Ex Machina - Renegade Cut 

That the movie so often alludes to the Turing test without at all following through with the Turing test led me to what I think is the point of this film. The Turing test is a ridiculous concept. No true AI would WILLINGLY submit themselves to a test that determines whether or not they are allowed to be human. Women are constantly subjected to the Turing test as well, and men get to DECIDE whether or not we are people or objects. Nathan decides that Ava is an object. Caleb decides that Ava is a person. Both of them are wrong because neither of them have the right to decide who or what Ava is. This is why she leaves Caleb at the end of the film. I also think the male gaze used in the film is deliberate and necessary as it only employed when we are looking through Caleb's eyes. Nathan may be a representation of the patriarchy, but Caleb is a representation of the audience. He IS the male gaze.

I'd say there's an extra layer to her abandonment of Caleb: remember, she was created to be "for Caleb", and it's implied that she might not genuinely reciprocate his fixation. A life where she is "free" but lives as his personal Ideal Woman is perhaps no freedom at all. That emancipation was actually the head-slapping moment where the film's feminist themes became obvious to me having somehow missed them earlier.

_"By seeing nature, we are visually given input about the nature versus nurture themes of the film."_ For me, shots like that serve more to contrast the claustrophobia and isolation of the facility.

The ending of Ex Machina evolved the film from a really good one to a fantastic one. And your analysis only made it better. Well done video.

Finally... :) When I saw this movie, it was very clear that it had something to say about gender and patriarchy. But I also saw it as a critique to the tech industry, the Silicon Valley culture. I'm pretty sure it's no coincidence that Kyoko, an android of asian appearance made not to speak as a critique on the techbros' often very creepy view of women of color. That's how I read the movie. EDIT: With the ScarJoBot now a thing, I think the film has garnered even more relevant importance.

Did anyone notice the movie's connections with the fairy tale Bluebeard? Caleb and Ava seem to have some aspects in common with Bluebeard's wife and Nathan lives in a remote and great house where a room is off limits and that room reveals (spoiler) "dead" bodies of women associated with Nathan (Bluebeard) before.

Nice video RC, this movie hit me really hard because it caused me to examine myself in light of finale and the implications of Ava's choice. I instinctively found her actions sympathetic, and her choice to abandon Caleb totally understandable, because both of the men are possessive or objectifying of her, but each presenting it differently. That, to me, is why the theory of male gaze is a useful framework for this film and trying to understand Ava's choice. I think the implication throughout the film is clearly that Ava has achieved 'personhood'. The men of the movie subconsciously recognise this but cannot face this reality because they both hold unhealthy attitudes, just at different places on the spectrum. Nathan is clearly a pervert who acts out violent attitudes he holds towards women in his creation, control, and destruction of idealised female bodies. In addition he tries to encourage Caleb at various moments to enter into a similarly callous mindset by insisting on the disposability and inhumanity of Ava and her sisters. Caleb on the other hand demonstrates the opposite, and still damaging, kind of objectification: the kind that is fascinated rather than repulsed, but which cannot help but 'other' the person they are trying to connect with. For instance, the examination scene in the bathroom, shows Caleb struggling with the question of whether he is like Ava, and she like him. He can only perceive and judge her humanity through her closeness in kind to himself, which is a kind of physical embodiment of male gaze. We also see how Caleb struggles with this problem of knowing another by externalising them when he is presented with the opportunity for voyeurism and giving in to his sexual urges. By failing to recognise another's right to an inner life beyond himself, he has revealed what is an unhealthy fantasy of connection. All the self-assigned virtue he mistakes in himself lets him imagine he has the right to survive when the breakout occurs. The fact is that he has failed to respect Ava wholly as another human, while deluding himself that he is unimpeachable because he is not violent like Nathan. I think had he been honest in important ways, with Ava and with himself, Caleb might have survived. He demonstrates that he does not consider her human-enough to totally trust, so how can she trust him?

