Ex Machina

It's hard to believe that this is Alex Garland's first directorial effort. The movie is a brainy, awe-inspiring look at the world of A.I. (artificial intelligence) with the mind-boggling possibilities of human interaction with an all-too-human machine that looks, walks and talks like a combination of the girl next door and a supermodel. There are nods in the film to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and to Steven Spielberg's A.I. (which was originally conceived by Kubrick) There is considerable discussion/debate between the protagonists about the nature of what it is to be human. Kubrick's HAL proved to be more human then the astronauts. "He" developed human emotions including empathy, fear and ultimately deceit. What do the researchers here discover in the make-up and "personality" of the beautiful, intelligent Ava? One thing is certain that Nathan - suffering from the hubris that often infects brilliant brains - may have been mistaken/misdirected in producing a heterosexual female looker.