As you may have realized if you’ve frequented this website for any extended period of time, I’m a bit of a sci-fi geek. And when it comes to my vociferous appetite for mature sci-fi that moulds big ideas around affecting kernels of humanity, Alex Garland has been keeping me well fed for years. The acclaimed writer penned Danny Boyle’s Sunshine and 28 Days Later (and also his very non-sci-fi The Beach), Mark Romanek’s fantasti c genre-bending Never Let Me Go and of course last year’s cult favourite Dredd. He even scripted a video game I quite liked: a sci-fi retelling of Journey to West starring Andy Serkis titled Enslaved. So yeah, definitely no doubt as to his writing credentials.
But now for the first time, Garland is not just writing a movie but also taking up the director’s chair for upcoming “stylish and cerebral” sci-fi thriller Ex Machina. And if this trailer is any indication, it’s going to be incredible. Starring two of my current favourite young actors in Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac (both of whom are starring in this other little sci-fi move you may have heard of), as well as rapidly rising star Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina appears to be a mesmerizing blend of high-tech ideas, sexuality and suspense as it sticks it’s three stars in a close-quarter potboiler of a plot. And then there’s that score from Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury. Phwoar!
I was already intrigued by this movie when I first heard of it based on Garland’s involvement alone, but after this trailer it’s just become a must-see. And now you must see it as well.
Caleb Smith (Domhnall 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 (Oscar 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 (Alicia Vikander), a breathtaking A.I. whose emotional intelligence proves more sophisticated, seductive––and more deceptive––than the two men could have imagined.
Ex Machina releases in the UK in February 2015, before getting a wider international release on April 10, 2015.
Last Updated: October 31, 2014
Reid
October 31, 2014 at 09:32
“This video is not available”
And that poster looks like it has one disturbing sex toy on it.
Kervyn Cloete
October 31, 2014 at 09:49
Damn it. Video was still there earlier this morning. Stupid video Nazis. Will get an alternative up ASAP!
Kervyn Cloete
October 31, 2014 at 09:53
New video embedded
Lourens Corleone
October 31, 2014 at 12:29
So, the main character is actually the robot? WHAT A TWIST!