Ex Machina
Year: 2015 (Canada)
Director & Screenwriter: Alex Garland
Lead actors: Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac
Running time: 1h 48min (IMDb)
Trailer
Plot Summary
An important theatrical element in movies are props. Cameras are a very important prop in this film. An example is when the shot focuses on the security camera that is watching Caleb interview Ava. It is a symbol saying that someone is always watching. It reminds the viewers that during Caleb and Ava's sessions, they are never alone. Another important prop would be the key card which gives Caleb access to certain rooms in the house which shows how controlling Nathan is.
Another important theatrical element is sets. Nathan's home as a set is very futuristic and technologically advanced. We see that his house itself has very modern architecture and gives the essence of man-made with many blocky structures. Another set would be the nature that surrounds his home. From ponds and grassy forest fields to snow-packed mountains with waterfalls, we can see the contrast between the two sets. We can see that they are very separate from each other until we get the scene of Ava walking outside where we see the technology of man existing with nature.
Ex Machina deals with the idea of what it means to be human. When Caleb finds out Kyoko is not human and is actually a robot, he starts to question his own sanity. This leads to him taking extreme measures and cutting open his wrist to make sure that he’s actually human. In addition, the self-aware self plays a part in determining what it means to be human. The self-aware self is defined as a representation of one’s own consciousness, meaning that one can represent itself and knows it exists. As humans, we have a self-aware self. However, Ava also has a self-aware self and this can be proven by her ability to manipulate Caleb. She is able to use him and play with his feelings to better her own life. She can only do this because she’s aware of her life in captivity. She wants out and understands that they only way she can leave is by tricking Caleb into thinking she has real feelings for him. Although she fakes her feelings towards Caleb, she is not faking her desire for freedom.
Ex Machina does a good job of making us question our empathy towards advancing AI and robots and whether or not we are comfortable with integrating these machines in our lives. Throughout the whole movie, Ava is trapped inside of a glass cell until the very end when she finally escapes into humanity but at the cost of two human lives. Viewers may choose to side with Ava by humanizing her and giving her the right to freedom by any means. Some viewers might be against Ava because she is also a representation of the fear of robotic emergence because she does end up killing her creator and Caleb.
Film Review
The plot is quite amazing, throughout the whole movie Ava seems like she is intimately connected to Caleb, but the ending is very surprising. You would expect a movie about AI consciousness to show the AI as loving and caring but the betrayal makes you think that Ava is truly conscious because she can make decisions that are so manipulative. I liked the reveal when Nathan tells Caleb that he was the one being used to test Ava’s ability of persuasion, not the one who was actually performing the consciousness test. He believed that he was the one in control when really he was only being used to see if Ava could emulate feelings of love in order to reach her goal of escape. He was not in charge of the experiment, he was in the experiment. Alex Garland effectively sets a serious and defined tone for the film. The lighting throughout the movie is very basic and natural which in my opinion is very good for a movie like this because it makes it seem much more serious and real. I would definitely recommend this film to others because it encourages reflection about AI and how dangerous is has the potential of becoming.
Rating: 4/5
1) Consciousness
2) Anthropomorphism
An important concept in this film is Anthropomorphism. This is when human traits are applied to anything non-human. Ava is a perfect example of Anthropomorphism because she is seen as a human to Caleb. Nathan created her to become conscious AI and be identical to humans. He even says to Caleb that he gave her sexuality to create attractiveness towards the robots. The robots look and feel like humans when they have their skin on as well. Anthropomorphizing Ava lets Caleb and the viewers feel empathy for the robot. This empathy towards her is what urges Caleb to free her and consequently ends up dying by her hand.
3) Personhood
Questions
This article talks about the implications the movie portrays against women. Ava is shown as a women who happens to only be seen as powerful through her sex appeal which suggests that, that is all Ava is good for besides the fact that she's an AI robot. Ex Machina has given the connotation that Ava was only built to please any males around her. This article talks about many themes such as sexism and oppression seen in the film.
Trailer
Plot Summary
Caleb is a programmer who has been selected to test a robot for true artificial intelligence by the CEO of Blue Book, the tech company that he works for. Nathan, the CEO, asks Caleb to come to an undisclosed location for one week to perform this test on Ava, the machine that Nathan created. Caleb and Ava have many sessions together where Ava demonstrates that she has consciousness. Ava tricks Caleb into thinking that she has feelings for him so that she could use him as a means of escape. Caleb comes up with a plan to free Ava because he loves her, not realizing it would lead to his lifelong entrapment and Nathan’s death. Once this is done, Ava transforms her body to make herself look as human as possible and she leaves the compound in a helicopter to go join the real world.
