May 16th in Chicago: This film was viewed at the Century Landmark Theater, Chicago's art-house theater. It had been awhile since I last saw a film here and was pleasantly surprised to find there's a bar there now and they allow you to take your drinks into the theater (they serve bottled beer at the snack bar...awesome)!
Ex Machina is a variation of the Latin phrase, deus ex machina which means "god from the machine." Originally used a plot device "whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved by the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability or object." Let's just say that there is an unsolvable problem that gets solved with no explanation (other than it exists) and the deus part derives from man creating life. More on this later.
The film revolves around it's 3 main characters; Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), the reclusive billionaire CEO of the fictional search engine company Bluebook (substituting for Google). Caleb Smith (Domhall Gleeson), a programmer for Bluebook who won a company contest to assist Bateman at his home on a special project. The last character is Ava (brilliantly played by Alicia Vikander), we'll get into as we go. When Caleb arrives at Bateman's ultra reclusive estate, he is told that he will assist Bateman in testing a humanoid robot named Ava.
Caleb's job is to see if Ava has consciousness through a series of Voight-Kampff-esque tests. Caleb clearly starts to have feelings for Ava because she has very human like qualities (like looking very attractive in clothes and a wig). Ava is also able to overload the estates generator to cause brief power outages and during a blackout she reveals that Caleb can't be trusted. Eventually Caleb formulates a plan that will free Ava. The plan is set to go down on just prior to Caleb's departure. However, Bateman had been watching the whole time (even during the blackout) ad is prepared. However, it is Ava who outsmarts them both and she escapes (leaving a Caleb behind with a trampled upon heart).
Ex Machina marks the directorial debut of veteran writer Alex Garland. The film is very character driven and minimalist. To me, this is what a small budget science fiction film is all about. The acting is nothing short of excellent and the effects are very good. I would recommend seeing this film. I look forward to seeing more films from Garland because this was a very good debut.
Ava being the robot is obviously the "machina" portion. She does indeed prove she has consciousness (in a big way), therefore cementing Bateman as god or "deus." Bateman has succeeded in creating sentient artificial life. But is the world ready? On a side note, this is how it's going to happens. It won't be zombies that get the best of humans. It will be the machines. Just like they do in the Matrix trilogy, the Terminator franchise and of course Dune...
Hopefully I didn't give too much of the film away. Thank you for your time.
May 1st in Chicago: Opening Day! I will start by getting to the point. I would have liked this film a lot better if I had not seen The Avengers in 2012. It essentially the same film. The team faces a powerful enemy that stealthily turns them against each other. They realize their powerful enemy has poisoned each other, break the spell (in this case literally due to Scarlet Witch's hex power, more on that later) in order to defeat the enemy. The enemy is extremely powerful, immortal (Loki is a god and Ultron can live on by having his programming survive in one of his minion that are built in his image), has superior technology and unlimited manpower resources (Loki had the Chitauri, Ultron has his robots). Despite being hopelessly outnumbered the heroes defeat their enemy by destroying the master (both numerically superior forces dropped dead; the Chitauri when the nuke incinerated the mother ship and the robots when Ultron died, but the robots still required cleaning up to ensure Ultron was truly destroyed).
The film opens with the team attacking Baron von Strucker's castle, HYDRA base, in Slovakia. The Avengers make quick work of Strucker's goons but what the Avengers don't know is that Strucker has a contingency plan in the form of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, remember them?
Quicksilver stalls the Avengers while SW goes about manipulating the minds of some of the Avengers. The Avengers defeat Strucker and retrieve the scepter that Loki used. Before they can celebrate their victory,they need to get Hawkeye medical attention as he was wounded in the skirmish (the only Avenger to sustain more than a scratch!). Back in New York, Hawkeye is patched up and the celebration can begin. While they party heats up Stark is telling Banner about a project he's been working on, a "suit of armor for the world." Stark feels that the scepter is the key to his project and convinces Thor to let him and Banner"run a few tests" on it.
