Ex Machina Movie Analysis

The vision Christopher Nolan had for The Prestige (2006) was to add to the outbreak of street magician film, whilst playing a large dramatic subplot equal in grandeur to the magical performances within the film. In the final sequence of the film, I will analyse how the cinematography and sound resolves the plot so that it summarises the themes present in the film, whilst also invoking a response from the audience. Nolan predominantly uses close up shots, non-diegetic sound (music) and dialogue collaboratively to convey the dramatic, personal subplot of the characters and their relationships, whilst appealing to the audience bringing forth an emotional response from the audience. The heavy, slow, dramatic atmosphere of the ending sequence uses various techniques to summarise and uncover the underlying mysteries of the events throughout the film and consolidate themes introduced during the exposition.

LOGLINE: When a young girl goes missing, her friend and older brother try to find out whether his father is responsible… but the true culprit may be supernatural in nature.

Charlotte realized that there was nobody on her side after the incident when Charlotte told the captain about the mutiny and then accidentally whipped the captain’s face, so she decided to take charge without the help of someone else. Charlotte decided to take charge and join the crew, “‘I’ve come,’ I managed to say, ‘to be one of the crew.’” (pg. 106). Charlotte decided to take charge of her own life like a true sailor by choosing her own wind. Even though Charlotte had chosen the best “wind” and done the right thing, the wind she chose wasn’t an easy one; she still had sort of a hard time with the captain and she even ended up being charged of murder. Charlotte decided to choose her own wind to sail her ship, or make her own choice when she realized that she was all alone with nobody on her side.

When Zachariah was getting whipped by Captain Jaggery, Charlotte wanted him to stop. It was then when Charlotte went to the crew’s side and became friends with them. She wanted to replace Zachariah’s position because he “died.” Because Charlotte’s friends changed on the ship, her workload also

Abby should have gone because she was old enough and responsible enough to go. Abby was old enough because 16 is the legal age to drive so if she can drive she should have been able to sail a boat. Abby safer sailing that drive because more kids die in cars than they do on boats. There are nine teenagers that die in a car every day but there are only 701 people die in a boat each year. In the interview that I watched about Abby her parents believed that she should have gone and her parents are the ones who decide what she does.

Ex Machina goes above and beyond when it comes to science fiction and philosophy, if anything the movie leaves us with more question than answers. In the movie we are introduced to Caleb, a person we think has won the lottery only to find out he was chosen to be a participant for a Turing Test against AI, Ava, to see if she can pass as human. We are also introduced to Nathan who is the AI’s father of some sorts, he is wild, crazy genius that throughout the movie we are never sure if he is trustable or not. Nathan represents humanity at its darkest state; he is a self-destructive drunk who seeks his own demise. When he talks about the future and how the robots he created will take over the world, he talks about with awe like he can’t wait for

Die Hard, a film directed by John McTiernan, successfully utilized several aesthetics, which offered viewers various meanings throughout the duration of the film. Although the diverse meanings grasped by viewers may differ, it was clear to me that McTiernan effectively applied elements of cinematography and mise-en-scene that resulted in viewers being allowed to interpret a range of different meanings or functions of the elements.

Unbroken was made into a book in 2010 by Laura Hillenbrand and later adapted into a movie in 2014. It is a story about a young Olympian named Louis “Louie” Zamperini who made it into the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He later gets drafted into the air force and fought in World War II only to get stranded in the ocean and captured by the Japanese. The book and the movie both cover the same main topics and are over the same events, but they aren’t both the same. The book goes into more detail than the movie in many instances; however, sometimes the movie shows a more detailed and powerful scene when compared to the book.

Pulp Fiction is a black comedy crime film written and directed Quentin Tarantino (1994). The film’s “narrative follows the unpredictable actions and reflections of two hit men who philosophically meditate out loud about the Bible, loyalty, and McDonald’s hamburgers” (Corrigan, White, 368). The movie goes against the three-act structure of classic films as the story is told out of chronological order making the film so memorable to its viewers. Tarantino’s film begins in a coffee shop and also ends in the same shop. In the beginning of the film, it appears to be a soft, moist, shapeless matter of mass but as the movie progresses the audience can take away much more from the mundane acts they view on screen. The film’s odd narrative

“The Mission” is a film that gives a historically accurate depiction of the events that took place in South America around 1750, displaying the jesuit missions and their attempt at expanding missionary ventures in the area. These missions foresaw the Jesuits going to uncharted areas of the jungle inhabited by the Guarani people, demonstrating the significance assimilating the Guarani people meant to the Jesuits. Additionally, the Guarani people were accurately displayed as a self-sustained society where basic components such as: productivity, protection, justice regulations and a form of a leader was evident in the form of their King. Nonetheless, the Guarani were an isolated group of individuals who were secluded to the outside world; their only contact with outside personnelles were slave traders who would put them into forced slavery for personal benefits. Not to mention the “Treaty of Madrid”, which resulted in the social and political disputes between the, Portuguese, Spanish and Catholic community; manifesting in the form of territorial conflicts and misunderstandings amongst the three vigorous societies, where each have a different purpose for the Guarani people.

''The power of Christ compels you! The power of Christ compels you! The power of Christ compels you!!! ...'' Father Merrin&Father Damien Karras from the movie -The Exorcist-

When it comes to the film industry, entertainment is the tool used to acquire what is desired, money. The main goal for filmmakers when they create a film is to attain money in addition to the money spent to make the movie. Therefore, in some films that they like to base off of true accounts, it is somewhat necessary to dramatize or embellish the story to really tug at the heartstrings of the films audience. They achieve this goal by the use of dramatic music, ambient lighting, and a small amount of tweaked diction. The Fighter is an excellent example of this dramatization in action because throughout the film the characters are faced with a multitude of decisions that must be made. The choices they make require the characters to choose

In “The Departed”, which takes place in South Boston, State Police are tasked with bringing an end to Irish American organized crime. One of the stars of the movie is the great actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays undercover cop Billy Costigan. The cast is packed with high demand actors; one of them being Irish mob boss, Jack Nicholson, playing Frank Costello. Costigans counterpart is Colin Sullivan, played by Matt Damon. Both men just-graduated from Massachusetts State Police Academy; Sullivan is on the side of the mob, and joined the police force to be an informer for the mob boss. There is a key interplay between each man, and the people they are trying to deceive. The stakes are high, as each operative becomes entrenched in their double life,

As a computer science major, it is only natural that I would have an affinity to science fiction films. However, Alex Garland’s Ex Machina is not just any science fiction film, it is a view into the human psyche and society’s subconscious fear of being replaced by something we perceive to be greater than ourselves. Ex Machina is a morally ambiguous story that is Promethean in nature, because “fire” or intelligence has been given to machines. Many of the characters in Ex Machina exhibit Jungian archetypes such as Ava being the dreamer, Caleb Smith as a positive animus, Nathan Bateman as a negative animus, and Kyoko as a positive shadow. However, some may have different perspectives on who would

The film “The Prestige” is one of many masterful Nolan films that walks the line between being a meta film about the film industry, and being focused on immersing the audience in the actual content of the film. At a close inspection, comparisons to the film industry can be seen, but they are not so obvious to distract the audience from the central conflicts that are at the forefront of the film. The subject of the film could most easily be defined as surrounding the topics of obsession or fame. More specifically, the obsession of fame, and the illusion of happiness that fame projects. The main characters of the movie both urn for the fame of being the world’s most successful entertainer, even if for different reasons.