Ex Machina

In today’s modern life, human beings get new technologies that can be beneficial and harmful. There are articles, books, and movies that do warn about the appearance of the intelligent humanoid robot. Ex Machina is one of these cinematic works that portray this message. Ex Machina is a 2014 independent science fiction movie written and directed by Alex Garland that shows us a programmer, Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) has been invited by his CEO Nathen Bateman (Oscar Isaac) to administer the Turning test to an artificial intelligence with a woman appearance and attributes Ava (Alicia Vikander).  Ava has a robotic body but a human-looking face that has been confined in her apartment. The prefix “Ex” means previous, and machine means non-human is the end of the machine and the birth of intelligent humanoids. I believe that the movie Ex Machina is better than the other movies in this genre because of its multi-dimensional aspects. Although the emphasis is on the human ability to create super artificial intelligence, as God created Humans, the movie’s message mainly is fear of the futuristic technological advances that humanoid robots can dominate human life.

Ex Machina is not the type of genre that I follow, but it is excellent because of its coherent structure based on scientific knowledge and art aesthetics. According to the elements of the movie, Ex Machina is a science fiction movie. The important features of science fiction movies are to have advanced technology, futuristic methods to explain what the future may hold, the presence of intelligent robots, integration of robots into daily human life, and other similar items. Ex Machina also is a science fiction movie because of future human access to advanced technology, and artificial intelligence that is embodied in a humanoid robot, Ava. Terminator, the production of 1984, directed by James Cameron, comparatively, is a science fiction film too. In this movie also, the audience is watching an artificial intelligence with actor Arnold Schwarzenegger who travels back in time from 2029 to 1984.  His body is disguised as a human-like Ava but with undeniable differences. Richard Corliss graduated from St. Joseph’s College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, did graduate work in film at both Columbia University and New York University, and served for many years on the selection committee for the New York Film Festival. According to Corliss, ‘She’ is an advanced species of robot in female form, her flawless face encased in a Plexiglas skull, her arms and legs and efficient tangle of wires.” As Corliss states, Ava’s body design combines a human body shape (female) with plastic, wires, and metal parts. By contrast, a humanoid robot in The Terminator has a simple body design. All of its body is disguised as a human, but in some scenes, the audience finds there is a device in its skull and metal parts under its artificial skin and flesh. Artificial intelligence The Terminator ridiculously bleeds when it is injured with the aim of emotionalizing the viewer. On the contrary, the director of Ex Machina does not make this sort of superficial and hypocritical scene. Therefore, The Terminator remains in a fantasy action science fiction, but Ex Machina, due to its artistic aesthetic look, the technical design for creating a super artificial intelligence is going beyond the movies in its genre.

Ex Machina is admirable because of its recreation of religious myths and return to the legend of Eve’s creation. The movie has seven sessions that remind the creation of the heavens and the earth in seven days, according to the Old Testament. The name Ava in its own pronunciation, has the sound of Eve. The fully automatic system house of Nathan, the creator of Ava, is in the heart of beautiful nature, much like God’s heaven. Ava likes to be free of this confined heaven as Eve did. Martin Robbins is a Berkshire-based researcher and science writer who writes about artificial intelligence, data, and algorithms. According to Robbins, “Nathan is the clearest study of ego in the film. When Caleb comments about the history of ‘gods’, the CEO instinctively assumes the ‘god’ referred to is himself, where Ava is his Eve and his sprawling green estate is some sort of Garden of Eden.” The director consciously uses mythical symbols to give more depth to his movie. Thus, Ex Machina focuses on subjectivism or the relationship between artificial intelligence and its god (Nathen) and its Turing test conductor (Caleb). In contrast, The Terminator is strongly objectivistic because of the enrichment of action scenes and special effects to aim to entertain the spectators. Hence, Ex Machina is worthy of being introduced to cinema enthusiasts because of the myths being depicted in its structure and also its introspective and thoughtful aspects.

