Dear Diary,
I was watching Ex Machina in my Literature and Film course. At the first
moment, I was attracted to the title of the movie because it is actually
a literary term that I know. It derives from Latin- deus ex machina,
literally meaning god from the machine, which is an approach in drama
or film to have a character to solve a difficult problem.
For instance, the eagles in the Hobbit.
This movie is all about androids or "gynoid" since all of them are female.
It starts with the promotion of the male protagonist, Caleb. Well, maybe
it's not promotion. Anyway, he is chosen by his boss, Nathan, to do Turing
Test for a female android called Ava. In case that you know nothing about
Turing Test, it's a test proposed by Alan Turing. Basically, if the judge
cannot tell whether the one she/he talks to is a machine or not, the machine
passes the test. That is, it's intelligent enough.
In this film, Nathan is said to be a man like Mozart. He knows a lot about
programming when he was 13(? if my memory does not fail me.
Gotta be blunt, he doesn't look like a genius or prodify at all. So, I think
it's completely a false comparison. No offense. He just doesn't have the
quality Tom Hanks displays in The Circle.
Anyway, when Caleb and Ava ask questions and spend their time every day, it
seems that there is a embryonic romantic relationship between them. Ava is
of no doubt, a very brilliant and talented android. She definitely knows
how to make conversation, in other words, she is socially capable. On top of
that, she has a gift for drawing. She makes a sketch of Caleb, our
parent-bereaved, socially inept, and girlfriend-desiring main character.
Yet, he is trapped. Ava is just an android designed to make Caleb fall for
her. Like Wallace says the affection between Rick and Rachel is merely
mathematically precision. Man, you could really find many similarities in
these two films. So, Nathan wants to test whether Ava has the ability to use
her intelligence to escape from the laboratory as Nathan describes Ava is the
mouse in the maze. Like he has anticipated, Ava utilizes the feelings Caleb
has for her to run away, and locks Caleb in the lab.
Let's talk about some themes in the film.
First, Ava's name.
It simply occurs to people who know about the Bible because in the Scripture,
the first female is Eve, who comes from the rib of Adam. Here, Ava turns out
to be the first intelligent female android.
Second, the relationship between humans and androids.
In the movie, we clearly spot that there is a scene Kyoto has sex with her
creator Nathan. Why? It's evident that she is probably made for pleasure.
Well, to be explicit, she is a sex model. Also, she does not have voice.
Why? My professor says that it might refer to a myth some European will have.
Sometimes, they tend to consider Asian women to be submissive wives.
Third, art.
Moviemakers really like depicting androids have artistic qualities.
In Blade Runner, Roy is poetic at the end, Pris is capable of dancing,
Rachael is able to play the piano. In the original novel, Luba Luft
even sings remarkably, that makes Rick believe that she has a soul.
Actually, there're several things to talk about, but I kinda want to stop here.