The young programmer Caleb wins an online contest and leaves to the remote and secluded home of the brilliant mysterious scientist and millionaire Nathan. The purpose of the initiative becomes clear only after his arrival - his task will be to conduct Turing's notorious test during daily meetings and conversations with artificial intelligence Aye and establish that she is able to convince him that she is not a machine but a human. In the process of experimenting between Caleb, Nathan and Aye, a psychological triangle is formed, filled with collisions, tension and manipulation.
"Ex Machina" is a directorial debut that looks and acts like a film taken by a man with years of experience in cinema-telling. To a large extent, the case is exactly the same: Alex Garland has long been a name of well-deserved honor - both in the seventh art and in the literature. His novels and scripts, the most popular of which are his collaborations with Danny Boyle, often deal with topics similar to those of Ex Machina. Here, however, his techniques go further - especially in the ingenious way that telling a good story can be an unobtrusive lesson on cognitive psychology, behavioral therapy, and even a purely philosophical treatise on human nature and the future of technology. Garland seamlessly dribbles with his expressive and narrative means, unfolding an impressive conceptual palette that can inspire both serious conclusions and parallels (the evolution of consciousness, the path of self-awareness, the discussion of free will and choice as a probable chimera) super-jokes - for example, that "Ex Machina" is actually a manifesto dedicated to frigid women who can pretend so well that they can turn the obedient and primordial men into mattress pins of their archaic domination. (The last really is a joke.) Along with the stunningly crafted and manipulative storyline (manipulating both her characters and the ultimate mouse in the labyrinth: the viewer), Garland also touches a number of purely human fixations and several specific male fetishes, but they are presented as cold symptoms rather than as a pretentious analysis (just the opposite of the thematically similar "Chappie", which attempted by author's comments in an elementary way to point out and define a whole range of social and moral distractions). Another very important element of Garland's narrative is that he is not moralizing, nor does he suggest paranoia or condemnation of scientific progress, just the opposite: the director is obviously conquered by the environment and the images he creates, although he saturates them with the dramatic intrigue necessary for the action . Especially curiosity is the affair between Aye and Caleb, through whose prism the salient image of an intimate sadism born from the cold-blooded abuse of human instinct to be empowered. This, of course, is a gradual process, and the robot's transformation to the programmer undergoes a number of changes that are precisely computed one by one. Aye is transformed at first on an emotional level, which leads to the attachment of Caleb to a seemingly timid girl who tends to reveal her vulnerability. Somehow in the same way the physical change - from the initial sessions with the reading of the micro-gestures in the first dressing in normal clothes, seems almost ritualistically confirming her as a complete woman, to her logical final stage when the mask is removed, the artificial skin - covered the creeps and the road to freedom and the ultimate goal: open.
In a very meaningful way, Garland has used every element of his robot ballad - with a perfect balance between brain engaging dialogue, stylistic scenography and audio-visual design, precision of detail and thriller escalation of action: "Ex Machina" is a mesmerizing scientific a fiction that is seen in full concentration (as much as necessary and by itself). The cinematicity of the film is full of casualties: the performances of Domnal Gleason, Oscar Isaac and Alicia Vikander are like a numerically calculated mechanism - the chemistry between the three and the evolution of the characters and their relationships is happening spooky spontaneously. As an exotic addition, Sono Mizuno's creeping placid sex appeal is the role of Kyoko - each appearance of which is loaded with an erotic display, which actually has a flawless effect on the observer, like the illusory assistant of an illusionist. (The comparison is Nathan himself.)
Vikander is mostly shining with his convincing presence as a machine with the feelings you believe in, and which totally overturns our criteria for seduction - not the woman left naked speeds up our pulse, but the one who puts on her clothes. Isaac excels in simulating alcoholism and a divine maniacal control complex, in which the allusion to the Blue Beard (in the episode when Caleb detects the deactivated mechanical beauties in Nathan's wardrobe) can make you shiver. That is precisely why at the climax, when Caleb realizes the intentions of Aye and sees the results of his own naivety, the effect has ironic symbolism. The death of Creator Nathan, a cruel and demanding God playing with his offspring, is a murder act - literally and legally. This God, however, is not an Old Testament villain and a megalomaniac, but simply a person who puts us to a test according to his ways... in search of knowledge and meaning, in general terms.
"Ex Machina" is a rare class film and unparalleled viewing pleasure - it is just as successful as a fancier with the mind of the viewer as Eva with Caleb's sore ear. In a similar way, we not only swallow our ears, but, like our civilized future, we lose ourselves in the desperately beautiful and fatal eagerness of the irresistible female figure that has given rise to an entirely new and potentially dominant species.
