Ex Machina
In have recently watched the independent science fiction thriller film - Ex Machina, released in 2015. Despite this film had a very low budget, it is made incredibly well. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole film and not once was I left not sitting on the edge of my seat. Not only is it interesting, but it also challenges a lot of ethnical views.
There is a very small cast in this film. It is made up of four main characters: Domhnall Gleeson (Caleb), Oscar Isaac (Nathan), Alicia Vikander (Ava) and Sonoya Mizuno (Kyoko). With in the cast there is only one A-list star, Domhnall Gleeson. He has featured in some big block buster movies such as Star Wars: Force awakens, Harry Potter and about time. In the majority of these films he has played a starring role, with the exception of Harry Potter. They all work together really well and there acting talents bounce off one another creating the perfect relationships between characters. Domhnall Gleeson plays the part of Caleb immaculately, he is a geeky coding enthusiast and plays a very innocent role in the film. Vikander's talent is also well reflected in the film. Although she is playing a robot, who will have limited facial expressions and emotion, she must have the hardest acting part of them all. Her physique, posture and elegant movement fits perfectly for the role of Ava.
Although the Alex Garland adopts the very common 'futuristic robots taking over the world' theme, he manages to reboot it and give a whole new perspective. Considering the fact that this is Garland's directing debut and that he only had a very modest budget to work with. The film appears much more clean and sleek than initially anticipated. A clever tactic that Garland adopted was keeping the scene in one location. This gave the film a very claustrophobic feel and managed to ramp up the tension so much more than your typical Si-Fi.
There was nothing unordinary about the filming of Ex Machina, it was filmed like any other live action film. There was no special effects used during filming. The special effects were done in post-production to create Ava's body. The special effects crew, led by Richard Conway, did an incredible job. Ava's body was a miracle of visual effects. They made her look incredibly futuristic by steering away from the typical mechanical aspect of robots and focussed on a new original idea. It was also very interesting that they chose to use mesh opposed to metal or some opaque material. Because Ava's body was transparent in some areas, they had to film some scenes with and without Vikander present. In post production, they then rotoscoped her face and hands. Camera and body tracking systems then transferred Ava's performance on to the CGI robot's movements. For me, this really hid the fact that this was a low budget film.
The film challenged a lot of ethical and moral questions. This made the film very interesting and in some way confusing (in a good way). It was often hard to figure out who's side you were on. Obviously the audience is positioned to see thing Caleb's point of view but do we listen to the genius in the matter (Nathan) or save the poor helpless machine (Ava). Despite the fact that in the end we discover that Ava is only 'pretending' to feel emotion, during the film we a blissfully unaware. This makes it easy for us to side with Ava as she is presented as the victim. However when Caleb confronts Nathan about Ava, he reminds us that she is only a machine trying to pass a test. It also makes us question whether if it write to trap anything in a cage. If Ava is a machine and she wanted to break free, then does that mean that trapping anything from humans to goldfish is wrong.
Considering that Si-Fi is not my 'got to' genre of film, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I love how you are tricked into siding with Ava and viewing Nathan as the antagonist. It manipulates you to see things how Caleb does, even if you don't necessarily agree with his actions. The film really makes you think and question society. It also makes you think about the future and the impact that modern technological advances will have on the way we live our lives. The visual effects of Ava's body were insane, so hats off to the special effects team.
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