Ex Machina: A Review

So I made a promise, to the internets, that I’d make a post every Thursday.

Yeah, so it’s Friday now…

All that not withstanding, today I saw “Ex Machina”, a film written and directed by Alex Garland.  To the uninitiated, it’s not worth seeing.

Now don’t get me wrong, the cinematography was beautiful, Oscar Isaac’s performance was superb, and I love films that feature artificial intelligence and artificial life as their primary topic.  Independent films also hold a special place in my heart, because they don’t (often) have to follow the same modes and methods of Hollywood to sell tickets; they’re a lot freer in artistic expression.  Despite all of these positives that would make me like this film, I don’t.

I think the biggest eyesore was Domhnall Gleeson’s acting.  Oscar Isaac was not only a stronger character in the narrative, Isaac’s performance was just more convincing than Gleeson.  The good news is that Gleeson was better than Hayden Christensen in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.  The bad news is that it wasn’t by much.

His lines seemed… forced, lackluster, and just unconvincing.  The only sense of character we got from him was not by how he said things, but by what he said, and did, which points to superior writing, not superior acting.

Speaking of overall acting skills, Alicia Vikander’s character didn’t have much to her—but that was kinda of the point.  She remains more or less benign, and somewhat innocent and vulnerable.  While she played her role very well, it is unfortunate that we were not able to see the depths of her talents.  She had to remain as a portion of the background, a sad but necessary sacrifice for her role.

When one puts “Ex Machina” into Google, the search engine will most likely return with “japanese actress” amended somewhere in the results (her name is Sonoya Mizuno by the way).  Again, she had to stay in the background, and remained more like a set piece than anything else.  I think we could’ve seen a little more development in her character, but my main criticism is not in her acting skills or her character’s role in the story: it’s why she was casted.

Mizuno’s physical features are more akin to European standards of beauty than Japanese;  giving her blonde hair would make it incredibly difficult to establish her nation of origin.  If that was an intentional move of the casting director’s part then I think it was an interesting one.  She did affect an exotic, secretive, and sexual air when she was present in a scene, but if that was her purpose, then why was she there, aside from the novelty?  A curious choice indeed.

I will say that the mounting tension in the beginning portion of the film was well-done.  Little things like the computerized door remaining unforthcoming set the tone of nondisclosed secrets throughout the film.  Telling Caleb’s character that they have been flying over the estate for the last two hours shows that the person he is visiting is immensely rich.  Our introduction to one of the characters while they are boxing foreshadows violence and aggression—that little threat always hanging over the main character’s head.  Little things like that shows that the script had great potential, but in the end it still needed more polish.

Oh, and the quote about “writing the history of gods” is just as cliché spoken as it is while reading it.

Acting: 6/10

Casting: 7/10

Cinematography/Set Design: 7/10

Dialogue: 5/10

Soundtrack: 6/10

Special Effects: 7/10

Parental Content Advisory: Prevalent female nudity (more in the anatomical than sexual sense), and some sensuality (these two factors not in the same scenes).

TL;DR: If you’re a fan of robot sci-fi and independent films, go see this movie.  If not, then don’t bother.