Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Ex Machina (***)

EX MACHINA
Written and Directed by Alex Garland

***

The kind of science fiction that we get from Alex Garland feels inherently cynical. It's based in a latent distrust in humanity and convinced of their inability to adjust to the speed in which technology has evolved in the last century. It's Bradbury-esque: humans are too insecure to deal with their own intelligence properly; they will eventually be the basis of their own undoing. Ex Machina, Garland's directorial debut, is another story in this tradition. If 28 Days Later... and Sunshine is Garland showcasing the futility of human existence when they have good intentions, then Ex Machina is going the other direction. Dealing with the creation of artificial intelligence, we're shown the thin line between genius and madness, with a tight focus on the ego of the human race and it's inability to deal with a form of life that could be more intelligent than them. Like most Garland scripts, we're shown characters that reach desperately past the limits of technology, and what they confront in their journey is not very pretty.