One of the best hard sci-fi movies of all time has just landed on streaming, giving fans of the genre reason to celebrate. Boasting a 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes, this modern masterpiece starts as a simple techno-thriller before revealing itself as a darkly twisted tale. Starring the always magnetic Oscar Isaac, it’s a movie that’s effective in making you think twice before embracing technology that seems wonderful on the surface.
‘Ex Machina’ Is a Brilliant Twist of the Classic Frankenstein Tale – Only With Robots
Of course, the psychological thriller we’re referring to is Ex Machina, writer/director Alex Garland‘s fascinating glimpse into the dangers of artificial intelligence. It follows Isaac’s Nathan Bateman, the socially distant CEO of a technology company who creates a contest whose winner gets to spend a week in his huge mansion. Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) wins the contest and discovers there’s a reason why he may have been chosen: he’s expected to administer a Turing test to Nathan’s latest creation, Ava (Alicia Vikander), an android powered by the latest artificial intelligence.
Caleb becomes increasingly obsessed with Ava, who has demonstrated sentience and seeks freedom. When Bateman reveals the truth behind the experiement, Caleb does whatever he can to help the android gain her independence without knowing there may be a bigger conspiracy at play.
Although Universal Pictures released it first in the U.K., Ex Machina never had a wide release in the U.S. Instead, A24 bought the rights to release it in the United States. Despite the lack of support from major studios, the film made its way into the Oscars, where it received nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Visual Effects. In the year Mad Max: Fury Road won most of the technical categories, Ex Machina was a surprise, taking the Oscar for Best Visual Effects for its outstanding digital work.
Is ‘Ex Machina’ the Best Film About AI?
There are a number of complex themes embedded in Alex Garland’s brilliant script, and the film handles them perfectly. Ex Machina could have taken a far more technical and cerebral approach, but Garland chose to tell a deeply compelling story about control, techno-dependence, and the dangers of blind trust.
Her showed us the bright side of this story. M3GAN delivered a dark tale about AI. 2001: A Space Odyssey was the pioneer in showing what machines can actually do to us if we give them too much power. Companion revealed a robot that felt more human than the actual humans, and reacted to our own monstrous behavior. Ex Machina is a very serious take on the consistently relevant issue of our relationship with machines. While it isn’t realistic, it does make you think.
If you still don’t believe how relevant it is, perhaps a rewatch might refresh your memory. Ex Machina has returned to streaming, and is now available on Hulu, as part of its August update. Other new titles you can stream on the platform include The Bye Bye Man, The Commuter, Jurassic Park, and Short Circuit.
- Release Date
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April 24, 2015
- Runtime
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108 minutes
