Ex Machina Critique

By Omar Antabli
Ex Machina is a British science fiction thriller first released the 21st of January in
the United Kingdom, written and directed by Alex Garland marking his first directorial
debut. Ex Machina is a movie about 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. (IMDb, 2015). This movie is centered on the question of what
makes us human, taking a deeply philosophical turn however while preserving an
intense environment.

Ex Machina is the story of a multi-billionaire genius founder of the worlds most

popular search engine BlueBook Nathan Bates played by Oscar Isaac, is on the path to
creating artificial intelligence. He builds this robot and names her Ava portrayed by Alicia
Vikander and wants to administer the Turing Test on her to make sure that shes the real
deal. To do this he sets up a fake competition where he picks the person he thinks is best
suited for the job Caleb, Domhnall Gleeson, to administer this test. Through out the
movie Caleb hangs out with Nathan whom he somewhat dislikes and sits through
sessions with Ava in the hopes of proving that shes a true example of artificial
intelligence. However she starts putting the charm on him, trying to seduce him. Multiple
times during their sessions Ava causes power failure in order to pass him messages
without being overheard by Nathan, in the hopes of turning Caleb against him. She
eventually succeeds in convincing Caleb that Nathan is a bad person whos keeping her
prisoner, and that she truly has feelings for him, which are requited. Caleb therefore to

save her from getting destroyed, agrees to set her free. Nathan having uncovered the plan
to allow Ava to escape, is pleased and revealed that it was his intention all along, Caleb
did not come here to administer the Turing test he was brought here to be a mouse in
Nathans experiment. However the plan to set Ava free was already in motion, Ava
escapes while killing Nathan and locking Caleb in the facility leaving him to die.

The movie is filled with mystery and suspense; it asks the question of what
makes us human Alex Garland does so by the means of a robot bestowed with artificial
intelligence. Generally the movie is brightly lit with a normal ambiance, at times however
this changes drastically along with the music creating an eerie scene putting you on the
edge of your seat, however the music does sometimes become heavy on the ears. The
movie takes places on the secluded, and enormous, property of Nathan Bates where he
can proceed to work in secret on his projects without being disturbed.
The tree main characters are Nathan, Caleb and Ava. Nathan is a multi-billionaire
genius CEO and founder of the worlds most popular search engine BlueBook, he lives
alone striving to create artificial intelligence, Nathan throughout the movie tries to gain
Nathans trust all the while being distant and aloof, is a heavy drinker and keeps in shape.
Oscar Isaac nailed his role as Nathan his acting was spot on, he gave us the sense that we
were actually in the presence of a genius on the brink of insanity billionaire who thinks
hes better than everybody else. Caleb is a coder who works in Nathans company, he
appears to have won a lottery to spend a week with his boss, however in truth hes been
selected as part of an experiment to determine artificial intelligence, Caleb is kind warm
hearted and smart although he gets hoodwinked by Ava at the end because he could not

keep emotionally unbiased. Domhnall Gleeson portrays Caleb; in parts he acts well and
gives his character justice however in other parts it appears scripted and at times does not
understand the emotions Caleb should be feeling. Ava on the other hand is the artificial
intelligence Caleb is administering the Turing Test to. Shes a female has a robotic frame
and a face, at the beginning she seems friendly and sort of nave however as the story
progresses she gains power fools Caleb into freeing her and kills Nathan. Alicia Vikander
plays the role of the manipulating psychotic AI to perfection. All in all, these characters
where extremely well developed and appealing to the viewers.
The situation although not farfetched since breakthroughs in robotics and artificial
intelligence are being made daily, therefore AI seem to be part of our not so distant
future. The movie provides intense scenes during which the viewers are on the edge of
there seats however it was fairly predictable, halfway through the movie something
begins to seem off about Ava and her intentions and the psychopath AI plot has been used
so many times that it becomes expected that the robot will kill humans within his
entourage and/or use them towards its goals, it would have been more surprising if Ava
actually did have feelings for Caleb, having said that, perceiving emotions is a trait that
distinguishes humans form machines as a result the plot would have been less believable.
Alex Garland in his movie poses the question of what makes humans, humans. He
tries to show us that artificial intelligence may one day exist however it is by no means a
human substitute because AIs do not have the ability to feel emotion. No matter how
advanced artificial intelligence gets it will never be on par with humans, because
regardless of their mental capacity, artificial intelligence cannot perceive or exude
emotions the same way humans do, they might understand the meaning and be able to

imitate it but they will never grasp its essence, theyll never feel anything. This is what
differentiates us humans over machines, we have an innate ability to perceive emotions,
and were born with this ability, it cannot be taught and because of this lack of emotions
they cant take into account various emotional aspects that come with decision-making
such as whom it might be hurting in order to achieve its desired goal. A prime example of
such is Ava to reach is goal it emotionally manipulated Caleb into thinking that she truly
loved him in other words that she was truly capable of emotion the only aspect that would
prove that shes more than a robot capable of decision making and elevate her to the rank
of human beings. However in reality shes nothing more than a robot unable to feel
emotions which is the point Alex Garland was trying to pass on, no matter how advanced
artificial intelligence gets it will never replace humans because it cannot perceive the
world in the same way we do. At a certain point in the movie Caleb seems to question his
humanity he doesnt seem sure that he is human, therefore he cuts himself to unsure that
he actually is, he sort of goes crazy because of the time hes spending with Ava, she
confused him to the point that he doesnt seem sure is hes human or an AI.

In the end Alex Garland made an artistic philosophical movie dealing with the
question of humanity, an experienced cast featuring Oscar Isaac, Alicia Vikander and
Domhnall Gleeson portrays it. The movie is quite intense however it can get wordy at
times and the viewers might lose interest after a while, this type of movie makes you
think, it leaves you with a ton of questions regarding AIs and their ability to replace
humans in the future. There is nonetheless one aspect of the movie that befuddles me,

how will Ava survive without the ability to recharge her batteries after she leaves
Nathans research facility?

Reference:
Ex Machina. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2015, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0470752/?
ref_=nv_sr_2
Ex Machina [Motion picture]. (2015). United Kingdom: Universal Pictures (UK) and
A24 Films (US).
Lewis, T. (2015, January 11). Alex Garland on Ex Machina: I feel more attached to this
film than to anything before. Retrieved April 5, 2015, from
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/jan/11/alex-garland-ex-machinainterview-the-beach-28-days-later