Critical Recommendation: Ex Machina

"By far the greatest danger of artificial intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it."

Computer scientist Eliezer Yudkowsky's ominous quote perfectly summarizes the fears of both computer programmer Caleb and the hubris of Nathan, the tech whiz running the megacorporation Caleb and a whole lot of others just like him work for. Ex Machina is a brilliant movie about the dangers of technology, one that does a super good job of immersing you in its dark implications, showing how the machines we build can start using us instead of the other way around. Ava, Nathan's preposterously lifelike AI, raises fundamental unspoken questions about what it means to be human. Though it's a simple question I've heard asked many times before, rarely has it ever sounded so urgent. This movie touches brilliantly on both basic truths about humanity and the high-thinking concepts we introduce in the name of discussing them.

Ex Machina is little more than a test of Caleb's empathy, his sexuality, and even his humanity. Technically, Caleb is supposed to be testing Ava, but he soon becomes distracted and disturbed by Nathan's callous and even abusive behavior towards the many female androids he has created, by his treatment of them as little more than house servants and even sex slaves. The big issue is that they're so dang lifelike, and Caleb is hypersensitive to injustice. Ava either knows this, or she's programmed to; in one scenario, she's a victim, and in the other, she's a synthetic master manipulator looking to use Caleb as a way to escape Nathan. Is Caleb testing Ava, or is Ava testing him?

On the most basic of levels, one thing that really works in favor of Ex Machina is the startlingly good computer graphics used to generate the bodies of Ava and the other androids like her. They're just far enough into the uncanny valley to be a little uncomfortable, but also sufficiently lifelike to make one feel a strange empathy for a machine. They serve the movie's larger emotional goals perfectly: first, our contempt for Nathan for his mistreatment of the androids, and second, our uncertainty about whether the androids are really as innocent as they seem. This movie is thoughtful enough to feel both inspired and deceptive, and it raises interesting questions about how artificial feelings do or should affect us as humans. The lifelike CGI only gives the issue a microphone.

Ex Machina has a brutal kineticism to it. It can change faces and appearances in an instant, and it drops hints throughout, some more forceful and urgent than others, that this movie isn't going to be all sunshine and rainbows for everyone involved. The story is divided into several sections, referred to as sessions, and this throughline prevents it from ever freezing up or growing stagnant. This movie does not end well, and it knows you know it's not going to end well, choosing to forgo the pretense that it might entirely. It does not insult your intelligence; instead, it decides to challenge you on a more intellectual level.

This movie can be inappropriately empathetic, given that Ava is a robot, and terrifying for the same reason. We've seen enough movies about machines gone rogue to know how Ex Machina is going to end, but this particular one succeeds both by making Ava much more human than we're used to and trimming its screenplay down to an efficient minimum. It is a sleek, top-of-the-line exploration of the nature of humanity, which you will come to see is a far more sinister question than you might expect. It's a movie that forces us to sit with the idea that we need to be careful about what we create and confront our overconfidence in our ability to control it. And of course, the fact that it's also a fun and effective thriller in its own right doesn't hurt matters a bit.

It's rare for a movie to succeed intellectually, empathetically, and as effective entertainment all at the same time, but Ex Machina effortlessly bridges the gaps by smartly interweaving our knowledge that Ava isn't actually a real person with our instinct to look after and care for someone who looks human enough. It will play effortlessly on your emotions in a way that can feel satisfyingly manipulative, complete with a synth-heavy and seductively understated score that I can only describe as sounding like a question. It will bait you into watching the movie through to its surprisingly forceful gut-punch of a conclusion.

The brilliant cinematography and fascinating production design I didn't have time to get to notwithstanding, I applaud everyone involved in this movie for their restraint in bringing it to life. It's very easy for a movie like this to go completely off the rails and abandon its questions in favor of a loud and eye-catching third act designed to sell movie tickets, but Ex Machina sticks to its guns, seeing its strongest and most subdued elements all the way through to their thoughtful but sometimes grim conclusions. It's not an exciting movie in a traditional sense. It's exciting because of the hard questions it raises, the fun and unique characters it studies, and the uncomfortable hints of humanity it causes something inhuman to possess. It is Frankenstein for the age of information, a story about a lifelike being that is dangerous not because it is repulsive, but rather because it is attractive.

Alex Garland has crafted a tight, humanist thriller that draws you in with a familiar story told more urgently than ever before. Ex Machina is smart, but it's also wondrous. It somehow turns high-thinking concepts into emotionally resonant realities, blurring the line between man and machine in ways meant to be deliberately uncomfortable. It's a smart movie for smart people who like to draw lessons from what they watch, a machine of implications built to challenge the everyday public and their attitudes towards AI, an issue that has only been exacerbated in the decade or so since this movie's release. Ex Machina has aged exceptionally well and will only continue to do so as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly smart.

Above all else, Ex Machina ultimately asks one tough question: Do you really want to do this? The even tougher answer is that I sometimes wonder if we already have.

Ex Machina - 10/10

1 Corinthians 15:39-44