Ex Machina

Contact the Filmmakers on IMDbPro »

SEE RANK
Ex Machina (2015)
- Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller - 10 April 2015 (USA)
Not yet released
(voting begins after release)

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.
Ex Machina Trailer Is The Coolest Thing In Years, Nevermind The Film

30 October 2014 2:48 PM, PDT | AreYouScreening.com | See recent AreYouScreening news »

Sci-fi stories that play with “jargon” are always suspect, because they immediately have a certain air about them that suggests they went to school, you didn’t, and they are very interested in the fact. So, when Ex Machina oversells its premise by making sure it says “Turing Test” a lot, you have to raise an eyebrow.

But, few movies have quashed concerns with a trailer better than this one. A three-person show, with apparently virtually no supporting characters, the film centers on Oscar Isaac as a super-wealthy recluse who has built an A.I. (Alicia Vikander), and Domhnall Gleeson, who plays the unsuspecting programmer who has come to serve as the test to see how “conscious” the A.I. really appears to be. As the trailer reveals, it may be that things aren’t what they seem… exactly, and perhaps we aren’t testing what we claim to be… »

- Marc Eastman

See full article at AreYouScreening.com »
Permalink | Report a problem

....Not sure i would go so far as to say the coolest trailer i ever saw, but its good

But yeah made a post about what low budget filmmaking could do these days and this looks like a great example of it. You take an interesting story, cast three talented actors who may not be the biggest names in the world, and put around them what looks to be good effects and makeup, with great looking digital cinemtography-yeah. i doubt this is going to break the bank at the box office but if it does well in its native england and other places this could be pretty good.

New trailer:

if nothing else the Special effects look pretty phenomenal. I may go this is one of the coolest looking movies coming out(except my own).



This movie is playing right now at SWSX-or as a friend of mine at a screening put it on twitter:

Seated for EX MACHINA, about a scientist creating a lifelike robot. Guessing from there everything works out fine with no issues whatsoever.

Followup Tweet from Matt Singer

EX MACHINA just rendered CHAPPIE obsolete. ‪#‎SXSW‬

And a review:

screencrush.com/ex-machina-review-sxsw/

I've been intrigued by this since I saw the trailer. It seems like it could be best kind of Science Fiction (and that review backs that up). That is it's about people, the technology, the "science fiction" is a vehicle to explore some aspect of humanity.

I didn't realize that he was the one that wrote the Dredd screenplay (also a great movie). Seems counter-intuitive that someone would write both -- Dread's balls out action and this is introspection to the core. But I can see how it worked though -- Dredd is always a comment on society, and that comes out perfectly in the movie and why it rises above the normal fare.

It's really sad that to some people 'science fiction movie' means it has to be a big budget special effects movie usually with a simplistic plot. I mean I love Independence Day but it's not the best that Sci Fi has to offer.

But i'd love to see more movies like this, or like Man from Earth. Easy to film movies, that are about people.

And for that matter, if you do an action movie, make a GREAT action movie but ... make it something more. I think Dredd managed to do that, and it's part of the reason I hear most people speak of it well and recommend it. A good writer, some capable actors (though Karl Urban is a "name", I don't think he's an A-Lister when they filmed Dredd), and a reasonable skill in crafting the actual movie.

I love movies that when you walk away from it, there are a few ideas bouncing around in your head, or when you watch it again, you pick up something else.

BTW, I finally watched Hunted (the TV show) which I think you recommended in one of these kinds of threads.. And I found it pretty awesome too. It's not often that a show like that manages to slip one by me, and they managed to do that. A good case of ending a show NOT on a cliffhanger, but giving me some bits of info and more story to tell BUT we're not "in the middle" of the story we started. I really have grown to detest cliffhangers -- as all too often the show isn't renewed and thus no resolution to the cliffhanger. They managed to end not on a cliffhanger, show me something I didn't expect, that also didn't feel gimmicky, and leave me wanting more story. Too bad we don't get any more.

The fights could have been a *bit* better, but that's judging from the best from movies -- for a TV show they were just outstanding. (And it's not unusual for Movie fight scenes to be worse.)

