Ex machina review

Ex machina review

Ex machina is a sci-fi film directed by Alax Garland. The storyline of this film is about a man, Caleb Smith (Domnhall Gleeson), who entered for a competition and won a week trip to do a Turing test for man who created the robot, Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), Caleb Smith didn’t know what he was going to do when he was there but it all goes wrong once the 2 men start having trust issues.

Towards the end of the film, we see that all of the creations Nathan had made are all women. This had made it sexist in my opinion as the film wouldn’t have been the same if the robots were male. Because Nathan is based in a research lab in the middle of nowhere, he feels lonely and needs the company of the women robots.

The film, ex machina, is a great film for the budget that they had of $15,000,000. The film had low amount of staff working on the film who weren't "A list stars", which saves them money instead of having to pay bigger wages to the “big named”. With the production company offering roles within the play to the lower levelled actors, they were able to spend their budget on more important aspects of the film such as the visual effects and the location of the film. The directors and writers of the film (Alex Garland) had thought of a good idea for a film which suited their target market as the film had made around double the amount of money which was invested in to it. Alex Garland hadn’t made many films before but this film was good and very unique with the idea of robots becoming more powerful than humans eventually. The producers of the film, ex machina, (Andrew MacDonald and Allon Reich) were involved in a great film which did very well considering the amount of money which was put in to the film. This film had great visual effects and kept the audience attached to the screen, to see what happens at the end with the robot, Ava, and Caleb.

Although the film was good, it wasn’t very moral as Nathan had made a robot which can think and feel like a human with consciousness but is keeping her in a confined area not allowing her to escape. If it was a human behind the bulletproof room then it would be breaking that person’s rights but because it is a robot, it is seen as fine. Also, Nathan had made all female robots that can’t escape and have to do what Nathan says when he wants and what he wants. This could be seen as a type of slavery which is also morally wrong making Nathan a bad person but because he is clever and is making future technology, he is allowed to get away with it.

The ending of the film, we all presumed that Ava was going to walk off with Caleb and be free together and live a happy life but we didn’t expect Ava to lock Caleb in a room where he needed a card to get out and there was no other way of him getting out so he was trapped. How Ava was with Caleb made us all suggest that she actually liked him but Nathan was right, Ava pretended to like Caleb to use him as a way of escape.

Overall, I thought this film was a good film with plenty of suspense moments. My most enjoyable bit was the action towards the end with Nathan and Ava (Nathan’s creation).