Ex Machina...

Holy crap what a film.

I had been looking forward to this for so long and I'm happy to say to say, not only did it not disappoint but it actually exceeded my expectations.

Caleb Smith (Gleeson), a programmer at an internet-search giant, wins a competition to spend a week at the private mountain estate of the company’s brilliant and reclusive CEO, Nathan Bateman (Isaac). Upon his arrival, Caleb learns that Nathan has chosen him to be the human component in a Turing Test – charging him with evaluating the capabilities, and ultimately the consciousness, of Nathan’s latest experiment in artificial intelligence. That experiment is Ava (Vikander), a breathtaking A.I. whose emotional intelligence proves more sophisticated–and more deceptive–than the two men could have imagined.

 [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYGzRB4Pnq8]   

 

This is a genuinely chilling and  engaging film.

Yes you could see the ending coming from a mile down the road, yes the objectification of women jarred  but did it stay with me after the film had ended? Yes it did and even more so made me increasingly curious and uncomfortable about the whole AI question.

For fear of spoilers I won't say too much except to say that it is a rare film indeed, where the scene of a man disco dancing makes your blood run cold...

 I could write ten posts about the sleek, modernist, remote home of Nathan. The setting and the house are beyond staggering. What is even more incredible is that part of the house is an actual hotel where you stay the night ( if you can afford it)  - The Juvet Landscape Hotel in Norway.

 

According to Ex Machina’s production designer Mark Digby, it took a full-on global hunt to find the Juvet, . After hunting all over Europe, from the Alps to Finland, the team finally noticed a house under construction on the side of a mountain in northern Norway—and, half an hour away, the Juvet Landscape Hotel. Nathan’s mansion had been found, in the form of two separate, modernist buildings...

I for one would book a stay here in a heartbeat but in the meantime I urge you to go and watch this film. Watch it soon, you won't be disappointed.

Queen Marie