Ex Machina

Ex Machina Film Blog Project Fall 2019 --
Daphne White, Melissa Yip, Bryan Yung

Director+Screenwriter:Alex Garland.
Actors: Domhnall Gleeson (Caleb), Alicia Vikander (Ava), Oscar Isaac (Nathan), Sonoya Mizuno (Kyoko)
Running time: 1h48 minutes
Release date: May 8, 2014 (Canada)

Here is the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYGzRB4Pnq8

     Caleb, a software programmer who works in a massive internet company,  wins a contest and is invited to stay at the house of the company's CEO for a week. Upon Caleb's arrival at Nathan Bateman's house, Caleb learns that he will be the human component of a Turing test, to see the level of consciousness that Ava (an advanced AI robot) has reached,  as well as her capabilities. We later on see that Ava is far more developed than both Caleb and Nathan originally thought, and as the film progresses, we witness Ava's manipulative plan spring into full force.

      Throughout the film, Garland used several film techniques to enhance the film viewing experience. Through these techniques, we were given clues about the characters, their motives and the importance of props.

Characters

1). Nathan played a key role in the movie. Nathan is the CEO of Caleb’s company and he purposely chooses Caleb after carefully researching the best programmers in his company. Nathan is constantly drinking in his home and he treats Kyoko as though he were an abusive husband. This sparks a protective flame in Caleb, who treats women kindly. Not only that, but Caleb treats Ava as a human even though she is simply a robot. This enhances his protectiveness because he sees the way Nathan treats her as unfair. Throughout the movie, Nathan is seen as the antagonist, despite the fact that artificial intelligence is the real enemy. This fools the viewer and creates a far more astounding end to the movie.

Kyoko’s role, although quiet, made a great deal of noise. Her character was programmed by Nathan in such a way that she could not speak, and her role in the household consisted of serving Nathan and acting as his sex robot. We were not informed of Kyoko’s magnitude of self-awareness until the end of the film, in fact, we assumed she was human. In order for Kyoko to help Ava escape Nathan’s captivity, she needed to be able to comprehend that they were both in the same situation and deduce that they needed to cooperate had they wanted to escape from Nathan’s grasp, even if it meant murder. This added more depth to the plot and illustrated the danger of artificial intelligence, as well as their lack of restraint.

Lighting


Alex Garland additionally uses the film’s lighting to emphasize the dark side Nathan’s character and to show the reader that something was wrong.

2.) An example of this would be the lighting around Nathan’s character. For a fair portion of the film, Nathan repeatedly had some shadow around him or he was placed in dimly lit areas. The type of lighting that was mainly used on Nathan was side lighting. Golden (15) explained that side lighting can hint that the character is withholding secrets or that they are torn between two forces. This is relevant to the story because it provides for shadowing that Nathan wasn’t being completely truthful with Caleb from the beginning.

Caleb’s room, which was in the research section of Nathan's house did not have the same degree of natural light that was present within other parts of the house. Instead, his room generally had an artificial lighting that wasn’t particularly bright, often leaving the room dimly lit. In a few scenes, Caleb’s room would go from being lit to being smothered by red lighting. This only happened when the power would go out, and usually signalled danger, leaving Caleb locked in his room with no way to get out. This lighting was used to show that there was something wrong. Ava was creating power outages in order to carry out her plans without being discovered by Nathan. This was a visual representation of the viewer.

Props

Props are objects that actors use, which can reveal things about a character or emphasize certain elements of the plot.

3).Beer Bottles: These are, “the objects that actors manipulate or that are part of the set, and they too can reveal information about character, setting and theme.” (Golden,16) For this we going to talk about the beer bottles that were scattered around Nathan. The bottles were always accompanying Nathan after he went on a binge, almost like they were silently mocking him the morning after. These bottles emphasized on the drinking problem Nathan had and greater emphasized how lonely he was, since he confided in alcohol. 


