There is nothing more human than the will to survive.
Caleb, a coder at the world's largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain retreat belonging to Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location he finds that he will have to participate in a strange and fascinating experiment in which he must interact with the world's first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot girl.
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Character
Contemporary, intimate, contemplative and classical in form.
- contemporarynostalgic
- intimateepic
- contemplativerelentless
- classical in formformally daring
- gravecomic
Who loves it, who doesn't
28 profiled raters. Loved most by The Genre Devotees; disliked most by The Empaths.
Where do you stand?
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“Is Ava the real protagonist?”
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“Is Ex Machina better than Annihilation?”
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“Does the smallness hold it back?”
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A yes-or-no question, answered from what people wrote here, on TMDB and on Wikipedia. Never made up.
Reviews
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Reviews on TMDB
Written by TMDB members; each links to the original. Not part of Tastebuds's numbers.
- John Chardon TMDB · Nov 20198/10
Isn't it strange, to create something that hates you? Ex Machina is written and directed by Alex Garland. It stars Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac and Sonoya Mizuno. Music is by Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury and cinematography by Rob Hardy. A young programmer is thrilled to be selected to participate in a ground-breaking experiment involving synthetic intelligence. He's to evaluate the human qualities of a highly advanced humanoid Artificial Intelligence known as Ava... Your nutshell review is that it's a cautionary tale of science going too far, where the narrative thrust of a Turin Test becomes something far darker and troubling. This is a deliberately slow paced sci-fier, told out of a remote reinforced science institute populated by just one human and some A.I. creations. Enter Caleb (Gleeson), who doubles the human quotient and kicks starts what is a cunningly sexy, troubling and potent picture. As we are drawn into this most fascinating world, we are requested to pose ourselves the deeper questions about being human, for better or worse. This is nothing new, this has been explored in many other sci-fi pictures, but the intensity of the set-up, the performance
Read the whole review on TMDB - specimenbon TMDB · Aug 20264/10
*Ex Machina* has a polished look and a strong premise, but I found it far more self-satisfied than genuinely intelligent. The idea of testing a humanoid AI’s consciousness is promising, yet the film keeps treating its familiar twists and vague philosophical dialogue as if they are profound revelations. The sterile setting and performances are competent, but the characters felt less like people than pieces being moved around to make the ending work. Caleb’s choices are frustrating, Nathan is written as a cartoonishly awful genius, and the movie’s gender politics felt uncomfortably shallow. By the end, I wasn’t impressed by its supposed ambiguity—I just felt like I had watched a sleek, predictable thriller pretending to be deeper than it was.
Read the whole review on TMDB - Jeff_34on TMDB · Feb 20178/10
**Enjoyable, satisfying sci-fi** Kinda smutty, kinda creepy, kinda evil, thoroughly enjoying. OK, there's nothing mind shattering but still good fun and a nice pay off imho. For those complaining it was predictable - if you want something you CANNOT ever predict go watch Predestination https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/206487-predestination Something about it hit the right chords for me, modern, start up, big loud talker, sad lonely guy.... I've seen lots of those geeks turned CEO's and they don't know what they've become. Actually more to be said about the Nathan character than the rest. Definitely worth a watch if you like dark humour and sci-fi.
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Cast
- Domhnall GleesonCaleb
- Alicia VikanderAva
- Oscar IsaacNathan
- Sonoya MizunoKyoko
- Corey JohnsonJay
- Claire SelbyLily
- Symara A. TemplemanJasmine
- Gana BayarsaikhanJade
- Tiffany PisaniKatya
- Elina AlminasAmber
Crew
- Alex GarlandDirector
- Alex GarlandWriter
- Rob HardyDirector of Photography
- Geoff BarrowOriginal Music Composer
- Ben SalisburyOriginal Music Composer
- Mark DayEditor
- Andrew MacdonaldProducer
- Allon ReichProducer
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Pairings
Companions we picked from the closest works, and how to take them.
Similar in taste
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Finding Paradise 201769% alikeGame · Both contemporary, intimate, contemplative.
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Often watched with
Recommendations from TMDB. Opening one adds it to Tastebuds
