There’s a chance that Ex
Machina could have passed me by – another
science fiction film about artificial intelligence. What made me near enough
hurl myself into the cinema seat was when I saw the film’s poster, which said,
“Written and directed by Alex Garland.” If you’ve never heard of Garland, he’s
an author and screenwriter, responsible for – in my opinion – one of the best
films to ever come out of the UK, 28 Days
Later, as well as writing screenplays for Sunshine, Never Let Me Go,
and Dredd. To say Garland is talented
is like saying the Arctic is a bit nippy.
The very best science fiction should make you think; not
just about your life, but what it means to be alive. That’s not a rule written
in stone, but it’s how I separate decent, watchable sci-fi from classic science
fiction. Garland’s directorial debut falls into the latter.
Ex
Machina will get you thinking, but its complexity has a sting in
its tail. Oscar Isaac’s Nathan creates Ava’s (Alicia Vikander) mind, her
thoughts, her interactions using popular results from Internet search engines,
as well as hacking into the cameras and microphones of every phone on the
planet. There are warning signs going off right there! When security agencies
such as GCHQ are making the headlines, tracking our Google searches and social media
interaction, you have to wonder how much of a personal profile are they
building of you when you go online? Also, is a person ever really themselves
when they talk down the phone to someone or have a conversation via Skype? This
is only a couple of the many questions that Garland fires at you during Ex Machina’s hundred-odd minutes.
Garland’s scriptwriting tends to be claustrophobic, with
only a small cast, and his latest work does not buck this trend. You have three
characters here: Isaac’s egotistical, playing God, computer genius; Domhnall
Gleeson’s shy, careful not to offend, gentle coder, Caleb; and Vikander’s machine,
unnervingly swapping from compassionate to aloof with no warning, suggesting
there is much more going on behind those eyes. For most of Ex Machina, you have mind games and paranoia going on between the
three of them, wondering what the other person knows, all keeping closely
guarded secrets. From the first time you meet Nathan you know he’s playing a
game with Caleb, you’re just trying to work out what he’s up to. Ava, for the
most part, is caring and innocent, a damsel needed rescuing from a glass box
instead of a tower, until she turns the tables on Caleb, interrogating him,
firing question after question like a computer might do in an online exam. You
quickly realise Ava is not as childlike as she seems. Caught in the middle of
it all is Gleeson’s Caleb. He’s attracted to Ava the second he meets her –
Double Negative’s CGI is subtle and gorgeous to look at, Vikander’s torso a collection
of tangled gold wiring encased in gel, her brain visible from the back of her
head, giving a gentle blue glow, while Vikander herself is striking in an
angelic, otherworldly sense – refusing to listen to Nathan’s warnings that Ava
has the ability to flirt and seduce, instead trying to help her escape when she
tells him Nathan is not to be trusted.
While Ex Machina
is playing the three characters off against each other, it is tense,
uncomfortable and wickedly clever. It’s not spoiling anything by saying that
the last twenty minutes is standard monster-on-the-loose science fiction (the
trailer gives this away) which, while entertaining, is nowhere near as
satisfying. Alex Garland doesn’t ruin things, you just wish the whole film was
never-saw-that-coming inventive and constantly had you thinking. This is a tiny
flaw that can easily be forgiven. Ex
Machina is old-school science fiction in the vein of Philip K. Dick and
Isaac Asimov’s novels; it’s seductive, sinister, and thought-provoking, as well
as being surprisingly feminist. Plus, any film that can throw in some spontaneous
disco dancing to Oliver Cheatham’s Get
Down Saturday Night gets huge thumbs up from me.
5 out of 5
Matt
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