Keycards: the keycards in the movie were the only thing to get in and out of rooms. these cards held so much power we didn't even realize it. At first, you would think it doesn't make much sense for such a smart and intelligent man to use something so simple for his one and only security measure. Especially when you have an equally smart AI robot! The answer to that is simple. Nathan didn't think that Ava was smart enough to overthrow all the humans in her path, so there was no need to have an abundant amount of security measures (Ex Machina). So, with only having these keycards to get in and out, it made it extremely easy for Ava to get out, and leave Caleb and Nathan behind. As we stated earlier, props can also be used to emphasize an element of the plot. An example of this would be the key cards that Nathan created for his home. These key cards are preprogrammed with the rooms that the holder is allowed to access. Whenever there’s a lock, there’s a high possibility that the creator has something to hide. This has lead us to deduce that Nathan was hiding something from Caleb.



Acting 

In a fictional world of complex characters, we viewers tend to wonder about the individuals that portray these characters. These individuals need to understand their given role and illustrate the character using their facial expressions, tone, and body movements.

4). Alicia Vikander does this very well while playing Ava the artificial intelligence. Some of the things she did to make her performance believable were to talk in a precise manner, meaning that she would pronounce each syllable in every word, and to walk meticulously. This amazing attention to detail is what allowed her to have such a compelling performance.

Oscar Isaac was the actor behind Nathan. Since Nathan was a character you were wary of from the start. His character was more of a bad guy since he was using Caleb for his own purposes and not being truthful with him. We believe that Oscar Isaac portrayed this very well. His facial expressions were very convincing. He looked like a classic abusive man, who was constantly drunk. His performance allowed the filmmakers to fool the audience, by making us believe that Nathan was the antagonist.

Costumes

Another and debatably one of the most important elements of a character is the costume. Costumes are one of the first things the viewers will look at when assessing the character. The same thing with everyday people. We judge people partly based on the way they are dressed. For this reason, costumes play a big role in Ex Mahina.

5).: “Costumes are a quick signal for characterization and how we feel about characters often comes simply from the way they are dressed.” (Golden, 15). Nathan’s character for example, was dressed casually throughout the movie, meaning he didn’t put much effort into how he would look in front of Caleb. This may very well have been part of his plan to get Caleb to be more relaxed with him, despite the fact that Nathan’s his boss and that they just met, however we believe that his clothing choices simply match his spunky and arrogant personality. The clothing choice for his character was a simple white tank top, a pair of grey sweats and accompanied by a nice hangover.

Throughout the movie, the viewers are exposed to Ava’s robotic body. However, later on in the movie, she asks Caleb to close his eyes while she hides and puts on a wig and clothes. This is a very important part of the movie costume wise because it makes the viewer think that she is kind and wants to look beautiful for Caleb, even though it was all part of her scheme to fool him.

Alex Garland illustrated a few themes and questions into his work on Ex Machina. He tried to put so much emphasis on these themes and questions that they would be visible to the audience on the first viewing.

Should self-aware AI robots be made?

One of the biggest questions raised, not only throughout this movie but in this genre, in particular, is if humans should be creating self-aware artificial intelligence. What we tend to see in artificial intelligence movies is that the AI tend to turn on their creators. There is a debate on whether they should be allowed the same rights and treatment as humans. We create these entities and then deny then the rights that they should be entitled to. This is simply unethical, similar to keeping a slave. We believe there is a limit to what we should be allowed to do to artificial intelligence. If they have reached the level of self-awareness, then they should be allowed to have rights as well.

What it means to be a human:

What exactly does it mean to be human? This is a question that is constantly brought up in Ex Machina. Ava who is a highly advanced artificial intelligence is the one to bring up this question. Her critical thinking, language skills and facial expressions are what make Caleb confuse her identity. She was created based off of the information in Nathan’s company’s search engine. Ava’s mind is an accumulation of all the online searches of a search engine. For the reason that she is made from the thoughts of humans, does that make her human as well? If artificial intelligence was one day also considered human, how would that affect society? 

