Plot Details: This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Beware the model fair
Plot Overview
Twenty-six-year-old search engine coder Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) is selected to spend a weekend with Bluebook's (Google's successor) CEO Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac) in his mountain eerie. It's isolated, his bedroom furnished modern Spartan (“bathroom, little dresser, cupboards, little fridge.”) I think it's the lights that won't let him sleep at night. Fluorescents, compact fluorescents, and device screens contain too much blue spectrum (for evening) that interferes with human sleep cycles. Campfires, candles, (yellowish) incandescent bulbs and red lights—that come on during power failures—don't interfere so much before bedtime. People instinctively were reluctant to switch to the more energy efficient CFB's, so the (U.S.) government has legislated the old kind off the market. At any rate canny Nathan sees the writing on the wall, human beings are so inefficient that: “One day the A.I.'s are going to look back on us the same way we look at fossil skeletons on the plains of Africa. An upright ape living in dust with crude language and tools, all set for extinction.” He believes it's not a matter of if the A.I.'s will take over but when. Won't the government protect us? Yeah, like they did from the blue bulbs.
Nathan is a genius inventor wanting to be first to make an Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) android. His latest model named “Ava” (Alicia Vikander) is borderline passable for human, so he's done away with her flesh-tone camouflage (except for face, hands & feet) so she couldn't blend in should she ever escape. Escape is unlikely anyway as his “research facility” is subterranean sectioned off by electronic locks responding to security keys of various levels. The only access is by helicopter whose remote landing field is not marked in any way. There are miles of wilderness all around with nary a power source anywhere if one of his bots flew the coop. Furthermore, he has made them frail and he himself works out, so they're physically easy to handle. No, Nathan doesn't want to be the man responsible for humanity's doom.
It reminds me of the “Peanuts” cartoon of Snoopy and the Red Baron. Snoopy is deadly serious about his upcoming battle with the WW I flying ace, and he spends countless cartoons in preparation and anticipation of this dogfight from another era. Should one ever occur, it would be brief, brutal, and decisive. All we see, though, is a beagle with a vivid imagination and a doghouse with mysterious bullet holes in it.
Caleb is there to conduct an augmented Turing Test—named after mathematician Alan Turing who was featured in the movie “The Imitation Game”—to see if Ava is distinguishable as a sentient being. Caleb is “a good kid, with a moral compass, no family, no girlfriend.” Ava is anatomically correct and heterosexual. If Nathan is Snoopy and A.I. the Red Baron, then Caleb is Charlie Brown and Ava is Lucy. When Caleb and Ava agree to do something together, it's interesting to see if "Lucy" will co-operate or if she'll pull the football away to let "Charlie Brown" land on his back.
As much as I enjoy science and Sci-Fi, I'm not sure if this week is going to prove very much. Look at it from a reverse perspective: If a couple of geeks took their girlfriends on a retreat for a week and one of those guys got the shaft and the other was dumped, could we conclude the girls were bitches cold as ice? or is that just what happens to geeks in that situation?
Ideology
Nathan has one character flaw, he drinks too much. He could be the troubled subject of a lecture. (Prov. 23:29- 30) He's at it long enough to put him out of commission. (Prov. 23:31-32) It comes back to bite him. (Prov. 23:33-34) It leaves him open to desiring “strange women.” And (Prov. 23:35) he could get hurt on a sushi knife and not even feel it.
Nathan is the CEO of a dominant Internet company, and his research is cutting edge. You'd expect more of him as a technology leader. (1Cor. 9:24-25) “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.” Temperance means moderation in thought, feeling, and action. The ordinary Christian should take something away with him from the lesson of the CEO who drank to excess. In a world that challenges Christian, cultural, and traditional values, where we now have blue light bulbs, black presidents, and bloodied policemen (and who knows what blarney is coming next?), where a 2016 presidential contender gave a speech saying we need to get away from our cherished cultural and traditional values, and from deep seated religious beliefs, I'd say conservatives are going to be on the defensive. Fine, but let them not forget moderation. If we don't want to be counted a people “with crude language and tools, all set for extinction” why, for instance, do we dumb down our Bibles from the reliable and elegant KJV by immoderately retranslating the whole book instead of just consulting a dictionary when we come across an unfamiliar word?
Production Values
“Ex Machina” (2015) was written and directed by Alex Garland. It's title Ex Machina is from Latin, lit. "from a machine," referring to a trope used in Greek theater where a god would descend on a rope to resolve a hopelessly convoluted plot. It could refer here to an A.I. emissary from the "gods" plopped down among us, in our hard-to-fathom complex world, for whatever reason should she ever escape the research facility. Or maybe not, I have no inside knowledge. The movie stars Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, and Oscar Isaac who gave excellent performances, as well as from Sonoya Mizuno as Nathan's mute Japanese maid Kyoko.
The MPAA rated it R for graphic nudity, language, sexual references and some violence. It was filmed in England, UK. It's a sparse 108 min. long. It's more of a contemplative, indie-style, art film rather than an intrusive Hollywood flick with bells & whistles. It's a good looking film on account of the location, and the splendid cinematography doesn't hurt it any. The action scene at the end of the movie is like in a military venture where long periods of boredom culminate in quick, brutal, decisive action. The pacing is at a steady rhythm, which allows subtleties to be introduced. The art design covers for the Sci-Fi failings of the script. Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury's dissonant musical score adds an atmospheric touch of ambiance also enhancing the tension.
Review Conclusion w/ Christian Recommendation
I think “Ex Machina” is an excellent cautionary tale to encourage success-oriented conservatives to practice temperance. However, the R rating on account of immoderate material might discourage such a target audience from viewing it in the first place. It works well as a Sci-Fi art film in its own right. If you fall asleep during the picture, the ending might wake you up if you've got one eye open. I loved it, but then I'm easy to please and not overly picky.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Decent action scene. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Amazing special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: A few suspenseful moments. Overall product rating: Four stars out of five.
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