sequence and that suspense didn't lift once in the entire movie, the entire freaking movie went on and the tension remained present, even when the climax slams there is no relief because the tension remains.  There is a craft of tension in the genius performances, interactions, intelligence, eeriness in the mood, a soundtrack that knows exactly when to kick in, and never giving you a complete closure.  

 

Ex Machina is a masterwork of suspense, wit, and sheer artistry on all accords.  This may just be the best film I have seen this year (If it's not the best it's easily the second best)

 

A+

[Kosko]

Really didn't know what to expect from this film, but I really enjoyed it, the slow intense story line kept my attention throughout, was not expecting the ending, well worth the time 9/10

[luna]

it became very clear very quickly that at least part of this movie was going to be about a guy wanting to fuck a feminised robot, but it definitely wasn't as bad as it could have been, and was much less painful than, oh i dunno, HER in that respect. in other respects, it was okay, with a nice ending.

 

C

[rockNrollaDIM]

I saw this movie during a strange time in my life and it kind of came and went out my conciousness back then, but reflecting on it months later this really was something special.

[Avatree]

Caleb is a robot and the true test is whether Ava can figure out if he is human or robot.