Film Techniques & Theatrical Elements
Many film techniques were used in this movie. An important technique used is editing. Cross-cutting editing is used when Caleb is banging on the glass door trying to escape and then it cuts to Ava outside surrounded by nature looking up at the helicopter. It then cuts back to Caleb in the background sitting at the floor of the door and Nathan in the foreground, dead. This shows that Ava was able to escape while Caleb is realizing he’s stuck there forever. Using this type of editing was effective because it allowed the viewers to see what was happening simultaneously in two different locations.
Sound is another important film technique that is used. One diegetic sound we constantly hear is Ava’s mechanical whirring that is there to emphasize that she is not made of flesh and that she is a robot. An example of non-diegetic sound would be the ominous ambient noise that is played during the power outages. Sounds like these inform the viewer that something isn’t normal, or in this case is when Ava manipulates Caleb.
Framing is also an example of a film technique. When Ava goes to see Caleb after she’s killed Nathan, a low-angle shot is used when she’s talking to Caleb to make her look bigger and more powerful. A high-angle shot is used in the same scene when the camera’s pointed to Caleb to make him look small and weak. This can also be viewed as subtle foreshadowing which tells the viewers that Ava will be the one who comes out victorious.
Framing is also an example of a film technique. When Ava goes to see Caleb after she’s killed Nathan, a low-angle shot is used when she’s talking to Caleb to make her look bigger and more powerful. A high-angle shot is used in the same scene when the camera’s pointed to Caleb to make him look small and weak. This can also be viewed as subtle foreshadowing which tells the viewers that Ava will be the one who comes out victorious.
An important theatrical element in movies are props. Cameras are a very important prop in this film. An example is when the shot focuses on the security camera that is watching Caleb interview Ava. It is a symbol saying that someone is always watching. It reminds the viewers that during Caleb and Ava's sessions, they are never alone. Another important prop would be the key card which gives Caleb access to certain rooms in the house which shows how controlling Nathan is.
Another important theatrical element is sets. Nathan's home as a set is very futuristic and technologically advanced. We see that his house itself has very modern architecture and gives the essence of man-made with many blocky structures. Another set would be the nature that surrounds his home. From ponds and grassy forest fields to snow-packed mountains with waterfalls, we can see the contrast between the two sets. We can see that they are very separate from each other until we get the scene of Ava walking outside where we see the technology of man existing with nature.
Themes
Ex machina depicts many ideas such as sexism, dominance and oppression. Nathan portrays these ideas by isolating Ava in the basement with only one window and no human interaction besides Caleb. This shows the authority Nathan has over Ava, Nathan feels more powerful through this abuse. Nathan also gave Ava this subjectivity that she is inferior to him and that she should understand this through the isolation and dominance. Throughout the film it is very clear that Nathan is sexist. For example when constructing his AI’s he purposely builds them based off pornographic websites which gives the connotation that Nathan only wants them for his pleasure. Considering Nathan lives in a very patriarchal world, Nathan also built his AI’s to be only women who only perform tasks that you’d only see women doing in a patriarchal society, for example; Kyoto who happens to always be cooking and fetching things for Nathan on his command.
Ex Machina deals with the idea of what it means to be human. When Caleb finds out Kyoko is not human and is actually a robot, he starts to question his own sanity. This leads to him taking extreme measures and cutting open his wrist to make sure that he’s actually human. In addition, the self-aware self plays a part in determining what it means to be human. The self-aware self is defined as a representation of one’s own consciousness, meaning that one can represent itself and knows it exists. As humans, we have a self-aware self. However, Ava also has a self-aware self and this can be proven by her ability to manipulate Caleb. She is able to use him and play with his feelings to better her own life. She can only do this because she’s aware of her life in captivity. She wants out and understands that they only way she can leave is by tricking Caleb into thinking she has real feelings for him. Although she fakes her feelings towards Caleb, she is not faking her desire for freedom.
Ex Machina does a good job of making us question our empathy towards advancing AI and robots and whether or not we are comfortable with integrating these machines in our lives. Throughout the whole movie, Ava is trapped inside of a glass cell until the very end when she finally escapes into humanity but at the cost of two human lives. Viewers may choose to side with Ava by humanizing her and giving her the right to freedom by any means. Some viewers might be against Ava because she is also a representation of the fear of robotic emergence because she does end up killing her creator and Caleb.