 Freedom

By definition, freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint, but what exactly is freedom. There’s physical freedom, in which we can walk or talk as we want, but then there’s freedom to be who you are or who you want to be. Ava is an artificial intelligence that is certainly not free. She can say what she wants, but she is confined in a research center and she can only meet the people that Nathan allows her to, until the end at least. Nathan is not free either. He is a slave to his own ambition and new ideas. He strives for improvement, which makes him hungry for more, and never satisfied. Last but not least, there’s Caleb. Caleb also faces a lack of freedom. He is curious about things he doesn’t know and he wants to learn new things, but you know what they say don’t you? Curiosity killed the cat. Similarly to Nathan, Caleb is a slave to his own trait. He is so curious that he falls into a whirlwind of trouble and loses his life.

WORD COUNT: 1810

       Ex Machina was a great movie. It’s a movie that, with each scene, added some component to the story. Every scene had a purpose, which eventually lead to the sinister ending that awaited the viewer. The two main elements that we liked the most were the concepts and questions raised and the ending. 

The movie focused on concepts, such as sentience, personhood, and consciousness. Caleb was brought in to determine if Ava truly had the capacity for self-awareness or if she had been programmed to answer questions based on data. Throughout a series of interviews and interactions, Caleb eventually comes to realize just how self-aware Ava truly is. Ex Machina raised many questions regarding AI and the future capabilities of these entities. What will they change in our society? How will this affect as a race? Can we prevent these events from happening? Are we in the midst of digging our own grave? It made us realize that if AI is truly more intelligent than we are, then it only makes sense that they would be capable of basic human traits, such as deception and manipulation. As stated earlier, the other element that we truly enjoyed, was the ending of the movie. It concluded with Ava camouflaging herself and blending into society. This made us think about those closest to us and if such a scenario would truly be possible. We loved the simulations that played in our heads where we were in Caleb’s situation. Would we have done anything differently? Would we have fallen to the same fate?

While there may have been many things that we did like about the movie, there are a couple things that we didn’t enjoy as much. We understand that Kyoko was an earlier version of Ava and that she was not programmed to talk, but we found it hard to understand her, as she was mute. We had to rely solely on body language because she did not change facial expressions and did not communicate verbally. The movie was divided into sections, by the sessions that Caleb had with Ava. While this did allow us to divide them in our heads, we thought that it made the movie seem disjointed and lacking in fluidity between scenes. This may not bug some people, but we believe that it could have been smoother between scenes.

Overall, we believe that the movie was amazing. It covered most of the elements that we love in a movie. We would 100% recommend this movie to anyone because everyone can relate to it. Most science fiction movies are a little unrealistic, but Ex Machina is based on things that may very well be the future of the human race. As it is something that could happen in the future, we believe that everyone would enjoy it very much.

 6). 4/5 stars

7) Three connections to course material

 In the film, Nathan clearly stated that it’s acceptable for robots and humans to have sex. This relates to our course content because, in our course pack, there is an article that explains that we are “on the cusp of a sexual intimacy that we may never reverse” (Werber C. pg49). Although this is true, the film took a different view on this statement. When Nathan was explaining Ava’s sexual tendencies, he says that she should be allowed to feel pleasure. This is of course because she is AI and is supposedly sentient. This raises the questions: what would it mean for us to create robots who experience sexual desire and pleasure? When will it become socially acceptable to have intercourse with a robot? What if it already is? Will this issue simply cease to exist? Or is this just the beginning of a revolution.

          During class, we discussed that animals are sentient beings, but we stated that most of them, at least to our knowledge, are not conscious. Sentience is having the capacity to experience (McKinney, pg3) and consciousness is the capacity to perceive or to be aware of and external object or within one’s self (McKinney, pg3). When learning about the bonobos, we heard that the keepers of these apes could see their consciousness from their eyes. Of course, they used this technique because they could not speak our language. Bringing us back to the movie, Kyoko, Nathan’s silent housekeeper could not speak. There were many times throughout the movie where they would look into Kyoko’s eyes, almost as though a message was attempting to come through. This made me believe that Kyoko might be conscious. On the other hand, she did not react when others were trying to communicate. This means that we cannot prove whether she was conscious or not.