Ex Machina, a real science fiction movie, emphasizes the negative sides of technology. In other words, its general theme is fear of the future of technology. Nathan in Ex Machina says, “The arrival of strong artificial intelligence has been inevitable for decades. The variable was when not if” (IMDB). In another dialogue with Caleb, he says, “One day, the AIs are going to look back on us the same way we look at fossil skeletons on the plains of Africa” (IMDB). The definitive announcement of the presence of super intelligence humanoid robots by a scientist, Nathan, in the future is horrifying. This fear becomes bolder at the end of the movie with the blood and death of the scientist creator by Ava. Greg Cootsona studied comparative literature at U.C. Berkeley and theology at Princeton Theological Seminary (M. Div.), the Universities of Tübingen and Heidelberg, as well as Berkeley’s Graduate Theological Union, the latter where he received his Ph.D. As supported by Cootsona, “Ultimately, Ava turns out to be dangerous, self-serving, manipulative, and even murderous. This seems to be a parable for our fears about tech—we create something that overwhelms us.” The technology has positive sides such as using Google Maps to find directions easily, listening to music on iPhone, searching fast everything on the internet, and so on, but there is the power of technology beyond this help. One of the differences of Ex Machina with the other science fiction movie Chappie is fear of technology. Comparatively, the story in Chappie, directed by Neill Blomkamp, is quite the opposite. Chappie is a prototype artificial intelligence that is still a kid, and he is very pure and innocent. Unlike Ava, that killed her creator, Chappie helps his creator. The movie Ex Machina invites the audience to question themselves if artificial bits of intelligence are scary.

The excellent theme of this movie is regarding women’s rights that I adore. The movie has four main characters, of which are two women (Ava, Kyoko) in submissive roles. Although Nathan’s test includes a sexual component, the movie path never goes that way. Ava is definitely the damsel in distress because she is imprisoned in her apartment by her abusive father, Nathan, but over time, she becomes more and more the center of the story and does not seem so helpless as she first appeared. Her success appears when she is able as a femme fatale, to manage Caleb’s love towards herself. The presence of a femme fatale to achieve her aim is not new in the movies, but Ava is not a real woman. She is an AI who has evolved to this point. Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor-in-Chief of RogerEbert.com, the TV critic for New York Magazine, Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism. According to Seitz, “…Ava as the damsel who is definitely in distress but not as helpless as she first appears (though we are kept guessing as to how capable she is, and whether she has the potential to be a femme fatale)”.  Ava (Eve) asks Caleb about love in her fifth question in her scenario so that she can find a collaborator to get out of her father’s heaven. Garland, as the main creator of Ava, demonstrates his interest to save his creature from thousands of years of men’s domination. In The Terminator and Chappie, the viewer does not see the importance of a woman’s role as a hero. In my opinion, making these kinds of movies focusing on women, her aim, and success can be good examples to change educational patterns. Overall, Ex Machina, because of its awareness of gender social issues, and women’s roles, is a step ahead of other movies in this genre.

Today’s life is seriously associated with technology, which has both profits and drawbacks. Many books, articles, and films refer to these negative and positive points. Ex Machina is one of these movies in the science fiction genre with the best special effect compared to previous science fiction movies. It is an excellent movie because its structure is based on scientific knowledge and art aesthetics. The movie has multi-dimensional aspects as its recreation of religious myths. I recommend this movie to cinema enthusiasts because of many reasons. The most important reason is that it is beyond its peers. The director knows deeply about religion, mythology, art aesthetics, and so on. Clearly, Ex Machina stresses the future of human ability, but its message is a warning of the dominance of humanoids on human life.

Works Cited

Chappie. 2015, directed by Neill Blomkamp, performance by Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Jose      Pablo Cantillo, Sigourney Weaver, Hugh Jackman, and Watkin Tudor Jones (Ninja) and         Yolandi Visser, Columbia Pictures, 2015.

Corliss, Richard. “Ex Machina: Can Two Wily Men Outsmart a Gorgeous Robot?” Time, 10        Apr. 2015.

Cootsona, Greg. “Why Do We Fear the Future of the Presence of Technology?” HUFFPOST, 13             May 2017.

“Ex Machina (2015) Quotes.” IMDb, 2014.

EX Machina. 2014. Directed by Alex Garland, performance by Alicia Vikander, Domhnall          Gleeson, Sonoya Mizono, and Oscar Isaac, universal Pictures, 2017.

Robbins, Martin. “Artificial Intelligence: Gods, Egos and Ex Machina.” The Guardian, 26 Jan.    2016.

Seitz, Matt Zoller. “Ex Machina” Roger Ebert.com, 9 Apr. 2015.

The Terminator. 1984, Directed by James Cameron, performance by Arnold Schwarzenegger,     Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, and Paul Winfield, Orion Pictures, 1984.