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A young programmer is selected to participate in a breakthrough experiment in artificial intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a breathtaking female A.I.
Directed and written by Alex Garland
Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Alicia Vikander
Release Date - 23 January 2015 (UK)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-HiQ9K2uf4
he also wrote 'the beach' which is pretty underrated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vsmiWg3ekE
mark olsen is hard repping this movie. he's said "Oscar Isaac's dance number in EX MACHINA is a gif-y hit. The tune: Oliver Cheatham's 'Get Down Saturday Night'" and after he saw interstellar then this he said something like 'nvm i found the good one' lol. review quote:
QuoteTaken together, what Garland has put on screen as writer and now director creates a startling view of humanity and the ramifications of a tech-inflected culture. Though he doesn't shy away from the label "dystopian" — "That describes what it is" — he also doesn't see his body of work as some bleak end-times revelation or futurist prophecy.
"It's where I feel we're at more than where we're heading," Garland said. "Actually, for me, it's an uplifting film, 'Ex Machina,' for what it's worth. I'm on the side of the machines. I like the machines. I have problems with humans. Humans are doing some really bad stuff. I think it's actually reasonable to say that a sentient machine might be more reasonable than us about some things. I don't find that scary."
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-ex-machina-20150409-story.html#page=1
never even saw chappie and this one sunk for me so i'm calling the whole robot movie battle off
it began so strong! shots with reflective glass surfaces, complimentary neon colors, believable-type characters, oscar isaac completely delivering his character, etc. i was in
but as my date with the movie continued, i realized we weren't experiencing true love, and i felt sad but i knew that emotionally speaking i was walking away. ok for example, i plugged into the oscar isaac character, then when he's sitting there with the beer bottle on his stomach and being snotty-drunk i began to realize his whole character enterprise was a sham, which of course it is because things start going wrong from there. the movie screams in my face that things are going wrong for a long fucking time. it all felt too stitched together, with certain unbelievable aspects, and there was that great beginning only to make me care about these people and i did care about them, and i wished they were in another movie and not in the narrative-glove of alex garland
i think that's how some people also responded to sunshine, then also sunshine had its supporters, so i guess i'm being a li'l bitch here too. happens
still legit looking forward to annihilation, i've heard compliments given to the book, and i respect garland on principle, admire his career, and i myself most enjoy dredd 3d, although i mean never let me go i mean the beach and 28 days later, glad to have the guy around
SPOILERISH
The film is a masterpiece of nihilism, but it sneaks that fact up on you to make sure it hits you harder. Ultimately, the thesis of the film is that the act of creating an artificial conciousness is a sociopathic endeavor, and can only result in the creation of a more perfect sociopath. That's dark as shit, but it's a consistent point of view, backed up by the text. Science fiction at its best is always a cautionary tale. If not, what's the point in telling it?
Two thumbs up four stars A+ Loved it
a movie can't be both sneaky and consistent, gtfo
The movie was tricking the audience in the exact same way that Ava was tricking Caleb. That's great goddamn storytelling, if you ask me.
spoiler city
ah hell na, when did you get tricked? when they met there was a hang over, and when he had that beer bottle on his stomach it was all unraveling, you know, like a carpet, and you take a well-made story and you look under the carpet and there isn't shit, because a well-made story is the carpet. that's what i don't like. nah for real, when did you get tricked? wasn't it like day 2 when the power went out during their conversation, and she said "hey watch out" and he was like "whaaa?" then later there was dinner and some shade-shielding, then like what day was it when she mentioned her imminent death and the rest of the movie was about that? she'd tell us the thing, then that'd happen. but oh, then at the end the guy tells a thing, only it happens in a different way, for the same overall ending that was being worked toward
looked at from a people perspective, i think it was all writ large. but this is a character vs story conversation, that it. and garland is a professional writer who makes story things, and i respect him, i just prefer (e.g.) dredd 3d because it has more personality, to me
this too was garbage.
youtube the dance scene. oscar isaacs is really good.
i liked it
And I like you.
not much i can say against indisputable evidence
I liked it too.
SPOILERS
I was "tricked" as you say when I thought Ava actually cared about Caleb, and when I thought Caleb actually should care about Ava.
Also the dance scene was good.
It's a good film mainly because it's well done.
But I do enjoy that science fiction films likes these really do feel dated. A character discovers how to develop AI to a new level. The boundaries being pushed are beyond what people can imagine, but it's based on an idea of reality being pushed that feels uniquely relevant today. In Ex Machina, a digital wiz responsible for an amazing new search engine sells his accomplishment and secludes himself to developing a fantasy version of a robot. The perfect looking model who can perfectly cater to someone's needs and what not. The search engine wiz is relevant to today but the personal robot is age old. The recycling is to be expected and will continue to happen. It will also pull from trendy subjects like this one. There is a lot of chatter in between the lines of dialogue that feel relevant today. Maybe someday we will get beyond some major implications of science fiction film story lines (besides quickly outdating the need for pay phones like in The Matrix) but, I don't know. In Ex Machina, AI is again a representation of seeking for what someone personally lacks and while I think the approach is clever here, I don't think it's that big of an accomplishment. I think this is one of the better science fiction films made like this. Oscar Isaac really does a great job and the film is diligent in pace and developing a believable relationship between characters and letting subplot stew to an effective boil. Part of that observation is subjective but considering attention span of many well meaning sci fi films today, I also don't think it is.
