Sunday 25 January 2015

FILM: Ex Machina (dir: Alex Garland, 2015)

 "I like Depeche Mode."

Action fans beware: this is not I, Robot.  Here, Alex Garland does Stanley Kubrick but with the important element that Kubrick often missed: humanity.  Ex Machina is a perfectly controlled, flawlessly designed film that manages to juggle cool intellectual detachment and emotional engagement very finely indeed, also seen in the grander thematic and visual juxtapositions of man/machine, nature/technology and art/construction.  Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac both deliver wonderfully natural and terrific performances, and Alicia Vikander pitches the AI/robot Ava just right in both tone and movement.  A haunting and ominous soundtrack by Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury complements the on-screen action superbly.  It could be argued that the only real flaws are the jarring objectification of women (nudity and their presentation as sex-robots and an unnecessary coda (reminiscent of the first theatrical cut of Blade Runner but less unwanted here), as Ex Machina is otherwise an excellent, thoughtful and thought-provoking film, artfully constructed and immensely satisfying.


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