My review of Ex Machina: Not Your A-typical A.I. Movie.

A date night with my husband was very much in order for Mother's Day weekend so yesterday afternoon we went to see Ex Machina. First off we had to drive a bit out of our way because it wasn't playing at our new local theater. Instead, of course, as always good movies like Ex Machina usually get bumped for movies like Hot Pursuit and Paul Blart Mall-Cop. I know its cray! Enough of my rant I'll jump in now..



I thought it would be kind of hard to talk about this movie without giving too much away but I decided it was too great of a film not to give it a shot... In this directorial debut for Alex Garland (writer of "28 Days Later") we see Caleb ( Domhnall Gleeson) winning a contest to spend a week with the creator of a Google-like company called Bluebook. Oscar Isaac plays the arrogant, alcoholic Nathan, whom Caleb has won the contest to spend the week with. We soon find out that Nathan isn't all that he's cracked up to be. Caleb soon finds out he has been brought to this weird house (that is more research facility) to test an A.I. Nathan (Isaac) wants to see if Ava played here by Alicia Vikander can come off as human as possible. However I found myself thinking well shit this guy (Isaac) just is lonely and wants a drinking buddy lol. This is a very character driven story as we mostly see the three main characters, which didn't bother me because the acting was so fantastic. I also really liked all the twists, turns and questions of morality in this ever changing tech-filled world we live in now. I found myself pondering the same questions the film poses... Is a machine capable of empathy? Will nature and A.I. be the only things that out live the human race? Nature vs Nurture? Our limits and capabilities as humans? I thoroughly enjoyed this film and found myself thinking about it throughout the rest of the day. Which in my opinion is what makes a film great ; something that makes you really look at what a film was trying to get across and exploring how it makes you feel.

My Bottom Line: This movie was very simple yet beautiful (gorgeous Norwegian scenery) and didn't have the need for tons of action and gimmicks like many of it's A.I. predecessors. Ex Machina gives its audience a quiet yet interesting look at questions of empathy, manipulation and what the future may hold. I loved this movie and would highly recommend it to anyone.
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