Ex Machina - A Modern Sci-Fi Masterpiece

Marter

Elite Member
Legacy
Oct 27, 2009
14,276
19
43
Ex Machina - A Modern Sci-Fi Masterpiece

Ex Machina, the directorial debut of Alex Garland, is a modern science fiction masterpiece.

Read Full Article
 

The_Darkness

New member
Nov 8, 2010
546
0
0
Alex Garland wrote Sunshine, which, for various reasons, is at the top of my favourite movies list. It's not the perfect movie, but it touched on a whole host of themes that resonate with me. And there's one moment in it that crystallizes for me (the jump, if you're interested).

Or at least, Sunshine was my favourite movie. Until this came along. Now I'm really not sure. Because as you say, Ex Machina is practically flawless.

I don't know if any single moment in Ex Machina rivals Sunshine's one moment for me, but Ex Machina has plenty of perfect moments. And when the credits finally scrolled up the screen, I didn't move for at least a couple of minutes. I had to give the movie time to sink in.

Summing up Ex Machina in a word? Wow.
 

gorfias

Unrealistic but happy
Legacy
May 13, 2009
7,119
1,874
118
Country
USA
Now I want to see this.

Hope y'all saw this on Netflix Streaming: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2317225/?ref_=nv_sr_1

It was pretty good too.
 

TakerFoxx

Elite Member
Jan 27, 2011
1,125
0
41
At first I thought it was an adaptation of the graphic novel Ex Machina by Brian K Vaughn, which made me think, "Why didn't they do Y the Last Man first? It's more popular!"

Anyway, this looks like it could be right up my alley. I'll give it a look.
 

suitepee7

I can smell sausage rolls
Dec 6, 2010
1,273
0
0
Saw this in the cinema a few months back, and it goes up there with some of the few films I've come out of the cinema and thought "you know what, worth every penny". There have been very few films that I can say that to, and I really hope that this film does well financially.
 

Darth_Payn

New member
Aug 5, 2009
2,868
0
0
TakerFoxx said:
At first I thought it was an adaptation of the graphic novel Ex Machina by Brian K Vaughn, which made me think, "Why didn't they do Y the Last Man first? It's more popular!"

Anyway, this looks like it could be right up my alley. I'll give it a look.
If they used the complete phrase "Deus Ex Machina" as the title, people would think it's a Deus Ex movie. IDK if they're really planning one of those.
 

hazydawn

New member
Jan 11, 2013
237
0
0
Looks really great, but why the fuck are all these super-geniuses at the hight of their career so young? Did he invent that shit alone? Seriously, for most people it takes a great portion of their life to become experts in their fields. And that should definitely be true for sth. as complex as an AI+humanoid robot. But well, I don't know the story yet so maybe I'll be surprised :0
 

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
9,909
0
0
I'll probably wait until Netflix to be honest. It seems like another variation on the same "questions" about the possibility of AI and the questions they raise that have been around as long as the concept. Granted while movies and TV have touched upon these issues to some extent the best works have happened in books. Even if it is a very well told story in this genera I'm not sure if I'd enjoy another "is it really alive?, is everyone a robot?, is no one a robot?" enough to want to pay a full admission price. But then again I'm probably an unusually jaded sci-fi fan living at a time when it seems very few people have actually read things like Asimov's "Robot" books and "Foundation" even if they have heard of them. You might be thinking "Foundation has nothing to do with Robots" but it does, big time, especially given the big reveals at the end, and the entire thing starts getting into issues about consciousness, intelligence, and what path humanity should take. The Robots are revealed to be the puppet masters in a way and firmly connected to the Robot novels, and what's more have become so human and so mentally advanced that they develop psionics (that's right, artificial brains equal to, or superior, to, even the rarely tapped potential of the human mind... if you want to get trippy with AI this is the definitive set of works taken as a whole).
 

FPLOON

Your #1 Source for the Dino Porn
Jul 10, 2013
12,531
0
0
But the question still remains for me: Do I watch this movie alone or with a friend? Basically, if I'm going to be seeing a flawless film, I want to see it with the best experience possible and I'm not sure if it's watching it alone or with, at least, one other person...

Other than that, those trailers are really convincing me to just go see this movie alone, anyway...
 

tippy2k2

Beloved Tyrant
Legacy
Mar 15, 2008
14,337
1,525
118
That makes me so very happy.

