Ex Machina

A serious film attempting to walk in the steps of works like Blade Runner (remember Rachel? ), 2001 A Space Odyssey, iRobot, and more recently Her - with mixed success. While most viewers will find the dialogue too dry and uninspiring, it is way too HUMAN to be realistic - at least to someone working in the domain. For a piece of science-fiction, the verbal ability (of the AI's) portrayed leans way more towards fiction than science. Ditto for AI motion and body language - which it is indistinguishable from humans (the actors are doing a good job on facial expressions, which is in check) AI's simply move (and dance!) too well to be AI's. It's interesting to contrast the AI realism of Ex Machina with that depicted in another contemporary work - the Bot Colony video game and novel: there, the novel emphasizes 100% realism of the speech-capable robots, while the game is also 100% realistic as the robots can actually be commanded to perform tasks and are language capable - their responses are computed dynamically. It is a challenge to entertain with machines that process language mechanically - surprisingly, machine humour seems to be where the entertainment value is. Ex Machina tries to entertain by trying to portray 'machine emotion' and pushing to the limit what AIs unchecked by Asimov's first law of robotics will do (Asimov's first law says "You shall not harm a human being, and through inaction, allow harm to come to a human")

The setting is claustrophobic - in the high-tech residence of a search company's founder - with 2 humans and 2 AI's doing all the heavy lifting. The setting - the residence itself, its contrast with its natural setting - near a glacier - and the design of the AI's are perfect. It looks like the AI's were designed by rotoscoping in post-production on top of real actors. While the acting of the 'human actors' is more than adequate - the AI's definitely exceed the envelope of what should be possible.

Viewers who are interested in Artificial Intelligence and who liked the movies listed at the top will enjoy Ex Machina.