‘Ex Machina’: The wave of AI future

Just in case you planned to go see "Ex Machina," you might want to check out the review that I wrote for Spokane Public Radio:

Alex Garland may be best known for rebooting the zombie franchise, transforming what traditionally were shambling, mindless creatures into determined, quick-moving cannibals – a la Danny Boyle’s 2002 creature feature “28 Days Later.”

Now, in his first directorial effort, Garland is putting a new look on the story conceit of artificial intelligence. From Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” to Spike Jonze’s “Her,” moviemakers have explored the consequences of what it means to place human intelligence in mere machines. In the process, they’ve all gone beyond the basic concept to examine a range of cultural topics.

Just as writer-director Garland does in his movie “Ex Machina.” On the surface, Garland’s screenplay presents a simple sci-fi mystery. Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), a coder at the world’s most-used search-engine company, wins a lottery. The prize? The opportunity to spend a week with his billionaire boss Nathan (Oscar Isaac), working on a secret project.

It’s only when he arrives, by helicopter, at Nathan’s estate – a thoroughly modern house set in a remote forested mountain area (“Ex Machina” was shot in Norway) – that Caleb discovers what the project is: Nathan is constructing a robot with enough human intelligence to, he hopes, be able to pass what’s known as the Turing Test. In other words, he’s pretty sure his creation – dubbed Ava (and played by Swedish newcomer Alicia Vikander) – will be able to pass for human. And Nathan wants Caleb to conduct the test.

This is quite an opportunity for a young man pulled from the ranks of anonymous coders, getting to hang with his manly boss, who seems so down to earth, in between his drinking bouts and lifting weights as a hangover cure. From the beginning, though, Caleb senses something strange about the set-up: The house is built more like a fortress than either a home or, as Nathan insists, a lab. Nathan himself is a bit off, a little too demanding, a little too ingratiating, a little too weird. And then there is Ava, whom Nathan keeps confined in a glass prison.

To Caleb, Ava is an enticing challenge. And soon he finds himself engaging with her in ways that make it seem as if she is testing him. And maybe she is. Which leads exactly to the questions that Garland wants us to ask: What is intelligence, who has the right to enslave it, and what lengths will that intelligence go to determine its own future?

Mixed up in Garland’s brew is the notion of sex. It’s no coincidence that Nathan, who uses and abuses his female servant Kyoko, has designed Ava in a woman’s body. In one sense, a subservient female slave – again, another time-worn sci-fi conceit – serves as the stereotype of all that a man supposedly desires. A man like Nathan, at least.

And this lends Garland’s film a certain gravitas. Yet in the end, for all its atmosphere, “Ex Machina” doesn’t really say anything profound. Garland doesn’t answer any questions. All he does is leave us with possibilities.

The good news is, they all belong to Ava.