When I saw the trailers, I thought that it looked really really cool. Unfortunately, movies like that tend to get in their own way (like "Splice") so I am very happy to hear this. I intended to rent this no matter the reviews since it looked interesting but I may now have to find someone to drag to the theater and watch it that way before Avengers next weekend...
 

Robyrt

New member
Aug 1, 2008
568
0
0
hazydawn said:
Looks really great, but why the fuck are all these super-geniuses at the hight of their career so young? Did he invent that shit alone? Seriously, for most people it takes a great portion of their life to become experts in their fields. And that should definitely be true for sth. as complex as an AI+humanoid robot. But well, I don't know the story yet so maybe I'll be surprised :0
The film actually addresses this; our resident super genius is explicitly compared to Mozart, who was composing by age 5.
 

Pyrian

Hat Man
Legacy
Jul 8, 2011
1,399
8
13
San Diego, CA
Country
US
Gender
Male
hazydawn said:
...why the fuck are all these super-geniuses at the hight of their career so young?
Because they're not yet ingrained with old ideas? Einstein turned physics on its head at 26.
 

Spacewolf

New member
May 21, 2008
1,232
0
0
The_Darkness said:
Alex Garland wrote Sunshine, which, for various reasons, is at the top of my favourite movies list. It's not the perfect movie, but it touched on a whole host of themes that resonate with me. And there's one moment in it that crystallizes for me (the jump, if you're interested).

Or at least, Sunshine was my favourite movie. Until this came along. Now I'm really not sure. Because as you say, Ex Machina is practically flawless.

I don't know if any single moment in Ex Machina rivals Sunshine's one moment for me, but Ex Machina has plenty of perfect moments. And when the credits finally scrolled up the screen, I didn't move for at least a couple of minutes. I had to give the movie time to sink in.

Summing up Ex Machina in a word? Wow.
Which moment are you talking about in Sunshine? I've seen the film and liked it but there's not really one moment that stands out for me.
 

The_Darkness

New member
Nov 8, 2010
546
0
0
Let's try that again...

Spacewolf said:
The_Darkness said:
Alex Garland wrote Sunshine, which, for various reasons, is at the top of my favourite movies list. It's not the perfect movie, but it touched on a whole host of themes that resonate with me. And there's one moment in it that crystallizes for me (the jump, if you're interested).

Or at least, Sunshine was my favourite movie. Until this came along. Now I'm really not sure. Because as you say, Ex Machina is practically flawless.

I don't know if any single moment in Ex Machina rivals Sunshine's one moment for me, but Ex Machina has plenty of perfect moments. And when the credits finally scrolled up the screen, I didn't move for at least a couple of minutes. I had to give the movie time to sink in.

Summing up Ex Machina in a word? Wow.
Which moment are you talking about in Sunshine? I've seen the film and liked it but there's not really one moment that stands out for me.
Towards the very end, when Capa has just separated the payload and has to jump in order to catch up with it - since, with the computer out, that's the only way the damn thing is going to activate.

The fact that the entire future of humanity is now resting on him alone. The fact that he freaking trips over en route. The musical score going through the roof. And the callback to dreams of falling into the surface of the sun as he does the jump. I can't put into words exactly why, but that entire sequence just hit all the right thematic notes for me.

To bring it down to the single moment though - it's the moment when he trips over. The sheer determination in the character at that moment, coupled with the fact that such a trivial thing goes wrong - and very nearly ruins everything.
 

K12

New member
Dec 28, 2012
943
0
0
I'm actually quite surprised that this is a good as this. There was something a bit try-hardy about the trailers. A kind of pay-attention-to-how-clever-we-are type vibe. I'm only too happy to be proved wrong though.
 

Skatologist

Choke On Your Nazi Cookies
Jan 25, 2014
628
0
21
Just stopping by to say I'm always interested in good sci fi films like this one seems to be(maybe 10 films of the year worthy?) and...

 

Nimcha

New member
Dec 6, 2010
2,383
0
0
I don't really like it when people start to try marrying sci-fi with philosophy... but this sounds too interesting to miss.
 

rbstewart7263

New member
Nov 2, 2010
1,246
0
0
Actually starting to enjoy reading my movie review on here. thank you guys. Also why did the escapist move to more typed and less video content?