There is something already so claustrophobic and thrilling about Alex Garland’s sci-fi film that I am engaged immediately with the movie. It could be that the three stars within it are promising young actors, poised to take over Hollywood and have already provided the industry with evocative performances. Or the story is intense and disturbing, with questionable moral ethics at the heart of it and a snapshot into a future that is bounding closer to us every day. Either way, Ex-Machina seems insanely Kubrick already and luckily, we have a brand new clip to tantalise us.
Starring Domnhall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander and Oscar Isaac, Ex-Machina revolves around a robotics company who sends 24 year old coder Caleb to a retreat belonging to CEO Nathan. However, when he arrives there, he discovers that he is actually part of an experiment as the reclusive company director has been gradually developing the first artificial intelligence – a beautiful robotic woman. As Caleb is plunged into emotive and tremendous games, the tension between the three threatens to boil. Can they all survive?
Ex-Machina seems to be a combination of social (possibly political) satire on technology and what makes a human separate from a machine. It also looks alarmingly terrifying and a look at the inner workings of man verses technology. And, as we are very much in celebration of Alan Turing, this latest clip deals with the idea of Artificial Intelligence and self-adapting machines.
If the acting from these rising stars doesn’t appease you (and really, it should), then Alex Garland also wrote 28 Days Later. If that doesn’t convince you that this movie will be nothing but stellar, then I want you to step back and reassess your opinions.
Ex-Machina is out in 2015.