Generally, I like stories that focus on artificial intelligence, including, yes, A.I. So why did I put this one off so long? Probably because the ads made it look intense. More so than it turned out to be, I'd say. It's not the kind of movie that lends itself to sincere previews, which may be why it suffered financially from limited release.
Sometime in the very near future, Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) wins a sweepstakes to spend a week at the extremely private mountain facility where his tech company's CEO, Nathan (Oscar Isaac), has been secretly working alone on androids. It appears that only two are presently active: servile and silent Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno) and the far more focal Ava (Alicia Vikander), who doesn't quite look human yet but has a lovely face. Nathan assigns Caleb to interact with Ava, albeit with a clear wall between them, to determine whether she's both conscious and relatable. Unfortunately, Nathan and Ava do not see eye to eye, and the latter badly wants to escape, so Caleb will have to pick a side. And of course, any movie set in a secluded area with no cell reception -- where a power outage means a lockdown, no less -- is bound to have something dreadful happen.
While skilled at coding, Caleb comes across as something of an everyman of the single persuasion. It's easy to see why he gets drawn to Ava, who shows a lot of interest in becoming practically human and is already pretty darn close. I can't say I'd make all the same decisions as Caleb, especially regarding Nathan, who's not the type I'd care to befriend but also not the type I'd care to oppose on his home turf.
What's wrong with Nathan, apart from his overprotective paranoia? Well, his friendliness vacillates in ways I can hardly predict, perhaps thanks to his drinking habits. He can be pretty vulgar, as you might expect from a man who makes only female androids and doesn't treat them with human respect. (BTW, the R rating is for full frontal robo-nudity.)
IMDb indicates a lot of subtle artistic touches that I never picked up on. Even on the surface, it's full of flourishes and pretty erudite as Hollywood goes, making (and explaining) several references I wouldn't have gotten independently before college.
Once again, I'm not sure how to feel about the controversial ending. It seems to change the tenor, if not the genre, of the whole movie, from pro- to anti-A.I. Yet the persistently gentle score (which might be riffing on the Close Encounters signature melody) makes me wonder if we're supposed to see the development as a good thing. I'm also not convinced it all makes sense. But at least I can give it credit for not going the way I had assumed almost from the start.
Like many low-action sci-fis, EM is hit and miss, relying primarily on our continued engagement in a philosophical matter that's been tackled many times before. It wasn't a bad way to pass 108 minutes, but neither am I eager for the next Alex Garland project.
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