Oh, the project Tony has been working on is an artificial intelligence project known as the Ultron Initiative (roll credits!). While the party heats up, Ultron wakes up and when is confronted by JARVIS, Ultron disposes of him and manages to keep the Avengers busy while he builds himself eventually making his escape and trashing the place. They pick up Ultron's trail in Africa because Tony knows of an arms dealer, Uslysses Klaue. Ultron wants the Vibranium that Klaue stole from Wakanda to give himself some upgrades and create his drone army. The Avengers arrive and do battle. Quicksilver runs interference and SW continues to manipulate before going after the real prey, Bruce Banner. So Banner gets manipulated, turns into the Hulk and goes on a rampage. Which gives us this...
The massive destruction caused by the fight between Tony and Bruce has made the Avengers outlaws (finally! consequences for their actions) ad they hide out on Hawkeye's farm with his wife and 2 kids.. Moving right along, they chase Ultron to Seoul where Ultron steals the synthetic flesh so he can create a synthetic body for himself. The Avengers stop Ultron from uploading his conscience into the synthetic body and actually take possession of it but Ultron captures Black Widow and escapes. Back in New York Tony decides to upload the not quite dead JARVIS into the body but is hindered by the other Avengers (because his AI efforts created Ultron in the first place and the other Avengers are a bit hesitant and f*cking Tony always has to do it his way). During the scuffle, Thor actually activates the body, creating the "Vision." The team travels to Slovakia for the final battle and with the Vision, they are able to defeat Ultron and his drones. Erasing his existence. There's a lot more to it but I don't want to give away key spoilers.
Make no mistake, this film is entertaining but it there's nothing new in regards to the story. We're only 3 years removed from the first film and they used the same basic story, though it's Iron Man that fights Hulk in this one. There are a few scenes in the film that are setting up future films like the next Thor installment. They do a do an admirable job of trying to stay close to the source material. The creation of Ultron and Vision comes to mind. In the comics Ultron is created by Hank Pym but he's Tony Stark's creation in the MCU. Ultron is a primary villain for the Avengers and in the film he sees the human race as a disease that should be eradicated (kind of like Agent Smith), which he monologues about endlessly. Spader was a good choice in providing the voice/personality of Ultron.
There are some changes to Vision's origin as well but it's not enough for me to get into a twist over. Besides they're setting up future films. In the comics, Vision has definable powers that have limits, in the film, he has almost unlimited power (that's never really explained). Kind of like Scarlet Witch. Scarlet Witch's power enables her to manipulate probability (no idea what this means but I'm guessing math?) but it has limitations. In the film, she's really powerful.I came away with the feeling that with Iron Man and Hulk potentially leaving (RDJ is expensive and Hulk doesn't have a film in the Phase Three line-up) that these 2 will become the powerhouses.
For those not aware, Marvel and Fox have a mutual ownership of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Since the're both mutants they can be used by Fox in the X-men franchise but since they're Avengers, Marvel has those rights. Fox has proprietary use of the word "mutant" which is why the Maximoffs are referred to as "enhanced" in this film. Fox used Quicksilver in X-Men; Days of Future Past for a few moments (though it seems he would have been very handy in some situations) and gave a glimpse of a young girl who we're lead to believe is the future Scarlet Witch (she's got red hair so it's easy to reach that conclusion). In Age of Ultron, the two are twins (just like in the comics) who's origin is not mentioned except for the fact that they have an ax to grind with Stark Industries which is why they join HYDRA. To be honest, I thought thought that Quicksilver's powers in DOFP were better than AofU. Things are looking up for SW in the MCU but her brother, not so much.
I also noticed that Marvel really doesn't like Hawkeye all that much. He's the only Avenger to get wounded in the opening mission where they raid Strucker's castle. Just to remind everyone that he's not wearing high tech murder armor, isn't a Norse god, doesn't carry an indestructible shield or isn't hot like Black Widow. He's also the only one with a family which makes him a liability. Sure Tony cares for Pepper but let's be honest, she just keeps him grounded. It's a fringe benefit that Pepper is attractive.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is currently killing it at the box office. But it does have its fair share of not so positive reviews. Also, I'm going to spoil this but the credits scene featured Thanos. Again. Just sneering. BORING! Been there done that. To be fair he does have the Infinity Gauntlet but with no stones in it. It's worth seeing on the big screen but be forewarned.
