Ex Machina
Director: Alex Garland
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson
Four stars
Alex Garland makes his directorial debut with Ex Machina, a superior slice of cerebral sci-fi. Returning to a genre he has frequently flirted with as a screenwriter – in Danny Boyle's Sunshine and 28 Days Later, and Pete Travis's comic-book adaptation Dredd – Garland's tale, which he also wrote, is a stylish, thoughtful look at the perils and pleasures of artificial intelligence.
Playing the Dr Frankenstein of the piece is Oscar Isaac. The Inside Llewyn Davis star is Nathan, a tech pioneer who lives alone in an isolated glass-and-pine pad in the Alaskan mountains. His "monster" – if you can use that word to describe the svelte Swedish star Alicia Vikander – is Ava, a fully functional femme-bot with a see-through midriff.
The creator-creature relationship is seen through the eyes of Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), a 24-year-old programmer who works for Nathan’s company and, so he believes, has won the office lottery to spend a week with their mysterious boss. It soon becomes clear that Caleb is a pawn, as Nathan seeks to use him as the barometer to test whether Ava’s thought processes can convincingly pass for human.
Yet Vikander’s robot – cleverly designed, with the aid of visual effects – has other ideas, attempting to lure Caleb into helping her overthrow her master.
As set-ups go, it’s a fascinating tussle for the soul (if there is one) of a sentient artificial being, while Garland should be congratulated on crafting a tale that questions mankind’s ceaseless desire for God-like power.
While both Gleeson and Isaac are about to become genre fan favourites thanks to their appearance in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, they seem equally comfortable in this more intellectual form of science fiction. Isaac is particularly impressive as the Steve Jobs-like Nathan.
Yet it’s the graceful Vikander who captivates the most. While the final act is less sleek than Garland would have wanted, the result is still a chilling look at the shape of things to come.
artslife@thenational.ae
