Ex Machina

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Year:	2015
Country of origin:	UK
Director:	Alex Garland
Genre:	Sci-fi
Starring:	Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac
Rating:	5/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0470752/
Tagline:	To erase the line between man and machine is to obscure the line between men and gods
Favourite line:	"One day the AIs are going to look back on us the same way we look at fossil skeletons on the plains of Africa."

Haunting and intelligent.
And that’s just Domhnall Gleeson.

The plot:
Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) is a computer programmer, specialising in artificial intelligence. Called to the home of Bluebook CEO Nathan (Oscar Isaacs), Caleb is assigned an unusual task. Bluebook, you see, is the world’s largest search engine provider, and Nathan has a plan. Instead of simply providing search algorithms, why not use that collective pool of information to create a computer that can act and think like a human being? A computer system capable of passing the ever elusive Turing Test, a theoretical concept defined as creating software sophisticated enough to fool a person into thinking that they are interacting with another person, instead of a series of IF….THEN statements?
To facilitate this, Nathan has fashioned himself a fem-bot in the shape of Alicia Vikander (we know, we know. We’re thinking it, too), and Caleb’s mission is to befriend it, to question it, simply to interact with it, to see if it is able to pass the test.
Rather inevitably, though, things quickly go awry for the robot, Ava, seems more than just a machine and, before you can say Red Dwarf’s Polymorph, Caleb is falling in love and, could it be true, seems that Ava is, too.

A beautifully small-scale, introspective piece from Dredd writer Alex Garland.
Light on budget, but heavy on substance, this is sci-fi as sci-fi should be, packed full of philosophical musings, postulations on the meaning of existence, what it is to be alive, as well as not-so-vague ponderings on the nature of slavery.
Garland, ever a sharp pen-smith – 28 Days Later, Danny Boyle’s Sunshine, anyone? – here demonstrates that he is no slouch behind the camera, either, directing the words he composed for the very first time.
Drifting dreamily from one scene to the next, nothing is rushed, nothing forced, instead moments bleed into one another, the framework of Caleb’s multiple sessions with Ava giving everything a repetitive, hypnotic feel, almost de-ja-vu like at times.
A short film, around the hour and a half mark, still there is time for exploration of soul and the substance of humanity, primarily as no time is needed for silly explosions or large metal monsters smashing into each other.
Though the budget is clearly tight, it’s obvious where most of the money went as the realisation of Ava, half translucent, her inner workings clear for all to see, everything behind her as she moves around morphing and bending as light refracts through her surfaces, is simply stunning, and draws the eye the whole time she is on screen.
Beautifully acted, with poignancy, mood and depth to spare, it’s one of the best sci-fi films we’ve seen in years.
A must, film fans.