Ex Machina is no different as it's less about evil robots and world domination, and more about human weakness and how that can bleed over into technological advancement. But it's also about so much more. The film centers primarily on three characters, one an eccentric scientist played by Oscar Isaac, his curious employee played by Domhnall Gleeson, and the android Ava, embodied by Alicia Vikander. Gleeson's character has been tasked with running the "Turing Test" on Ava to gauge the extent of her human qualities. The test becomes considerably more than any of them could have been predicted, and so too does the film go beyond the norms of the genre by exploring human sexuality, male perceptions of femininity, and the future of robotic consciousness.
I was fortunate enough to sit down with Garland to talk about Ex Machina, his thoughts on the A.I. genre, directing for the first time, and even his thoughts on the future of artificial intelligence. You can listen to my NSFW interview with him below, and be sure to check out my review of Ex Machina here.
