MACHINES BEHAVING BADLY; REVIEWING 'EX MACHINA'

I was one of the movie-goers included in the staggering quarter of a million-dollar weekend haul for the new Alex Garland Sci-Fi Film Ex Machina. What makes the weekend box-office draw so amazing you ask, it's only 250k for crying out loud? Well, this indie breakout, soon to be in theaters nationwide, if the distributors are wise had a limited release in only 4 theaters across the nation. Yes, 4 theaters, one of which happens to be my favorite, the Landmark Theater on Pico here in LA.

I was excited about seeing the film as I am about most indie films, I did as always have my guard up in regards to films like Ex Machina (See Chappie Review) as I usually have to prepare for a hidden agenda, which is more times than not an attack on Christianity. My guard soon dropped as I realized about 10 minutes in that this was going to be a smart movie that wouldn't attack Christianity. I don't know whether writer/director Garland is an Atheist or not, but intentionally or unintentionally it is littered with biblical breadcrumbs.

The film centers around Caleb, (Domhnall Gleeson) a young programmer at the world's most successful search engine company "Blue Book" boasting 87 percent of the world as it's users. Caleb is selected to participate in a breakthrough experiment in artificial intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a breathtaking "female A.I.", slyly named Ava (Alicia Vikander). Ava, rumored to be a name given hinting at Adam and Eve God's prototype of man and wife, and let's not forget the biblical name Caleb, the courageous kid who despite his peers, could see beyond the giants and into the promised land, into the future. This would be exactly who Caleb plays out to be, a man chosen amongst his peers because he can see the future and furthermore have enough courage to take steps towards the unknown.

Ava is designed by Nathan played by a great actor on the rise Oscar Issac. Nathan is another biblical name, but Oscar Issac plays a very unlikeable Nathan on purpose according to Garland and that's part of the game. Nathan means a "Gift from God", this could be a play on Nathan's God complex meaning he's the giver (God) and Ava is his gift. Early in the film Caleb makes a comment, "This could be a thing of gods." later our tech mogul intentionally, misquotes "What'd you say?" Nathan quips, "I'm God." Caleb attempts to correct him, "I didn't say that." The Nathan of the Bible was a prophet, and I think the Nathan in this film thinks he is one, if only in the metaphorical sense. Nonetheless, as much as he foresees, there are some things he just won't see coming as SPOILER ALERT; soon robot(s) rebel.

I think this is what makes this film interesting, its the misdirecting interaction between the characters that is done so well, it makes you feel as if something is happening even when nothing's happening, then again something is always happening. Nathan discusses Ava's design, her facial expressions, her intuitiveness, etc. He explains that he has used every Blue Book users phone information so that videos, selfies, text messages, pictures, everything in everyone's phone has been used to animate Ava. He boasts a gel based brain that contains this information, he calls it "wetware" as opposed to hardware. He also describes Blue Book as the software. This for me is the most shocking and amazingly horrific moment of the film, it is at that moment that I realize Nathan is exactly the type of person Eric Snowden fears and Ex Machina's Nathan is the NSA's invasion of privacy tactics all rolled into one man, except he(Nathan) honestly admits what he's done, with no fear of ramifications. As he arrogantly puts it "They can't figure out how to implicate me without implicating themselves." Ava may already be here or coming to an Apple Store near you I'm almost sure of it. With that there is the desire of man to construct the unconstructable or build what should not be built, a perversion to be "like God" without God's input leads me to a great verse in scripture.

GENESIS 11:5-9

5 The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which MORTALS had built. 6 And the Lord said, ‘Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the BEGINNING of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down, and CONFUSE their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’

This was a bad thing by the way. Ex Machina (Rated-R) is in theaters now.