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Watched Ex Machina last night and thought it was an excellent movie, but I had some conflicting feelings/thoughts afterwards. Semi-spoilers
Don't worry, not really spoilers, but thoughts on what I thought would happen versus what did happen. Oh, and I already posted this on facebook, but lobo's response there made me realize that I'd like to see what others might think.
I was really excited to see Ex Machina after first watching the trailer earlier this year, which I thought laid out the premise of the movie intriguingly (it teased details without hammering you over the head with them), but also maybe telegraphed the resolution/ending. Really, it raised expectations of a twist (actually of the possibility of perhaps a few different twists, either in conjunction or alone) that might have been expected if you know the genre; but even tropes can be cool when executed well, and the trailer looked so delicious, I could live with a well-done twist.
So going into last night's viewing, I had my mind set to search for clues that would lead up to that twist, and the movie did not disappoint in laying hints for that twist. But then, that twist never happened (purposeful misdirection I would assume). And the movie went for an ending that wasn't really twisty, but more organic from the sense of character motivation. And even though the ending was suspenseful and chilling and excruciatingly inevitable, it also felt (for me) a bit deflating and disappointing. If I hadn't had preconceptions anticipating a specific "cool twist", would I have been as disappointed by the end? Would I instead have appreciated the ending more?
As is, I find myself ruminating on the ending and what it means, whereas, the twist I was envisioning probably would have been splashier and might have been more satisfying from an entertainment standpoint, but maybe not as fulfilling from a though-provocation standpoint. Or maybe it would have, I don't know. I just wish I could also see the "movie that wasn't" to compare them.
And just to see what others who watched the movie thought, I'll include what I thought the twist was going to be (slight SPOILS since the movie is part mystery and reading this would negate one of the hypothetical situations that could be happening):
SPOIL ALERT
I thought Caleb, the employee who was invited to Nathan's compound, was the most recent AI that Nathan had created, and he had been given artificial memories and an artificial "real" life. The test was being run on him, to see if he would eventually realize that he was the AI. We've seen this kind of twist before, where the reality of one's life is revealed to be a lie, especially in SciFi like Total Recall, The Matrix, etc. And they do address this in the movie, with hints and looks leading to Caleb checking himself out and cutting his arm to see if his physical body is human or artificial.
Even when he was cutting himself and bleeding, I was still thinking "oh, he's totally a robot, and Nathan purposefully showed him the 'crude' robot bodies to throw him off track, not revealing that he's perfected robot bodies that mimic real human bodies with blood and organs and stuff"; but that proved to be a false guess, and instead the story progressed in the non-twisty, more linear fashion of pursuing Ava's freedom. Although, even there, it is a bit twisty, because we think we've been following Caleb's story and that he's the protagonist, when really it's Ava's story that we are following.
Anyways, if the twist I was anticipating had born out, I don't know where the movie would have taken it. It could've turned into an action/horror movie where Caleb goes nuts with that realization (something I was half-expecting with writer/director Alex Garland's work on Sunshine rolling in my mind), or it could have gone more somber/contemplative/ambiguous in a Blade Runner (Director's Cut) way. That twist was the first instinct I turned to when I watched the trailer; others cropped up as I watched the movie, including Nathan being the AI; everyone else being AI and Caleb the only human left, and the AI were testing him; or everyone being AI that was created by humanity, and Caleb being the first AI to be created by the AI themselves, and they were testing to see how real they got it.
Wow, that got long.
Watched Ex Machina last night and thought it was an excellent movie, but I had some conflicting feelings/thoughts afterwards. Semi-spoilers Oct 18, 13:44
Agreed Oct 18, 14:14
I'd seen no publicity, apart from its very early praise here, so I had no expectations (and no hint at the twist you suggest). Oct 18, 16:30