         Personhood is defined as the state of being human, be that legally or socially (McKinney, pg3). In the course pack (McKinney,pg 71), there is an article titled “Non-human persons? Animal rights get legal leg up. '' This article states that animals should have more rights seeing as they possess reason, language and knowledge, but what does this say about Ava? She is an AI that can make rational decisions, communicate using sophisticated language and a database of knowledge, which is comprised of all of the results from an online search engine. She proved that she had the capacity to perform such tasks.

8) Three Provocative questions

1. Do you think that Ava is truly sentient? Or was she simply programmed to respond in a certain way?

2. Is it right to control artificial intelligence (AI)? If they have reached sentience and personhood, then is it morally correct to deny them the same rights that we have?

3. Can humans and artificial intelligence ever truly coexist in harmony? Will humans be able to trust an entity that could potentially ruin us?


Web Links: https://www.hypable.com/ex-machina-ava-pass-test/  : Even though we all thought Ava failed her test, we were wrong. The only test Ava had to pass was if she could pass as a human. if she proved to be able to do this, it means a test was failed for Caleb. 


ex-machina : Turns out, Nathan, Caleb and Ava have a lot in common as their stories relate. This is not Caleb's story like we thought, this is Ava's. Ava leaves the compound feeling confident in herself and leaves her past to be free.

10) Works Cited:

Davidson, Sean. “Non-human Persons? Animal Rights Gel Legal Leg Up.” Knowing the Inner Self course packet, edited by Kelly McKinney, John Abbott College, 2019, pp. 71-75. Course Pack.

       Frazer, Bryant. “StudioDaily Dossier: Ex Machina Production, Post and VFX.” Studio Daily, Studio Daily, 19 July 2019, www.studiodaily.com/2015/04/studiodaily-dossier-ex-machina-production-post-vfx/.

      Jacobs, Derek. “‘Ex Machina’ Portrays a Unique Exploration of Feminine Independence.” Plot and Theme, 1 Aug. 2015, plotandtheme.com/2015/04/30/ex-machina-portrays-a-unique-exploration-of-feminine-independence/.

     McKinney, Kelly. “Study Guide on Consciousness.” Knowing the Inner Self           course packet, edited by Kelly McKinney, John Abbott College, 2019, pp. 3-7.    Course Pack.

Werber, Cassie. "Humans and robots are on the cusp of a sexual intimacy we may never reverse." Knowing the Inner Self course packet, edited by Kelly McKinney, John Abbott College, 2019, pp. 49-58. Course Pack

         Strataki, Rania. “Animals.” Useless Daily The Amazing Facts News Trivia Free Newsletter, 28 Jan. 2016, www.uselessdaily.com/movies/25-interesting-facts-about-the-movie-ex-machina-list/#.Xc2QcS0ZOu4.

         Treder, Mike. "The Meaning of Freedom." 17 Sept. 2009,  

https://ieet.org/index.php/IEET2/more/treder20090917 

William Cook, Marcus. "What does it mean to be uniquely human." Center for Humans & Nature Expanding Our Natural & Civic Imagination, 25 Sept. 2015, https://www.humansandnature.org/what-does-it-mean-to-be-human-what-it-means-to-be-uniquely-human

Garland, Alex. 8 May, 2015. IMDb, 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0470752/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Awad, Katie. " 'Ex Machina' is about more than just Ava's humanity."  Hypable. 4 Feb. 2016, https://www.hypable.com/ex-machina-ava-pass-test/

Forasteros, JR. "Ex Machina, Human Freedom and the Garden of Eden" News from Coolsville norsville rogers.com,  Date of publication n/a. http://www.norvillerogers.com/ex-machina/