Quote from: Tictacbk on April 29, 2015, 04:29:36 PM
SPOILERS
I was "tricked" as you say when I thought Ava actually cared about Caleb, and when I thought Caleb actually should care about Ava.
is somewhere in there the same psychology of the nigerian scam? when you voluntarily send money to a place that can't exist? i just wasn't tricked this way! because the tension was building building building and when oscar isaac was killed i didn't feel emotional, or surprised, or upset. and anyone who saw the movie or has heard of oscar isaac in general has gotta know how crazy that sounds. but of course he was gonna die and of course the other guy was "just outside the glass door" pounding his fists and throwing the chair and just of course of course of course. look in some ways, to be fair, i'm 20/20 hindsight creating my reaction right now. but i think i nailed my problem here, because the better of fucking course shoulda been me bawling out my eyes and calling my mother when oscar isaac died, but his death was just an inevitable consequence and well i don't agree with how that was handled
and i'm being polite, i think. we're somehow all politely not mentioning that the locked door things is 100% believable, absolutely, makes perfect fucking sense, for sure, the different doors and keycard entries and all that, the protection from outside invaders totally turning off the building and stealing the robot data, definitely, all of that i'll eat it up and think for sure that no one within the architecture of this house, or the idea making of this house from a smart-thinking person who wants to build a robot, none of the electricians or nothing, nobody nowhere ever brought up the possibility of being locked inside the fucking house jesus christ
I'm genuinely intrigued by your reactions to the Oscar Isaac character. Did you get the sense the audience was intended to empathize with him? Throughout the film, depending on your interpretation of the situation from moment to moment, he was at best a bullying egotist and at worst a more charismatic Ariel Castro. I don't think there's any reasonable interpretation of the film that would lead to the expectation of getting upset by that character's death. From the point of view of the protagonist, and by proxy the audience, he was the clear-cut villain of the piece. It's just... I mean, it's correct that you didn't feel bad when he died. That's supposed to be. You were watching it right.
I'm not even going to touch the door lock issue. It's late and I'm tired and I don't even know where to begin. Agree to disagree.
no i didn't get that sense, i got the sense that he was obviously going to die and he did. and i watched it. right. there we go. i mean, based on what you said, you're gonna have to remind me what surprised you. was it that the robot ended the movie as the survivor? that was surprising?
you're not even going to touch the door lock issue! i love it. classic sci-fi. you'd have to essay that fucker, and that's the problem
^Have no idea what you people are fighting about. And Nigeria is a real place that very much exists.
It was alright. Predictable as hell. Can't see how this movie can elicit passion on either side. It felt like the answer to a producer asking what if we stripped everything unique about Beyond the Black Rainbow and remade it for the demographic whose favorite thing in the world is Breaking Bad.
Spoiler
I liked how robotic the stabbings were.
I'm with Axolotl, this movie is predictable as hell. It's plays straight down the middle and results in a shrug and a meh. I can't say it reached me in any way. It was just 'nice'.
Spoilers
Nice beard. Nice muscles. Nice disco dance scene. Nice hints that the kid may be a robot. Nice discussions of AI and playing god. Nice cinematography and lighting and art direction (look at his nice Jackson Pollock) Nice performances. Nice little plot with the alarm and the escape plot. Nice female robot. Nice suggestions that this is a feminist piece. Nice predictable twist. Nice stabbing. Nice escape. And look at the nice free robot wanting to observe humans at the intersection.
The movie is all very nice, but it wasn't alive for a minute and I didn't feel a thing or care one iota. Black Mirror does this a trillion times better, with more personality, more balls and a little more life.
PS. "It Follows" sits in the same damn boat: interesting, alright set-up and mood and vibe, but overall, no more than: Nice.
So this is the hill I die on.
You aren't alone, polka.
SPOILERS
Maybe I was duped, but I believed that the chemistry between Ava and Caleb was real. That's what the premise builds on, isn't it? Caleb is meant to serve as the interrogator in a Turing Test, to determine if a machine can simulate real, human interaction. No false pretenses there. He even questions Nathan about the validity of the Turing Test if he — as examiner — is aware that the machine is a machine. Nathan does not hide that Ava is a machine. Through Caleb's sessions with Ava, he begins to view her as a sapient being with genuine emotion. When Ava cuts the power and warns Caleb that Nathan can't be trusted it then becomes a battle of trust. Should Caleb believe the human or the machine? He already has his doubts about Caleb. He questions whether Nathan is observing them even during the power outages (just as I questioned as a viewer). How much of this is just part of Nathan's experiment? What is not? Knowing he's a participant in a test, he then faces a dilemma: does he trust Ava — thereby confirming the test — or does he ignore the connection he felt and let Ava suffer the same fate as Nathan's other models?
the scene with the robot flashback was the best scene. not as nutty as moon but really liked all the little observations people had about machine and people and technology. it's an intelligent film, in the sense that the characters are actually better educated than me (not movie educated) and said things that made sense, but also things they enjoy sharing with one another. I did a really stupid concept film for a silicon valley company where the technology won't exist for another five years and they were asking ME to come up with features that would show off their technology because I don't know, they think some small potato who directs shitty uber ads can somehow predict whatever they hell THEY will make. So I did my best and in the end the spot wasn't very good mostly because they wanted my team and me to squeeze in all these product features (that don't exist yet) instead of making a cool fun short film about the near future o my god I'm digressing - point being, when an intelligent silicon valley person looks at my spot, it's able to figure out the capabilities and the implications of my made-up technology simply by looking at what it's doing, breaking down what it would take, and reverse-engineering from there. It was actually an interesting experience despite having nothing to show for it. This film reminded me of that - these people talked like how smart people would. that alone is pretty rewarding. then it's able to do other little things very right - like creating sexual tension and creating conflicts universal enough for us to project our own metaphors onto them. I like stuff like that - it takes place in the now and it feels very universal. outside of that yeah I get it maybe it won't capture everyone's imagination or its ambition might fall short ultimately, but I don't know, that's most movies isn't it?