Ex Machina

[taolurker]

News coming out of SXSW about this movie, not just because of the trailer, but also because of the Tinder/Instagram dating bot they set up to help promote the movie's screening.

Seems to be a small, no-name cast, but the trailer does have some really amazing looking CGI for AVA (the robot), and definitely looks like a movie people here would appreciate.

Additional news sources: Hollywood reporter link

Written and directed by the writer of the Dredd reboot, Alex Garland, so odds are just as good it could be total crap.

[Samwise]

Written and directed by the writer of the Dredd reboot, Alex Garland, so odds are just as good it could be total crap.

The Dredd reboot was way better than it had any right to be.  Way WAY better than the Stallone movie was.

[Ironwood]

I liked the Dredd Reboot.  My only concern was not enough Dredd world.

[Velorath]

News coming out of SXSW about this movie, not just because of the trailer, but also because of the Tinder/Instagram dating bot they set up to help promote the movie's screening.

Seems to be a small, no-name cast, but the trailer does have some really amazing looking CGI for AVA (the robot), and definitely looks like a movie people here would appreciate.

Additional news sources: Hollywood reporter link

Written and directed by the writer of the Dredd reboot, Alex Garland, so odds are just as good it could be total crap.

Trailers for this have been around for a few months now and there's actually been a handful of reviews out since January. It's gotten a decent amount of notice due to Garland's connection with Danny Boyle (Garland wrote 28 Days Later and Sunshine). While the cast aren't big name stars, I wouldn't call them no-names either. Oscar Isaac in particular starred in the Coen Brother's movie Inside Llewyn Davis and has been cast as Apocalypse in the next X-men movie. He and Ex Machina co-star Domhnall Gleeson are also both in the new Star Wars movie, and I thought Gleeson was pretty good in About Time as well.

[Kitsune]

I was interested by the trailer, but am terrified that there's a horribly obvious 'oh, dudebro was the AI all along, he's not there to test her, she's there to test him!' twist that would just ruin everything.

[MediumHigh]

Hmmm... no? I know robot sex is in the near future but movies about robot sex don't have to be.

[kaid]

I liked the Dredd Reboot.  My only concern was not enough Dredd world.

I honestly liked the way it was done. It ends on a note of this is just a normal day at work which drives home how fucked up the world they are in really is.

[shiznitz]

I liked the Dredd Reboot.  My only concern was not enough Dredd world.

I honestly liked the way it was done. It ends on a note of this is just a normal day at work which drives home how fucked up the world they are in really is.

Perfect description. I liked it too.

[Maven]

If you can see this, do it.

It is a well-crafted, well-acted film which does an excellent job asking and exploring philosophical questions. I'm looking forward to seeing these actors in future films.

I was engaged right up until the very end. Shades of Her but darker.

[Teleku]

Do you mean the film was engaging all the way through, or it was great and then had a shitty ending?

[Maven]

It does a great job building tension and telling a story through six of the seven days of Caleb's week (Caleb is the employee). Writing began to fall apart at the end as it rushed to make emotional punches, but the ending wasn't terrible. However the emotional payoff relied on characters making absolutely stupid decisions for what they sought to deliver. Anytime they reached a point where you would ask "Wait, now what?", another bomb dropled that rearranged the pieces on the board.

I'd see it for yourself.

[Teleku]

Just watched it.  Very good movie, I'd highly recommend it to anybody.  I thought the writing an pacing was great through the whole thing, and it had a perfect ending. 

[Ghambit]

Godammit I wanna see this movie; fml.  It's not playing anywhere!

[Mattemeo]

Saw this back in January on its UK release, and it's still holding up as my favourite film of the year so far (though I only saw Birdman and Whiplash this year too, but they're technically last year's films, so...).
Been waiting for the soundtrack to come out since I got back from the cinema; finally got it pre-ordered off of Invada Records (Geoff Barrow's own label). It's a huge part of what makes the movie so special, that creeping, unescapable tension that just builds to breaking point as an elevator door closes.