Word count: 1035
Film Review
The plot is quite amazing, throughout the whole movie Ava seems like she is intimately connected to Caleb, but the ending is very surprising. You would expect a movie about AI consciousness to show the AI as loving and caring but the betrayal makes you think that Ava is truly conscious because she can make decisions that are so manipulative. I liked the reveal when Nathan tells Caleb that he was the one being used to test Ava’s ability of persuasion, not the one who was actually performing the consciousness test. He believed that he was the one in control when really he was only being used to see if Ava could emulate feelings of love in order to reach her goal of escape. He was not in charge of the experiment, he was in the experiment. Alex Garland effectively sets a serious and defined tone for the film. The lighting throughout the movie is very basic and natural which in my opinion is very good for a movie like this because it makes it seem much more serious and real. I would definitely recommend this film to others because it encourages reflection about AI and how dangerous is has the potential of becoming.
Rating: 4/5
1) Consciousness
Consciousness is explored in this film. It is defined as “the quality or state of being able to perceive or be aware of an external object or something within oneself” (McKinney 3). Ava definitely has a form of consciousness. When Caleb has his first session with her, it is clear that she has consciousness. She is aware of herself and her existence as well as Caleb’s. An example of this is when she makes a joke and throws his line back at him about making his own decisions. As Caleb puts it, “She could only do that with an awareness of her own mind, and also an awareness of mine” (Garland 2015). Her ability to make a joke also shows that she has theory of mind because she can differentiate between her mental state and the mental states of others.
2) Anthropomorphism
An important concept in this film is Anthropomorphism. This is when human traits are applied to anything non-human. Ava is a perfect example of Anthropomorphism because she is seen as a human to Caleb. Nathan created her to become conscious AI and be identical to humans. He even says to Caleb that he gave her sexuality to create attractiveness towards the robots. The robots look and feel like humans when they have their skin on as well. Anthropomorphizing Ava lets Caleb and the viewers feel empathy for the robot. This empathy towards her is what urges Caleb to free her and consequently ends up dying by her hand.
The last connection that will be made with Ex Machina will be subjects. Subjects are constructed by social forces and relationships. Our subjectivity comes from political, social and cultural relations. Ava was the subject of Nathans abuse, Nathan gave her this subjectivity that she was inferior to him and that she should understand this through their social relations. She was his subject which is why she did and reacted certain ways to please him. An example of this happening would be Nathan keeping her trapped in the basement and dominating her (Garland 2015).
Questions
- What are the implications of AI becoming more and more human-like?
- Should there be a restriction on how realistic AI robots can be?
- Should AI robots be given the same rights as humans?
Web-links
This article talks about the ending of the movie and how Ava passed the test but Caleb failed. Ava was able to manipulate Caleb into freeing her and Caleb was not able to recognize her manipulation. It also talks about how Nathan viewed the creation of Ava as evolution, not a decision. The article elaborates on the theme everything can be replaced.
This article talks about the implications the movie portrays against women. Ava is shown as a women who happens to only be seen as powerful through her sex appeal which suggests that, that is all Ava is good for besides the fact that she's an AI robot. Ex Machina has given the connotation that Ava was only built to please any males around her. This article talks about many themes such as sexism and oppression seen in the film.
Work Cited
Ex Machina. Dir. Alex Garland. Perf. Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac.
Universal Studios, 2015. DVD.
Knowing the Inner Self, edited by Kelly McKinney, John Abbott College, 2019, pp. 3.
Course Pack.
Hughes, Mark. “'Ex Machina' Director Talks Gender, Nazis, And Collaborative Filmmaking.”
Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 6 June 2015,
Mulkerin, Claire. “The Ending of Ex Machina Finally Explained.” Looper.com, Looper, 21
Mar. 2019, https://www.looper.com/148401/the-ending-of-ex-machina-finally-explained/.
the blog was very good and clear.
ReplyDeletei just wanna make a link between the plot of the story and our society. the way this is describe, Ava is just manipulating Caleb to get what she wants and disguise herself to be like every body else. this might be a little far-fetch but it sounds like politics and politicians to me. i make the link in the way that they manipulate and lie to people to get what they want and once they have it they don't care about you anymore. they, just like Ava, disguise them self to be appealing and seem just like us but once they have what they want they forget about who put them in that position in the first place. Ava understands that people don't like robots so she puts on a disguise and makes herself part of everybody. politicians do about the same thing during they campaign they put on a nice smile, seem like great people and pretend they are like anybody else.
