Ex Machina

[thatguy]

Nerd wins golden ticket and goes to visit the eccentric head of his company at his fortress of solitude for a week to work on a project.

No sword fights. Not a lot of high action. Some of the themes weren't that original (I got a little Captain Nemo/Dr. Reindhardt vibe from the Mark Zuckerberg character), but still it was well done. Great FX.

I recommend it...

--tg

[cranefly]

Ex Machina (2015) by Alex Garland

A young programmer is chosen to take part in a Turing Test at a remote location. Actually, it isn’t purely a Turing Test, since he knows quite clearly from the start that he’s dealing with a robot; but that’s explained early in the film and didn’t give me a problem. This is a small film in the sense that there are very few characters -- just a few people/robots at this remote location. But the special effects are rock solid. It’s a smart movie, presenting a challenging puzzle, and the unusual characters that mostly avoid Hollywood stereotypes keep the movie fresh and unpredictable.

When the final credits rolled, Lady Cranefly was astonished. She had to explain to me why. It turns out that the two male leads were Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac, who we’d seen earlier in the day in Star Wars -- playing General Hux and Poe the crack pilot respectively. They were totally unrecognizable here.

I’m going to classify this as a doppelganger movie. Granted, there weren’t any actual doubles. But it did deal with robots meant to pass for human, which seems close enough. Besides, this way I can once again use the expression:

Worth a doppelgander.

[Greg]

Sleepy. I'm glad I saw this without the Queen in attendance.

Lots of deplorable characters I didn't like very much. I'm glad the one guy did check to see if he was a robot. They should have made more out of the Zuckerberg guys drinking.

The last ten minutes of the film were very effective. And the robot effects were astounding.

[Drunk Monk]

Thoroughly satisfying sci-fi.  Note that I was studying expert systems, a precursor to AI, as part of my failed PhD dissertation. Also I've been feeding a forum thread on KFM on sex bots because they're coming out of PRC.  Smart, creepy, and engaging.  Some gorgeous scenery and the isolated sterile feel of the lab reminded my faintly of The Shining. I really enjoyed the vision of it and the characters - didn't see them as deplorable at all. There were really only four.  In fact, the boss reminded me of Chris Lewin, formerly from Tiger Claw (he left the company last week and is moving to Tahoe - sad to lose him as he was my Kung Fu brother from both O-Mei and Wing Lam). And I find Vikander intriguing after Tomb Raider, which I totally wouldn't have seen if not for Daniel Wu.   Domhnall was also Bill Weasley from Harry Potter, which I didn't put together until rereading cf's post.  And I wouldn't've recognized Poe either - thanks for the head's up cfs.  For me, it was a Frankenstein update, with kick ass effects used seamlessly. The only fault was that the could've squeezed a sword fight in at the end.  Sex bot swordswomen.  Yeah, that would've rocked.

srsly I was very captivated by this all the way through.

And sorry I'm late to the party on this one.  Been in my queue forever.