Ex Machina(2015)

[Gaith]

WIRED has a critical essay on the movie's gender representation. It's a bit draggy, but it does make a few vivid points and comparisons:

Ava’s predicament really isn’t that different from many female AIs who have come before her, from Metropolis’ Maria to Her’s Samantha to Blade Runner’s Pris. She is an android in female form, and thus she simply reflects how Hollywood has been depicting women—robotic or otherwise—for decades. In Blade Runner, the male replicants Roy Batty and Leon are struggling to change their short lifespans, while “basic pleasure model” Pris helps the cause by draping herself on J.F. Sebastian. In Prometheus, David is intellectually curious, but never sexualized. (Yet when Idris Elba’s Janek accuses Charlize Theron’s Meredith Vickers of being a robot, she responds with “My room. Ten minutes.” Because sex is the easiest way to prove you’re a real woman.)
​

And:

Think of David in Prometheus; his primary goal was assisting on the mission, not seducing Vickers. As a “male” AI in a film he was given an intellectual pursuit, not a romantic one. Is it possible Ava could’ve convinced Caleb she passed the test with fewer pleading glances and more analysis of world affairs? What would Ava have done to pass if she was a he?
​

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

S why was Caleb trapped when he disengaged the security system?

 

[hux]

Enjoyed it a lot.

Cerebral and thoughtful from start to finish; well, almost. I didn't care for the sudden violence regarding Nathan at the end and felt it undermined the sleek, classy feel that the film had established up to that point. No need for it. I was also disappointed by the cutting scene as this primarily ruled out Caleb as a machine (which may have been a more interesting direction to go in, but anyway) though it did highlight his mental state.

Loved Ava leaving Caleb behind and demonstrating how Nathan was right about her objectives. For a moment, I was terrified she was actually going to leave with him and render the whole plot worthless. Girl wants boyfriend.

Nope, girl wants freedom.

To do so would have given that twist away, of course, but then I wasn't at all fooled anyhow. In a plot where conversation means so much, how could it possibly be coincidence that a potential robot was mute? It couldn't.

Huh? How was that a twist. It was patently evident that she was a machine to both the audience and to Caleb from the word go.

 

[Karzak]

Saw this a few weeks ago and absolutely loved it.

 

[Gaith]

Huh? How was that a twist. It was patently evident that she was a machine to both the audience and to Caleb from the word go.

No, Caleb's reaction to Nathan's anger over Kyoko spilling the wine was definitely framed in human terms (for him).

 

[hux]

No, Caleb's reaction to Nathan's anger over Kyoko spilling the wine was definitely framed in human terms (for him).

He knows she's a machine. There is no twist. At all.

 

[Starkers]

No, Caleb's reaction to Nathan's anger over Kyoko spilling the wine was definitely framed in human terms (for him).

He knows she's a machine. There is no twist. At all.

Not how I saw it. At that point Caleb thought she was human. Worth noting that, lack of speech aside, from what Caleb's seen so far Kyoko is far more lifelike than Ava. Ava looks like a robot (presumably intentional on Isaac's part given he clearly could make her appear more human).

Did Ava whir? If she did then I'm guessing this was intentional as well.

 

[hux]

It seemed pretty clear to me that he was suspicious about Kyoko from the moment she comes into his room and does not speak to him.

Then Nathan says....."she's some alarm clock huh, gets you right up in the morning", like she's an object (and further speaks about her this way at dinner). For me there is no twist. It's too blatant.

Caleb is shown to be reasonably clever and obviously isn't remotely shocked when Kyoko tears her skin off later (though why she chooses to tear her skin off at that moment is somewhat confusing). His only shock is at the amount of prototypes and what Nathan has been doing to them which leads him to question his own reality (am I one of his robots) which was slightly hard to swallow but most robot/ android stories usually have a.....what if I'm one of them....moment, so fair enough.

 

[Yanks]

Saw this about a month ago and loved it. One of the best true SCI-FI movies in quite awhile.

Couple points:

I knew the Asian gal was a robot.

I seemed a little naive to me that Calab and Ava thought they could have any conversation without Nathan knowing.

It also struck me a little funny that this brilliant guy Nathan, with all his worldly views and insights failed read Issac Asmov's 'Three Laws of Robotics'.

Bet he wished he had.

 

[Pauln6]

Loved the movie and how it played with expectations. But she didn't really escape. Her room was designed to renew her charge. Presumably without a regular power source, she would run down reasonably quickly. Seems unlikely that Nathan designed her to be plug and play but I don't recall if the other androids or the lab had obvious charging points/stations.

 

[Mudd]

Great movie.

Caleb is initially led to believe that Kyoko is a live-in servant who doesn't understand English. It's only when he finds the other prototypes in the closets and she peels off her skin that he realizes she's a machine - which is funny, because I suspect the audience guesses that pretty quickly.

The funny thing about all the debate regarding whether Ava "proves" herself to be conscious is that at no point does she ever behave in such a way as to suggest that she's anything other than fully aware and conscious. We're just told that she has to prove it and we accept our right to judge.

 

[Unicron]

I just picked up a DVD copy recently.

 

[Mach5]

I just picked up a DVD copy recently.

They still sell those?

 

[Mudd]

Of course they do. Netflix still rents them.

 

[mos6507]

Loved the movie and how it played with expectations. But she didn't really escape. Her room was designed to renew her charge. Presumably without a regular power source, she would run down reasonably quickly. Seems unlikely that Nathan designed her to be plug and play but I don't recall if the other androids or the lab had obvious charging points/stations.

One could just as easily guess that if she can cobble her parts together she could also find a way to charge herself from a household outlet or an EV charging station.

 

[Mach5]

Of course they do. Netflix still rents them.

That's way to serious of an answer to my shitty attempt at cheap sarcasm.

Still, I wonder how long until renting physical media is no more. Streaming is so much more convenient, unless you actually want to buy a movie, in which case getting it on DVD is kinda nonsensical, considering how cheap blu-ray players are nowadays and how crappy plain DVD's are in comparison.

 

[Karzak]

Of course they do. Netflix still rents them.

That's way to serious of an answer to my shitty attempt at cheap sarcasm.

Still, I wonder how long until renting physical media is no more. Streaming is so much more convenient, unless you actually want to buy a movie, in which case getting it on DVD is kinda nonsensical, considering how cheap blu-ray players are nowadays and how crappy plain DVD's are in comparison.

Until streaming HD matches the quality of physical media HD, physical media will continue to sell.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

Time Warner Cable offers movies on demand in both HD & DVD quality, with the DVD being a $1 cheaper. There really isn't a discernible difference between the two. So I usually rent the DVD version.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

I really enjoyed this movie. Interesting story and very good acting by everyone. Alicia Vikander is one hot robot.

 

[Mach5]

Time Warner Cable offers movies on demand in both HD & DVD quality, with the DVD being a $1 cheaper. There really isn't a discernible difference between the two.

That's... Entirely impossible. There are literally five times as many pixels in a "Full HD" image, than in a standard resolution DVD.

Unless you're actually watching all this on an old standard resolution CRT TV set, in which case those extra pixels aren't visible.