Ex Machina

Started by Lottery, October 30, 2014, 08:20:29 AM

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jenkins

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

polkablues

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.
My house, my rules, my coffee

jenkins

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

Axolotl

^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.

max from fearless

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.

polkablues

So this is the hill I die on.
My house, my rules, my coffee

citizn

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?

pete

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?
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton