Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D'Onofrio, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Irrfan Khan, Omar Sy, B.D. Wong
Summary: "Twenty-two years after the events of Jurassic Park, Isla Nublar now
features a fully functioning dinosaur theme park, Jurassic World, as
originally envisioned by John Hammond. After 10 years of operation and
visitor rates declining, in order to fulfill a corporate mandate, a new
attraction is created to re-spark visitors' interest, which backfires
horribly." (IMDB)
Spoilers past cut, be ye warned
I'll admit it, I just wanted a picture of Jeff Goldblum in my post.
Genre: Sci-Fi, Drama
Director/Writer: Alex Garland
Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Alicia Vikander, Sonoya Mizuno
Summary: "A young programmer is selected to participate in a breakthrough experiment in artificial intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a breathtaking female AI." (IMDB)
I was really excited to write about this movie after I saw it. We're not even halfway through the year, but I'm very confident that this will be one of the best movies of 2015 (in my very humble opinion). Here's the thing though - when I sat down to actually do up my post, I had a hard focusing my thoughts long enough to come up with something cohesive. There are so many things I wanted to talk about, and so many different angles that I could come from, that I couldn't figure out how exactly I wanted to attack this thing. I meant to have this up weeks ago, but that just didn't end up happening. I'm here now, though, and I'm going to do my best to actually discuss the movie and what I felt about it. So...deep breath. Here we go.
Spoilers past this point, be ye warned.
I figured I would start with the title first. "Ex Machina" is a term taken from ancient Greek theatre, with the full phrase being "Deus Ex Machina." Literally, it translates into "God from the machine." The conceit in Ancient Greece was that when the characters' problems became so great that there was no way they could be fixed, a god would be lowered down onto the stage from a crane or brought up onstage through a trap door, and he would provide a solution which led to a happy ending. It's a term familiar to anyone who studied theatre, and it caught my attention right away as the title of the film. I think the term itself plays heavily into the plot of the film, especially considering how Nathan does seem to consider himself a godlike figure with the creation of Ava. True, it's Caleb's words that seem to lead him to that conclusion, but considering how quick he was to agree with it, I don't think it's a stretch to assume he's had the same ideas himself. This provides an interesting play on the term itself; "God from the machine" can be interpreted as Nathan becoming God after creating the machine.
This is a theme that repeats itself throughout the course of the film (and perhaps gets a little heavy-handed at times). It can even be seen in the characters' names, which are all biblical references: Nathan is a prophet, Caleb is a spy sent into the New Land by Moses, and Ava is a play on Eve, who was, of course, the first woman created by God, according to the Book of Genesis. The names themselves seem to have been chosen very deliberately, too. Ava is obvious - though she wasn't the first AI created by Nathan, she is the first successful one, which ends up having dire consequences for her creator. Nathan is a prophet - a voice of God, which is fitting considering he sees himself as an extension of God with the creation of Ava (if not an all-out replacement). Caleb being a spy also fits with the character of the film - he is an outsider, sent in to observe and report. It's true that he's brought in by Nathan himself, but he ends up turning against him as he plots with Ava to overtake him and help her break free. The person Nathan thought was on his side ends up being - for lack of a better word - a traitor.
The religious themes carry over into the second area I wanted to discuss with this movie, which was the idea of artificial intelligence vs. actual intelligence, and what actually makes us human. Ava is shown in the beginning to be capable of replicating intelligence, and even emotion to a certain degree (in particular, I'm thinking of her fear of what will happen to her if she fails the Turing Test - and make no mistake, I do believe there was fear present in her question). Later on in the movie, she proves capable of using Caleb's emotions to manipulate him onto her side. She can draw conclusions, and she can make decisions on her own. Interestingly, it's her decision-making process that makes her most and least human.
I spent a lot of time after this movie asking myself exactly what those traits are that define us as "human beings." In the end, the answer I settled on was that it is our choices that define us as people more than anything else. The choices we make are a big part of what makes us who we are, both on a human scale and a personal scale, and it's in our ability to think and reason and decide for ourselves that our humanity lies. Ava demonstrates the ability to think and reason, and the conclusions she draws (especially in the film's climax) are her own. You see those decision-making skills throughout the course of the film, from the clothing she picks to show Caleb, to her manipulation of his feelings for her, to her stabbing of Nathan in order to facilitate her escape. Killing Nathan, though, more than anything demonstrates to me that she is still a machine, no matter how convincingly she appears otherwise. Her decision is calculated and coldly logical - his death is a means to her freedom. It's in the way that she looks at the knife and then at him after she makes that first cut, like a scientist observing the results of a particularly fascinating experiment. You can see her decide to stab him one more time, just to make sure he stays down. That's the moment that gives her away as AI - you can replicate intelligence, logic, even emotion, but you can't fake that sense of right vs. wrong. It is our morality - flawed though it may be - that ultimately defines us as human beings.
