Okay, I'll say it. With no sense of hyperbole whatsoever. I have seen my first masterpiece of the year. In fact, in several years. Ex Machina is the type of deep, thoughtful movie that I continually pray for and when it occasionally happens, gives me hope that originality and daring is NOT dead in Hollywood, merely beaten severely, robbed and left gasping for life in a muddy, bloody ditch, tenaciously holding onto life against all odds, but very much alive.
Ex Machina takes place in the near future, where the greatest programmer in the world has created a truly sentient AI (artificial intelligence) and put that brain in an automaton, creating a truly sentient being. He selects a great programmer to have several tests with the AI, named Eva. The goal of the tests, a series of interactions with Eva, are to determine whether she is truly sentient or merely the world's greatest chess program; that is, only responding based on a confluence of related variables that will bring about the best result based on odds. But like all great sci-fi, it is much more than that. It asks deep philosophical questions on what is sentience? What is a person? What are the ethics of creating and/or destroying a unique sentience? What are the consequences of creating an artificial life? Ultimately, what makes us...US?
All great scientific achievement or leaps forward create inevitable ethical questions and consequences, both intended and unintended. The lawyer in the play Inherit The Wind sums it up well when talking about Darwin's Theory of Evolution and the inevitable demystifying of the Bible, "I think there is a man up there saying, 'Yes, you may have a telephone. But you will lose privacy. The charm of distance. Yes, madam, you may vote. But you lose the privilege of hiding behind a petticoat. Yes, mister, you may conquer the air. But the birds will lose their wonder. And the clouds will smell of gasoline.'" With each leap forward, something inevitably changes. And that change is not necessarily always good. As I watched Ex Machina, I realized I read this story before, in a book written 197 years ago in 1818. Ex Machina is a modern retelling of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus. In it, Shelley asks what are the consequences of dabbling in God's domain, both to the dabbler and to his creation. What happens when the dabbler cannot contain his creation? What are the unintended consequences of a myopic pursuit of a seemingly noble goal that was not thought all the way through? Ex Machina goes even one step further: what happens to the inventor who believes he is not answerable to human ethics, taking the role of God?
This all sounds terribly overblown and pretentious, but I assure you, it's not. It asks all these questions and more, in an interesting and ultimately terrifying way. But this is an old story and an old question humankind continues to struggle with. For instance, the movie asks the question that if Eva is truly sentient and you disconnect her or erase her thoughts, are you killing a life? Is it ethical to do this if you make a mistake, or for any reason? What rights do an artificial life form have? Are they the same as people? Why or why not? Today's modern society has been wrestling with several similar moral conundrums. When is it, if ever, moral to abort a baby? What are the consequences of cloning body parts? Whole humans? Should we use stem cells harvested from fetuses? Are people born or bred gay or transgendered? Big Bang or Intelligent Design? Should we alter genetic code in fetuses to avoid debilitating diseases? To choose race, eye/hair color, intelligence? Should we create AI? I'm not suggesting one or the other, merely pointing out these are very important conversations to have.
Now, other films have touched on this in recent years from Divergent, Jurassic Park, A.I., The Island, Gattica, The Sixth Day, Star Trek, THX 1138, Westworld, The Terminator, her, to Aliens. I could go on and on. They all share a common theme, where is the line drawn? But Ex Machina approaches that question both skillfully and entertainingly, and takes a stand. This movie blew me with its intelligence, it's thoughtfulness, it's curiosity to explore, and its unambiguous judgement. Whether or not you agree with that judgement it is not the point; rather, that you think past your prejudices and beliefs and seriously ask yourself, and others, these questions. It is important in order for a society and an individual to progress that we have these moral inventories from time to time. Otherwise, you end up like much of the Middle East, or more specifically, ISIS-stuck forever in a vicious loop where you are convinced you are correct and everyone else is wrong, longing for a past that grows more beautiful with each passing year and inevitable revisionism while the future is a dark, terrifying unknown. As naïve as it may sound, it is imperative that stories like this are told and that people discuss them. That's how ideas happen. As I stated before, I unequivocally think this movie is a masterpiece: Entertaininly told, masterfully thought out. Please see it and show Hollywood that content does matter, that thoughts are important. There is nothing wrong with Michael Bay-esque fast food occasionally. But sometimes, a sumptuous feast should be partaken as well. So adults, see this on your next date night and leave that damn Lego Movie to the kids under 8.
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