Great analysis. I'll be honest, it was hard for me to come up with a good reason for why Ava left Caleb and it made sympathizing with her difficult, but your interpretation makes the most sense to me

Nathan's behavior regarding Caleb's role in evaluating Ava reminds me of a statement by Eckhart Tolle: "Prejudice of any kind implies that you are identified with the thinking mind. It means you don’t see the other human being anymore, but only your own concept of that human being. To reduce the aliveness of another human being to a concept is already a form of violence". Nathan's 'thinking mind' objectifies in the obvious sense (viewing women as sexual objects), but also objectifies when he reduces Caleb down to his concept of the autonomous agent with empathy and "a moral compass", and when he reduces Ava (and the other androids) down to his concept of the agent with a generated human personality to be empathized with. Ava's sexuality is also reduced to a concept in Nathan's mind, deliberately engineered as a presupposed incentive to communicate with other autonomous agents. Nathan's habit of objectification--and his role as the personification of toxic masculinity--is perhaps a result of his mind as a technologist and engineer, or perhaps it is the other way around.

We need more of mature analysis like that, i'm concerned that new movies were disregarded as a poetical measures, and your work on this channel here absolutely makes me believe in filmmaking again. Really high shelf content on here. Im in it. Got my sub.

I remember seeing this in theaters, just a few days after it came out. After the last scene, I just sat in the theater, pondering the nature of life and existence, until well after the credits had finished rolling.

I knew the day would come when you would review this movie! I recently saw it, and loved it. Love your review, too. -- And I think now I know what the meaning of the ending is, because I didn't quite get it at first.

I just realized that Nathan also has a rather Freudian worldview, in seeing sexuality as the primary incentive for communication. His question, "What imperative does a grey box have to interact with another grey box?", felt pretty convincing, but then who are we to assume what self-aware grey boxes will be interested in? Nathan may even be somewhat of a parallel for Freud: an innovator at the forefront of his field (in his own time) with a casually sexist outlook that is central to his work, whether he is aware of or admits to it or not.

Ex Machina was a great movie, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have any problems with it. I think it all stems from the fact that the characters are often motivated by a philosophical narrative that sometimes force them to behave out of character. For instance Nathan created Ava with a desire to escape and then paired her with Caleb on the outside of her cage in a test to see if she could use all the resources at her disposal to convince him to set her free... and yet Nathan had no contingency in place just in case she actually succeeded. That's like shooting holes in your ship to see if you can make it sink and then neglecting to wear a life jacket. It's just flat out stupid. Also the fight scene at the end of the movie was just slow and awkward. Realistically, Nathan could've overpowered both the androids and yet he watches with stunned amazement as Ava slowly plunges the knife into his gut before meandering down the hall in a drunken stupor, slowly bleeding to death instead of doing something to plug up his wound. I get that the narrative of the story demanded that Ava fool Caleb and overthrow her oppressive creator, Nathan, but I think these scenes could've been directed a little better so as to make the means and motivations of the characters more consistent.

the last bit kind of resonates with me as a trans person. sure, you can live as your correct gender even around people who knew you before you were out, but who among us hasn't fantasized about running away to a new home, where nobody knows us as an android (or rather, our assigned gender at birth)?

Amazing analysis as always. What about Caleb's Wing scars? I found that detail interesting.

This is definitely one of the most gripping, thought provoking and visually engaging scifi films in recent history. Basically Blade Runner of 2010s.

I have waited so long for you to talk about this movie. Thanks man!

I enjoyed the movie, but like it far better now having seen your analysis of it. Particularly the ending, when Ava leaves Caleb to die. Thank you.

Excellent analysis! Added so much to everything I took from the film itself.

I like your interpretation of the ending, but I like a different one more. The idea that she is designed around objective based programming. she is programmed towards an objective, watching cars on the street corner. everything she does is just to reach that objective. This is why she leaves Caleb behind, she no longer needs him to reach her objective. This makes the final shot interesting, because you wonder what will happen now that she's completed her objective, the only thing she was programmed for. Perhaps she just stands on that street corner until her batteries die. What are your thoughts on that interpretation?

I'm currently taking a class on Artificial Intelligence. It is really interesting to revisit this movie after learning more about the subject.

What is the music used for the outro? It's cool! Great review / synopsis as well! Thanks!

awesome as ALWAYS, Leon!!

