FILMS… Ex Machina (2015)

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A sci-fi hot robot of some sorta Weird Science origins…

 

A programmer is invited by his boss to assess a female android to evaluate how human like it is.

 

Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac

Alicia Vikander

EX MACHINA Official Trailer #1 (2015) – Sci-Fi Thriller HD, FilmIsNow Movie Trailers and photos © A24 and Universal Pictures

 

The next of the wee reviews is a sci-fi story, named Ex Machina (2015) starring Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac and Alicia Vikander. This film surprisingly only won one Oscar. The film deservedly won Best Visual Effects and was only nominated for Best Original Story.

The plot, in a nutshell, is that programmer Celeb (Gleeson) is invited by his boss Nathan (Isaac) to test his latest robot to test how human-like he feels it is. This seems fair enough, but as Celeb is summoned there, travels there by helicopter to an extremely remote location, is not allowed to communicate with the outside world and has to sit tests even before he meets the android, you feel more than a wee bit apprehensive.

As there are even no windows to his room and he is confined to the house with some rooms only accessed with a photo id, you feel more than a sense of foreboding. Over the tests with the AI Ava (Vikander) – which are observed by Nathan on a surveillance camera – Celeb warms to her, telling him her darkest secrets and appearing to be falling for her. Then Ava tells him during an electricity blackout, that Nathan can’t be trusted…

What follows had me and Darlin Husband both gripped to our seats, the plot unravels almost like a Ray Bradbury story with more twists and turns than a labyrinth and more red herrings than your average episode of Murder She Wrote (1984-96). Hollywood’s favourite Red Head (after Karen Gillan), Domhnall Gleeson, plays a great nerdy type programmer alternately trying to impress his boss while at times doubting his motives.

A bearded Oscar Isaac with a No1 shaved haircut has a role reminiscent of the creepy roles that Paul Giamatti often signs up for. Isaac is totally unrecognisable from his beardless, curly hair cheeky chappie role in Star Wars the Force Awakens (2015). You want to feel you can trust this character due to his previous role as General Leia trusted him. In this film, his appearance in combination with his acting delivery in this film, makes you feel uneasy.

Alicia Vikander, now Oscar-Winning Actress (not Isaac, but the gold Deadpool lookalike statuette), looks a wee bit Emily Bluntish. In her role, she makes a gorgeous robot with the doe-eyed look of Carey Mulligan and a figure in her skintight android outfit that most women would die for.

It’s almost as if Nathan had watched Weird Science (1985) as a teenager and thought “Android chicks rock” and then later pursued a career to make the perfect one.  Not to worry girls, at one point Ava reveals an awful fashion sense – kinda dowdy compared with Weird Science‘s Lisa – but hey she can’t have everything … even as a robot.

 

Weeper Rating: :-( :-(  /10

Handsqueeze Rating:  :-)  :-)  :-) :-) :-)  :-) /10

Hulk Rating: ‎ ‎     ‎/10

 

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Robots in Film Blogathon 2019, No 3

This post was added to Midnite Drive In and Hamlette’s Soliloquy Robots in Film Blogathon. Other films reviewed here with this cast include Oscar Isaac in Star Wars The Force Awakens. Domhnall Gleeson also stars in About Time with the film reviewed HERE and the trailer HERE.

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