Reaction to Ex Machina
Added 2021-11-06 15:29:11 +0000 UTC
Comments
When I saw you had reacted to this, I knew you would dig it. Similar to Breaking Bad, the movie had a knack for answering your questions right after you had asked them. As soon as you asked why she had boobs, I got really excited for the Pollock discussion. This is my favorite AI movie because Alex Garland (who wrote and directed this) is actually very knowledgeable on the subject and was able to craft a fantastic script that dealt with actual academic terms, to explore academic ideas with a lay audience. Blade Runner was a groundbreaking movie for its time, sure, but the major twist was built around the "is he/isn't he a replicant?" question, which is a binary conclusion that can't be really explored beyond the result. This movie talked about automatic art, magician's assistants, sexuality, whether (rich) consciousness can exist without mutual interaction, Mary in the black and white room, weaknesses of the standard Turing test, etc.. Given that the Turing test has already been done to death in pop culture, I thought it was great that Nathan flipped the script and explained that it would actually be more compelling if you could show the examiner that the subject was a robot and still convince people she's human(like). (Even in Blade Runner, it's immediately easier for the audience to sympathize with the replicants because you don't see their internal parts the whole time) And the most brilliant idea, imho, was the idea of using a search engine algorithm as a basis for "how" people think vs "what" people think. Garland has a real grasp of the impact and nature of mathematical chaos, and how chaotic systems can render unpredictable and novel outputs that mimic previous inputs without being identical (e.g. inputs like those provided by the surveilled people at large). He really sold the idea in a way that makes it seem plausible, especially with the analogy of striking oil and how people can have shallow interpretations of the data they have ("ooh, we can make money with this algorithm!"). My only gripe is with the knife stabs. Yeah, those were pretty bad. With all the CGI they spent on Ava, and with all the effort and attention to detail paid to everything else, you'd think they could have pulled off an effective and low-budget practical effect to play Nathan's death off better. Oh well. Small price to pay for the rest of the movie we got. The scars on Caleb's back are most likely from the car crash that killed his parents. That was a subtle way for them to cast doubt on his humanness without overdoing it. But yeah, it was a bit of a red herring to keep the audience from guessing other aspects of the plot. I think to some extent, most people watching this would have predicted that Ava would get out at some point. Which is why I love the double cross at the end. The first time I watched this movie, it was with some friends from work. My buddy to my right gasped and let out an audible, "Noooo..." when the door locked on Caleb. You may have missed it, but she did look back at Caleb before the elevator door shut. So maybe it wasn't totally without remorse? And she did fulfill her dream of going to a sidewalk intersection to get a "bit-shifting" view of human interaction (the closed caption incorrectly said "but shifting"). Basically, she was seeing if she could learn anything about human psychology by how people chose their walking paths as they encountered other human obstacles. Glad you enjoyed it!
Dan
2021-11-07 08:25:52 +0000 UTC2/3s way thru, this is fun as hell (your reaction). My assumption about the post it notes is that they’re ideas he doesn’t trust can’t be hacked. So keeps it offline. Especially if he knows or is suspicious about Ava or any AI he created spreading his entire thing online. But it’s been years since I seen this, maybe they’ll cover it by the end. All I know is there should’ve been a sequel by now.
ChickensAreRacist
2021-11-06 22:13:15 +0000 UTC
