Caleb, a young enthusiastic employee at the world’s largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain resort belonging to Nathan, the mysterious CEO of the company. On arrival at the facility Caleb discovers he will have to take part in a series of experiments testing Nathan’s new project, Ava a robot with the most advanced artificial intelligence yet.
Nathan is keen to have a friendship relationship with Caleb ignoring the formalities associated with the company. Caleb soon learns he is to be testing something very exciting and he is sworn to secrecy. Enter Ava, Nathan’s latest creation.
Caleb and Ava have sessions together where Caleb must work out whether she truly understands him or whether she is just pretending due to her programming. They are separated by glass panelling and sporadically Ava starts to warn Caleb. Is she in trouble or just manipulating Caleb?
As the week progresses Nathan starts to show his sinister side, he gets heavily drunk most nights and his true personality becomes clearer. The claustrophobia and paranoia are cranked up as Caleb wonders if he can trust Nathan, his creation or even himself. The moralities of creating a machine with conciseness are tossed about as Ava questions what will happen to her if she were to be upgraded. Her insecurities disturb Caleb and he questions the ethics of a creation like Ava.
Alicia Vikander brings a cool and vulnerable side to Ava. She’s charming and mannered and she’s very believable. The special effects are beautiful to look at. Even by the end of the film I was still looking at Ava and thinking how realistic her mechanics were, stylish but realistic enough to believe this is how an android could possibly look.
Director Alex Garland builds the tension slowly as Ava reveals more and more. The film almost loses it at one point, you might love it but I think it’ll divide audiences as either being darkly comic or unintentionally silly.
I don’t want to give too much away other than to recommend Ex_Machina as the best Sci-Fi of 2015…….so far
OVERALL SUMMARY
A simple classy Sci-fi thriller that gets under the skin.
