"Ex Machina" has been on my list for quite a while (though even I was shocked to see it was released in 2014), so I was excited to finally sit down and watch this multigenre work.
At first blush, the story is about the lengths a reclusive tech mogul will go to pursue his holy grail, but at some point the movie pivoted to focus on Caleb -- the unwitting participant in an extravagant, complex trial to test the limits of artificial intelligence -- and his response to moral boundary-pushing.
There is obvious staying power in the depiction of the slightly mad tech genius who is driven by a personal quest (see "Devs"), and Oscar Isaac mixes charisma, intimidation, and mania in his role. As solitary savant Nathan, Isaac explores his character's unwitting creation of a sliding ethical scale.
Nathan's interactions with Caleb are fraught with double meanings and a pervasive air of secrecy. Domhnall Gleeson is a brilliant casting choice as the awkward coder who realizes his winning lottery ticket came as part of a rigged game to help Nathan make the next leap in AI development.
Caleb is tasked with interacting with and monitoring Ava, a stunningly advanced AI humanoid. Alicia Vikander is haunting in this role, powered by an unexpected sensuality that repeatedly catches Caleb off guard. Eventually, we are forced to ask the difficult -- yet inevitable -- questions: Is Caleb probing Ava or is Ava probing Caleb? Is Nathan testing Ava or Caleb?
The entire flick is essentially a modified bottle episode on steroids, filmed in a claustrophobic style. Writer and director Alex Garland has created a sterile environment filled with hard edges meant to convey the importance of borders between moral and immoral, desire and obsession, human and robot. The staggering scenery and tech representation makes it easy to see why "Ex Machina" won an Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects.
The movie turns during a tension-filled scene when Caleb discovers the security footage that depicts the extent of Nathan's experimentation and the self-destructive limits he pushes his creations toward.
Let's just say I'll be giving Disney's animatronic Hondo Ohnaka a wide berth the next time I'm at at Star Wars Galaxy's Edge.
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