Vikanders is amazing in it, easily the best interpretation of near-human AI to date, down to her impossibly precise, uncanny valley balletic movements and her minutely clinical, studied body language. Really looking forward to seeing her in more things; Man From UNCLE next I think.

Alex Garland has always been an interesting writer, now he's an interesting director, too.

[Samwise]

Saw this yesterday; liked it.  Scrolling back up to the top of the thread reminded me that it was written by the guy who did Dredd, who did one thing very well in both movies -- not wasting any fucking time setting up the plot.  Gave it the very tight, focused feel of a good short story.

[Kitsune]

I took a read from this that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere, so I'm floating it out to see if anyone got a similar impression.  It is of course spoiler-filled.

[Samwise]

I'm pretty sure you mean "treats objects as women".   

[Kitsune]

[Ghambit]

I pulled over in Albuquerque going cross-country to watch this.  Best "pure" small budget sci-fi film in recent memory?  Maybe since Donnie Darko.  I'm trying to find one as good since then and nothing pops up.   Moon, Her... meh.  This was better.

So distilled and succinct.  Definitely a good sci-fi short story in movie format, basically.  The girl who played Eva did an extraordinary job; evidently she's a ballerina, which is the perfect casting for her part.  The bodily control is apparent.


I thought pretty much exactly as you except taking it further. 

[murdoc]

Saw this last night - it was excellent, but I felt the ending was a little silly.

I love how manipulative the movie is, like Ava.

[Mattemeo]

[MahrinSkel]

Murdoc:

--Dave

[murdoc]

Murdoc:

--Dave

Oh, I think I get everything you said - I just liked the way the movie played with those tropes and treated the audience like Ava treats Caleb.

[lamaros]

Saw this, a really excellent movie.

I'm not sure I agree with some of the pojts being argued here, but at the least the film is open enough to allow it all.

If Ava is a failed machine are the closets less disturbing, is she a failure, are they disturbing?

All the characters are pretty nuanced, its really very well done.

[lamaros]

Murdoc:

--Dave

[Ghambit]

Murdoc:

--Dave

The freedom trope was explored enough I thought, for the length of the film.  There's really not much left to posit on that end except in how one might design a machine learning system to actually WANT to be free and then iterate until it is.  In the end, the real impetus is input, not freedom.  Ava wants input and interaction first and foremost, not simply to be free (you can be free and still non-interactive).  She has to be free to gain the amount of iteration she seeks.  It's Johnny5 all over again really.

[Teleku]

You (and others) are reading that scene a little different than I did.  

[lamaros]

It is pretty silly. But then some people fall in love with murderers on dealth row. Sentience doesn't make you logical or smart in a whole host of ways.


Who knows the fact is the the movie is really just suggestions and speculations itself. Which is why I think it is good.

[MediumHigh]

I call this movie, lonely pathetic white knight the movie. Literally the plot hinges on a guy with no meaningful relationship with the opposite sex actively ignoring all indications that the girl he is talking to is a sexbot (and only a sex bot) and trying to have a romantic relationship with a toaster because said toaster smiles at him.
 

[MediumHigh]

I call this movie, lonely pathetic white knight the movie. Literally the plot hinges on a guy with no meaningful relationship with the opposite sex actively ignoring all indications that the girl he is talking to is a sexbot (and only a sex bot) and trying to have a romantic relationship with a toaster because said toaster smiles at him.
 

[Mattemeo]

 

[murdoc]

Seriously.

[Ghambit]

You (and others) are reading that scene a little different than I did.  

[Samwise]

It's an interesting discussion nonetheless, and really, they're important to have as a scientist-engineer.

I'm in software.  I don't work on stuff you'd call "AI" professionally but I did study it in school and have messed around with evolving AI in the context of hobby projects.  Having established my Internet credentials:

Discussions about emotionally manipulative mad genius AIs with boobs are about as important and relevant to scientists and engineers as discussions about dragons are to field biologists.

[Merusk]

Yeah you say that and then some kid's mom in England digs a mine too deep and we're all fucked.