Ex Machina * * *

Why would anybody would want to build a robotic clone of a human - (what's the point? the world is crowded enough as it is). Similarly, why would anybody would want to make another film about someone who is building a robotic clone of a human?

Yet, there seems to be a new one every year.  I wonder if there has been a study of such films - especially those that feature a female robot or “simulant”. She is always super hot looking, she never ages, she is absolutely servile and never complains about anything.  Interesting.  Is this an ongoing campaign for what some men would regard as the ideal woman?

Ex Machina is another film about a man making a female robot:  but this film has been given a lot of praise.  A young man, Caleb, working for a software company called Bluebook wins a staff competition and gets to spend a week with the reclusive owner of Bluebook, Nathan.  Living off his squillions Nathan is now working on A.I. in the form of a robot…. and guess how “she” looks?

Actually she is still a bit of a skeleton of wires and titanium bones but her face is done and you can see she’s going to be pretty hot when she gets that plastic skin stretched over her. Although reputedly a genius, Nathan is also a bit of a mess, drinking himself into a stupor every night and then trying to remedy it each morning with intensive exercise.  He is welcoming to Caleb but understandably Caleb is intimidated by Nathan.  

Nathan encourages Caleb to interact with Ava (the robot) to determine its level of Artificial Intelligence. Predictably feelings grow between them - that’s just the kind of validation Nathan wants.  But our emotions are toyed with too.  Is Ava in a situation of domestic violence? She seems to convey feelings, but she can't leave the room she was built in, and Nathan can do anything he likes with her. Love struck Caleb makes his plans to rescue her. But both Caleb and Nathan learn the hard way that Ava is more intelligent than they realised.

Where Ex Machina is very different is the look and feel of the whole thing.  It is 95% interior giving a sense of claustrophobia which is rarely relieved.   I was wondering if it was a stage play adapted for the screen, but apparently writer/director Alex Garland wrote it specifically for the screen.  For the most part there are only four actors and the majority of the action and drama is between three of them.  

The situation is completely implausible and begs many unanswered logical questions, but you happily put them aside as this is driven by what is happening between people rather than what is happening to them.  It is also rich with feminist, political and social analogies; so much so, one could actually say, "robots have served us."