Annihilation (2018)

Director: Alex Garland
Writers: Alex Garland, Jeff VanderMeer
DOP: Rob Hardy
Cast: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Oscar Isaac

A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition where the laws of nature don't apply or it is just very hyperactive.

It's on Netflix and do watch it without knowing anything about it. So don't read on if you haven't seen it. How it came to Netflix for international release was that the Studio heads at Paramount thought that it was too cerebral. They clashed with Scott Rudin and Alex Garland on its final cut. So they gave a two week window to release it in USA and China after which it got released on Netflix this week.

It is an adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's first book with the same name from 'Southern Reach' trilogy. What happens in the area they are exploring, where something from space fell, is that cell activity is very heightened and evolution is on steroids. People outside have no idea what's going on and are not sure about the motive of whatever that is happening inside. The point is that it has no motive and just a property. This is what people find hard to fathom when it comes to evolution. Gene replication is a property and evolution happening due to errors in replication or mutations has no end goal. There is no motivation, purpose or end goal, just a propensity to replicate. They gradually learns that the area that they are exploring is acting like a prism for cell replication and all the mutations are leading to all sorts of species coming out of it. It makes sense up to this point and the last act of the thing mimicking didn't make much sense but it is a good cinema trope. It can be seen as the explanation of what was happening to 'The Thing' on the John Carpenter movie.

The film will also remind one of Ridley Scott's Alien. It works as a sci-fi movie, monster movie and a horror movie over the course of it. He had cited self destruction as a theme he wanted to highlight in the film and it is even stated explicitly stated in the movie by one of its characters. It is visually stunning, well acted and got a trippy soundtrack. It has a similar ending to Ex Machina and on whole I enjoyed it even more than it. And Ex Machina was great by the way.

Rating: 4.75/5

Ex Machina (2015)

Director: Alex Garland
Writer:    Alex Garland
Cast:       Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Issac, Alicia Vikander

A young programmer (Domhnall Gleeson) is selected to participate in a breakthrough experiment in artificial intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a breathtaking female A.I (Alicia Vikander). The guy who selected him (Oscar Issac) had made money through his search engine business and while all other search engine innovators concentrated on just making money by using it to figure out what people were thinking, he used it to make his A.I by finding out how people think. The experiment that he wants the young programmer to conduct is of course the Turing Test. 

A.I and the warnings against it have been in the news recently with both Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk expressing concerns about it. We already had a film on the subject last year, the Johnny Depp starrer 'Transcendence', but it was ultimately a misfire with really poor script and performances even though it managed to convey the scale of the problems that humans could encounter with A.I. When put against that film, Ex Machina, is a master class about film making and the importance of the way a story is told to make them work. We are hooked from the first scene itself with an overall mystery surrounding everything and we are second guessing the director almost the whole way through. One can of course say that figuring out the twist is not that difficult considering you are continually trying to outsmart the filmmaker but he gets one over you by not going overboard with the twist. Another great thing he does is that he goes about 'AI being bad' in a matter of fact fashion without  relying on gunfire, explosions and shit like that. At the end of it you don't have a good/bad question regarding the characters in which I include the A.I. There is a moment in film where the programmer does a reverse Turing test by doubting whether he was in fact an A.I by cutting himself up and checking for some machinery inside him. 

Alex Garland was previously involved in Danny Boyle films 28 Days Later and Sunshine and he is making his directorial debut with Ex Machina. It is beautifully shot in a claustrophobic manner even though the house is nestled by exquisite surroundings. Performances are excellent and the expositions are done smoothly considering that there is some explaining to do. I really don't think you need much knowledge about A.I and Turing Test to understand the film but it would help in appreciating the questions and answers coming out of the Turing Test and the their discussion about it. There is even a reference to that famous scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey, of Hal watching the two astronomers talk, but this time it is the two A.Is who are talking without us humans hearing what they are saying. Overall it is a magnificent watch.

Rating: 4.5/5