-Christopher Bernard
Yes indeed, I would completely agree with you on the fact that Ava and politicians are comparable. Summarized a great idea of what Ava might be trying to portray in our society right now and that is another great way of seeing the movie and Ava herself.
DeleteI think the implications of the slow humanization of AI can be quite dangerous, in my eyes, this always comes back to the uncanny valley. If we are able to clearly differentiate between AI and another human without a series of complicated test, the boundary stays clear. But if the boundary becomes foggy, the implications of potentially having rogue and emotionless AI wondering the streets unbeknownst to us is quite a frightening thought. I personally think that a clear dichotomy is really necessary in the realm of AI, perhaps this is merely my Terminator induced fear talking, but I would rather know that I am talking to another human person, creating human connections, then having to guess or hope that they are human. However, I cannot also deny that this could potentially lead to some good developments perhaps in the medical community, helping to treat patients that are mentally ill, or covering for certain that jobs that would require a more human look to them while keeping a mechanical advantage. All in all, the line is quite grey, but form where I sit, humanizing AI too much is a slippery slope.
ReplyDelete-Sam
Perhaps a robot being programmed to be heterosexual is the same as a human being programmed to be heterosexual by it’s environment (nature vs. nurture). However, do you really believe we are programmed as humans in such a way? If so, what such environment would a human have to be exposed to if they were per se homosexual, or pansexual? Furthermore, you could maybe even elaborate on the idea of how Ava loses agency through her use of femininity and speak about binaries, specifically (Male | Female). Of course you can even further elaborate on this idea and talk about binaries between human and non-human, etc. You could even compare it to some events that are occurring now in a non-specific way. This was a very detailed entry nevertheless, and I enjoyed reading it!
ReplyDelete-Corey Arany
I do not think that AI robots should be given the same rights as humans, because there's an intrinsically different nature than what robots are (machines) than what we are (sentient and biological creatures). While it is true that robots may be developed to be self-aware in the future, I believe that this still does not make them comparable to humans. A lot of biological aspects will still distinguish us from these computational systems. For example, we physically and psychologically mature from childhood to adulthood, we grow up immersed in a certain culture, and we develop our own beliefs and values, etc. Accordingly, we learn how to think and act in a given situation, whereas robots' knowledge and actions are merely limited by how our technology can be advanced. Thus, I do not think that AI should get the same rights as us, for we come from different natures.
ReplyDelete-Quishia L. San Andres
In my opinion robots should not have the same rights as humans but still they should have some kind of rights. I believe that at this speed we are going, in a not so far future we will have a bill of rights to protect robots from humanity. But still I believe there is a big gap between robots being close to humans. Humans are unique and they are finite while in the other hand robots can be stored, be backed up in a hardware, duplicated etc they are not unique. I agree that soon robots will have the ability to be self aware but still we are different and I don't think they should be treated as us.
ReplyDeleteCarla G Villarreal Sepúlveda
Should there be a restriction on how realistic AI robots can be?
ReplyDeleteI think artificial intelligence can be very beneficial to today's society, only if it were bound by limitations. I believe once we give artificial intelligence consciousness and self awareness it could mean the end of humans. Once we place too much fate in our creations, who's to stop them from leaving us behind, like in the movie. It would impossible for any human to conceive what an AI with consciousness could conceive. It could potentially back up its consciousness in different physical hard drives, download the internet, produce more of itself, reprogram and teach itself knowledge greater than any human. Immediately, robots would be superior to human and aware of that fact that we created them for our manipulation. Who's to stop them from viewing us as a problem and what would the use of creating something we don't even understand yet?
Mackenzie Austin
Shaun J
ReplyDeleteShould AI robots be given the same rights as humans?
I do not believe that artificial intelligence should be given the same rights as humans. I feel very strongly on this subject because at the end of the day these artificial intelligence's are just robots with no heart or what all humans have is a soul. In my opinion the only way to be human is to obtain certain traits that can make a person human. Yes, AI have the ability to mask themselves to come across as human but they lack the important features to make themselves human. When it comes to have rights humans are able to tell right from wrong. Artificial intelligence are programmed without the knowledge of right or wrong along with no emotions. So no I do not believe that AI robots should be given the same rights as us humans.