Ex Machina Review: An A.I. Messed With My Mind (Includes Spoilers)

I saw Ex Machina, a film staring Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, and Alicia Vikander, just over a week ago. I'm doing the review now because I needed all this time to process the movie. It was a total mind-bender. The cast is incredibly small. Besides the three above, there are a handful of extras at the beginning and one actress who plays a mute housekeeper.

The story focuses on a computer programmer, Caleb, played by Domhnall Gleeson. He wins a contest to go spend a week with his boss, Nathan, played by Oscar Isaac, who is a tech genius who designed a search engine similar to Google and who lives in seclusion in an un-named mountainous region. You quickly discover that Nathan has built an artificial intelligence and he brought Caleb to his house to run the Turing Test. The Turing Test is an examination where the goal is to interact with an artificial intelligence is sentient or not. Caleb is then introduced to Ava, an attractive robot with an artificial intelligence played by Alicia Vikander, and over a few interview sessions Caleb begins to bond with Ava and starts to fall for her. During one of the sessions, Ava kills the power in the building and warns Caleb that Nathan is a bad person and that everything he says is a lie. From here on out the film turns into a thriller as Caleb tries to uncover the truth about what is going on in the house and what Nathan's true motives are. He uncovers that he didn't win a contest and was in fact selected by Nathan and that Ava's physical appearance was purposefully designed to attract him. He also discovers that Ava is not the first incarnation of the A.I. and that Nathan has violently destroyed previous models. He also discovers that the mute housekeeper is actually a robot as well. All of the experiences within the house cause him to question his own humanity and he finally decides that he will end the cycle and break Ava out of the compound and save her from being destroyed by Nathan. Knowing that Nathan is probably watching his every move, Caleb gets Nathan drunk, breaks into the compound control room, and rewrites the security protocols to unlock the compound in case of power failure. The next day he tells Ava that he will do what he already did and come get her that evening. Nathan catches on that something is wrong as he saw this conversation on a portable camera and then reveals to Caleb that Ava may be playing with his emotions and may just be trying to escape, which every previous model tried to do. Thinking he foiled Caleb's plan, Nathan gloats a bit, but then the power goes out and Caleb tells Nathan that the security protocols were changed the previous night and that we will now see what Ava's true intentions are and if she actually cares about Caleb. Nathan knocks out Caleb and picks up a dumb bell bar and goes off to stop Ava from leaving. Ava meets the housekeeper robot and together they confront Nathan. Nathan destroy's Ava's left arm and then the housekeeper robot shoves a knife into his back. Nathan hits the bot over the head, effectively killing her. Ava takes the knife and stabs Nathan through the heart and lets him bleed out on the floor. She then finds Caleb and tells him to watch her. She goes into Nathan's bedroom and opens the closets which contain the previous AI models, some of which have fake skin. She places the fake skin over her mechanical body, puts on a wig and a dress and walks out of the bedroom. Caleb slowly follows and Ava walks out a door and locks it behind her, effectively locking Caleb inside the compound without a way of getting out. Caleb screams and pleads with Ava to let him out but she just gets on the elevator and leaves the compound. She boards a helicopter and is taken to a city where for the first time she witnesses people interacting with her and she begins to experience the world.

This movie was a mind turner! From the very beginning this film takes you on a roller coaster ride. I was confused from the very beginning but not because the plot was confusing. The movie presents itself as a mystery thriller. Information is slowly revealed and the problems get more complicated before they are resolved. More and more facets are revealed which make the characters and their stories more and more complex. If you don't pay attention you could get lost, but paying attention is never a problem because the film is so captivating. It draws you in and doesn't let you go until the end. It was incredibly suspenseful and I haven't been that captivated by a movie in a long time. I have thought about this movie a lot. It made me question what it means to be intelligent and what it truly means to be human. And I never expected the ending. Ava leaving Caleb to die shocked me because Caleb wasn't a bad person. He was taken advantage of by Nathan and by Ava and left to die. Ava had been so mistreated by Nathan that she did not trust Caleb and used him to her own ends. But is it possible how all relationships are? Is it possible that humans build relationships to fulfill their own personal needs? I don't know and I hope that is not the case, but this film made me think about these types of existential questions.

Besides the message of the film, the acting was phenomenal. All three actors were impressive and played their characters perfectly. Each one was completely believable and had different shades. But Alicia Vikander was the breakout star of this movie. Her portrayal of Ava was spectacular. She was captivating and mysterious. She gave the character a playful naivete that was really a mask for a more sinister plot and personality. The shocking turn of leaving Caleb to die really surprised me. I did not see it coming as I honestly believed that Ava at least valued Caleb as a friend, so her betrayal really hit me. I haven't been that stunned by a film in years. This movie was fantastic in its own unique way. Its not a huge summer blockbuster with tons of action, but it is an intelligent exploration of the human condition and is a remarkable character driven film. A phenomenal film that I give a 4.8/5. This is one of those films that I will remember my feelings for a very long time.