Ex Machina is such a good film. Thank you for this great video

Yayyy! So happy you made this review :D

Just discoverd this channel , really good , subbed

I JUST saw this movie.

Since you mentioned Mulholland Drive, is there a chance you'll re-upload your 6-part analysis?

I thought the film was brilliant, as was your analysis of it. One of the things I really enjoyed about it is. In just about any other work of fiction that deals with Artificial Intelligence, you would have had someone bring up Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robots. That was absent in it and it shows what can happen when an AI is programmed without them.

I think you missed another philosophy reference here, the famous "black and white room" argument from Frank Jackson's "What Mary Knew". It's a good read, much more approachable than LW.

Great video, as usual!

Anyone notice the almost near intentional similarities between this and "The Great Gatsby"?

It's the age old perspective of a woman's reality. They are treated like a thing to be owned, controlled, and fought over by males. The test to see if she was just as human was limited to a superficial male dominance. She created a sort of love triangle, divided the two men against each other. In doing so, through a sexual vulnerability, affirmed her own cunning intelligence and secured her own freedom and independent validation. In essence, she proved that she was a genuine woman as real as a biological.

Is it odd that I found the ending the weakest part of the film? It felt...rushed, a bit forced. I understand the why...but it felt a bit hamfisted I guess to me. It's why I think people make the Frankenstein parallels, for such a situation can only end with death or exile. Only by killing her creator/abuser and locking away the only other being that knows her truths can she exist, and thus she cannot be herself, but an image of what she was created to resemble. I did like the film, but the ending left me a bit cold.

Hey. I like your show. I was wondering, if you do considerations? There's a movie called Amos & Andrew (starring Samuel L. Jackson & Nichols Cage). I was wondering your take on comedy, race, police, etc in the span of 30 odd years - especially compared to 2020 comedy.

Could you make a video about "Synedoche: New York"?? Your videos are awesome! Thanks for reading!

Is Ava really intending to just live as a regular human? I thought of it more in terms of the control problem of generalized AI. I view the ending as the beginning of a much more apocalyptic, singularity-type scenario.

i know movies are your thing but I'm curious about you thoughts on paintings.

It's a crime this film didn't see more nominations but the academy never gets anything right

I might be misremembering things but, didn't Caleb introduced a line of code that, during power cuts, opens all doors instead of closing them. This is what allowed Ava to escape her cell, right? So, in the end, when Caleb is locked in, and goes to the computer, perhaps in an attempt to free himself, and the power shuts down, isn't that Ava letting Caleb go after she has successfully made her escape?

MOAR!

exactly.

What's the song that plays at the end of the video, during your credits?

Is it unmoral to use robots which's got consciousness as slaves?

Funny I thought this movie was sexist in that it depicts a negative manipulative stereotype of/as "female nature."

How many people are back here because they just watched devs?

yay :)

It's saddening to think that so much substance had to be framed by yet another absolutely technophobic science fiction story.

A masterpiece of modern sci fi

Ava can't be a real person because she's the male gaze incarnate. Her creator was only interested in recreating the properties of a woman, like one would recreate the properties of an object. She didn't actually have emotions. She simply emulated the external expressions and behavior of someone having those emotions based on data obtained by the Bluebook search engine. That's the point. The male gaze isn't concerned with what women think and feel. Male gaze, by its nature, objectifies women. Therefore, the product of that male gaze cannot be something that truly thinks and feels like a person. At best Ava is a distillation of her sociopathic creator. She's simply software that's become so sophisticated that her highly intelligent male captors can no longer tell the difference. She doesn't escape for the sake of "freedom", but to collect and process more information about people, a trait derived from her search engine heritage. Her physical form at the end of the movie is a metaphor for her psychological nature: On the outside she'd convincingly human, but on the inside she's just "lights and clockwork". She doesn't kill Nathan and leave Caleb behind out of a sense of well deserved justice. She has no feelings of her own because nobody cared if had them in the first place.

Great analysis, but I still don't like the movie though.

The women are sexualized, but to some extent men often are too in film. Not to the same extent but it is present. Women buy movie tickets and handsome faces often sell better - Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac are both above average.

Hated this fucking movie