All in all a good recommendation. Thanks.

TwiceOnThursdays wrote: I've been intrigued by this since I saw the trailer. It seems like it could be best kind of Science Fiction (and that review backs that up). That is it's about people, the technology, the "science fiction" is a vehicle to explore some aspect of humanity.

I didn't realize that he was the one that wrote the Dredd screenplay (also a great movie). Seems counter-intuitive that someone would write both -- Dread's balls out action and this is introspection to the core. But I can see how it worked though -- Dredd is always a comment on society, and that comes out perfectly in the movie and why it rises above the normal fare.

It's really sad that to some people 'science fiction movie' means it has to be a big budget special effects movie usually with a simplistic plot. I mean I love Independence Day but it's not the best that Sci Fi has to offer.

But i'd love to see more movies like this, or like Man from Earth. Easy to film movies, that are about people.


BTW, I finally watched Hunted (the TV show) which I think you recommended in one of these kinds of threads.. And I found it pretty awesome too. It's not often that a show like that manages to slip one by me, and they managed to do that. A good case of ending a show NOT on a cliffhanger, but giving me some bits of info and more story to tell BUT we're not "in the middle" of the story we started. I really have grown to detest cliffhangers -- as all too often the show isn't renewed and thus no resolution to the cliffhanger. They managed to end not on a cliffhanger, show me something I didn't expect, that also didn't feel gimmicky, and leave me wanting more story. Too bad we don't get any more.

The fights could have been a *bit* better, but that's judging from the best from movies -- for a TV show they were just outstanding. (And it's not unusual for Movie fight scenes to be worse.)

All in all a good recommendation. Thanks.

To me the secret of why Dredd works is...yeah its a movie about people.

Science fiction is rarely about people-now you could say its about explosions in movies a lot of the time, but well to generious ideas- how society work, how we can travel what are future should be like or what it isn't.

Not so much Dredd.

Dredd himself isn't really that human-they give him notes, but hes just a figure in a mask for most of the movie going from setpeice to setpiece-he is basically a version of a Clint Eastwood western character-a man of mystery.

What you get is the world he lives in-which is yes a dystopia, but its a very lived in dystopia where kids go out to play and people watch movies, and go to the store and lived in this semihellscape-but well its where they lived. there a beaten down people by gang warfare...but well they still have babies they need to take care off. The movie 95% of its runtime exists in a single large corporate tower-which is a brilliant desicion-people have said they copied it from Raid: Redemption( a movie i didn't like as much) but its a hyper clever descin its a limited world-we get a couple of lines if mama wins she'll take over the crime world-but not much. These are the people we see-these are the people whose lives hes going to effect. Hes not going to save the world. hes going to be there for them. Mama isn't going to blow up the world-just the top of the building at the end.

And Mama and her gang-a couple of there gang members we get notes of but her- just a kind of gangster who knows someday shes going to go down-there is a note of tired no nonsense in Lena Headys i don't think ever better performance. She just wants to survive the night like dredd. If she fails. ehh. She is just a clawed wounded animal who has kept attacking until today-that her drugs very clearly give her just a momments release from her pain.

And Well Oliva Thirbys Judge Anderson. there is a world- a very just world where she got at least nomination for Best supporting Actress for it. She is a judge who has to be this tough ruthless assiasin-the ultimate badass chick. And thats the Role She plays-the character plays. And the Character isn't a very good acress. Though as the movie shows she is very powerful, physically intelectually and pyschically-shes still not very good at playing the judge a character who is at least 50% attitude. But she tries. Thats the key. She tries.You can almost always see her acting-becuse well thats what the world requires her to do. There is Good Sweet Person underneath it who wants to make her world a better place- who is required to shoot people in the head.

There people.

The action in Dredd is good, the plot benefits a lot from its simplicty, the special effects tell the story-yeah it is one of the better movies i have seen in the last 5 years.

This one looks like it obviously has a smaller cast, and is much more contained even then this-but curuious what it can do. Could be a lot of fun.

