George Silke

Ex Machina Review
Ex Machina was released in 2015 and stars Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac,
Domhnall Gleeson and Sonoya Mizuno. It was written and directed by Alex
Garland who has previously worked on 28 Days Later and Dredd. It was
produced by Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich. The visual effects
supervisor was Andrew Whitehurst.
The story begins with computer coder Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) winning
the chance to spend a week in the mountains at the house of the CEO of
the company he works for. The CEO of the company, Nathan (Oscar Isaac),
is incredibly intelligent and powerful. Caleb arrives at his house via a
helicopter ride and is greeted by an automated voice that provides him
with a key card that allows him entry. He eventually finds Nathan working
out. Nathan then tells Caleb the real reason that he is out here. He reveals
to him that they will be conducting a Turing Test over a one-week period
on an AI named Ava that Nathan has created. As the week progresses
Caleb and Ava bond with each other. Caleb then begins to suspect that
Nathan is up to something dark and sinister. He notices him behaving
oddly through CCTV footage. He sees him rip up one of Avas pictures and
suspects him of being abusive. He begins to investigate further into his
suspicions and discovers previous AI models deactivated and stored away.
He also sees Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno), another AI creation, lying naked on
his bed. He worries that this will happen to Ava will be deactivated too and
plans to help her escape from the facility. He encourages her to trigger a
power cut at a specified time. He then changes the door mechanisms so
that they open during a power cut instead of closing. Ava triggers the
power cut and escapes from her cell. Nathan realises what Caleb has done
and knocks him unconscious. He then leaves to kill Ava. Ava and Kyoko
begin to fight with Nathan. Ava wrestles him to the ground but he
overpowers her and smashes her arm off. Kyoko sneaks up behind him
and stabs him in the back. He then smashes Kyokos head which
deactivates her. Ava then proceeds to stab him in the chest and he bleeds
out on the floor. After the fight, Ava goes Caleb and asks him to wait
where he is. She then goes to Nathans AI storage room and takes the skin
off the deactivated AIs to put on herself. She then takes the hair off one
and places it on her head. She takes the clothes of another. She does this
to make herself appear human. Ava then proceeds to lock Caleb in the
room he was in and leaves the facility. She takes the helicopter away from
the facility that Caleb was supposed to be picked up by and enters the
outside world for the first time.
Various different ethical and moral questions are raised by Ex Machina. For
example, is it acceptable to keep Ava locked away even though she is a
high functioning and intelligent being? Was Ava justified in leaving Caleb
locked away in the facility even though he helped her escape? Was
Nathan justified in what he was doing to Kyoko? I thought that Nathan was

George Silke

wrong in keeping Ava locked in such a small space without letting her
access the outside world. She is an intelligent being on a higher level than
humans which means she should have similar rights to us. Ava wasnt
justified in locking Caleb in the facility. However, she may not have been
programmed with a proper sense of right or wrong as she was created by
Nathan. Nathan wasnt justified in what he was doing to Kyoko. He created
an intelligent being with a sole purpose for sex.
I thought that the film was very clever with how it explored the different
themes that it was raising. The idea of a man creating something more
intelligent and more evolved than a human was a good idea for the
overall plot of the film. I really liked the small scale of the film because it
made it more claustrophobic and chilling. The cast in the film were all very
good in my opinion. My favourite cast member was Oscar Isaac who
played Nathan. He was good at playing a character who was pretending to
be friendly yet menacing and dark underneath it all. The special effects in
the film were very good, especially for a low budget film. The design of
Ava was great and the way they used the technology they had to bring the
character to life was fantastic. They used techniques like motion capture
to realise the characters appearance. Alicia Vikander played the part of
Ava really well. She was good at being innocent yet sinister at the same
time.