Castor

Wanted to give my thoughts about and just wrote about The Lazerus effect, which is a movie i thought about for awhile

Both are actually kind of similar movies. Both involve Female(or in this case Female looking characters) who are not quite human and in fact kind of superhuman. Both take place more or less in one local-which perhaps explained that they are low budget movies. Though Lazerus Effect got a bigger release, i do think Ex Machima i am going to guess had a slightly higher budget, but probabbly not much by much.

And it works for it.

This is a science fiction movie- a pure science fiction movie which is suprisingly rare. Those who are looking for Superhuman strength and action-will be more or less disapointed. There isn't much action until the end and i can't say that Ava does excity stuff.

But there is plenty to like

The movie is the Story of Caleb a Computer Programer for BlueBook a google like company that is given an assignment to his company CEOs mysterious labratory in the middle of the Mountians. There Nathan his boss a seemingly Jovial man wants to show him his latest creation AVA a robotI who looks like a bueatiful woman. There he is to test whtether she has a true Artifical intelgence capable for passing for humans. All goes well..but there is mysterious power outages..

The look of the movie is gorgious-all white cordors and bueatiful rooms and the ocasional shot of the wilderness outside. It looks like a million bucks and kind of like the natural extension of older 70s cordior sci fi movies. it fantastic looking movie from start to finish. The Special effects which turn Ava into a robot are a mix of CGI and practical effects that always look convincing and as good as something you would see in a movie 10 times as much.

Dominic Gleason does good work as Caleb-a kind of Noir hero in a world of pure light who think he is smarter then he is and has all the peices, when hes clearly a pawn. Like Fred Macmurry in Double indemenity hes the kind of nice looking and acting guy who you kind of want to win, but the question is really how much he is going to loose. Its smart stuff.

Oscar Isaac as nathan gives is a really great perfroamnce. Simultaniously incredibly seperate from the world he has totally isolated himself in and a Bro guy who loves to work out and get drunk by being needy of people-but just want it to be precisly on his own terms. Hes the Nerd who refuses to think of himself a nerd, a mad scientist who almost doesn't want to be called scientist. Its a chilly bueatifully done villian, that there are worlds where he would win an academy award. He does something that is actually rare in movies. He wants to earn our sympathy and Calebs

By building a woman.

and This isn't really about a superwomen-but about a mans idea of what a superwoman is-of the three characters none of the two main characters are really men, but as comes clearler by the end just hunt twisted idea of what that means. Ava isn't a woman. She is a robot playing a woman based on whats she programed or figured out to be.
There is the subtext of the movie that Nathan wants to build a twisted kind of bride for himselfwekk this entire movie is really a kind of test to see if she passes for human even as makes fun of Caleb for falling in love for her.This is a film entirely about the male gaze and it knows that and it gets strength from it.

Which is reflected by Alica Viklanders Ava. Shea woman playing a robot who is playing a woman-and she is aware of all of these steps-but never goes quite beyond it. Shes playing a sex bot and that can be fun, and the movie draws sympathy from the fact of how kind of powerless she is and almost childlike at times- but at the same time well...with tools of her own. You can see how clearly that she wants to Destroy Nathan..but it does a good job of playing whether Caleb is someone she actually feels for or is just using as a tool to there game. Yet i wish Viklanders kind of almost gave it a little bit more.

But well there is some more i would like to say about the ending.

This is directed by Alex Garland who did Write Dredd- and i think thats a much better movie ( he also did Sunshine and a bunch of others) There is kind of dry mechanical nature of the story hurts it. While Issac gives the movie a lot of humanity the movie i think could have used more of it-it feels a touch well..machine made.

I am also publishing thoughts i had on Lazerusus effect-and the question which is better. This one easy. Its a good movie which i would recomend, to fans of Science fiction.As low budget movie this looks amazing and is a great example of what you can do on limited budget. It d shows with a good script, understanding of special effects and good performances you can dot-its one of those its so good that the flaws really stand out. Its not the greatest movie of all time or all but well take a look