MovieChat Forums > Arrival (2016) Discussion > Ex-Machina of 2016?

Ex-Machina of 2016?

posted 8 years ago by trcrock
5 replies | jump to latest

Okay, I know what you're thinking from reading the title of this discussion. I know that this movie and Ex-Machina are very different films just on the sense that one revolves around aliens and the other around robots. What I mean when I ask if Arrival is this year's Ex-Machina is: is, like Ex-Machina, essentially the smaller-budgeted sci-fi film that doesn't focus as much on the sci-fi aspect of it as much as asking questions about humanity and exploring more complex and unique themes than one might think in a film of this nature? I have a pretty strong feeling this film won't have a scene of Amy Adams disco dancing with one of the aliens to help make that point, but yea. So, think that could be the case with this movie?

[–] rainofwalrus 8 years ago

Ex-Machina was tigher knit... And less messy at the seams.

But boy is Ex-Machina still flawed. And so is Arrival.

Both are shot well so there's that.

Enjoy these words, for one day they'll be gone... All of them.

[–] drzoidberg2 8 years ago

everyone says Ex machina is so flawed , I just don't see it

[–] rainofwalrus 8 years ago

Ex Machina only works if we "believe" Nathan capable of creating a.i., and this would be achieved by showing him outsmart the a.i. long after Act III.

But the a.i. strolls out the front door and Nathan is clearly an idiot for not protecting his invention (and/or Humanity) with a failsafe device.

Enjoy these words, for one day they'll be gone... All of them.

[–] emvan 8 years ago

Not comparable at all. Much bigger budget, and thought through much better. Less "cool," stylistic, and flashy; more overtly emotional.

Ted Chiang, who wrote the original story, has a very sound grasp of the underlying physics and philosophy.

There was a very low budget A.I. film that came out a year or two before Ex Machina called The Machine. The writer/director says he got really into the topic and read everything he could about consciousness -- and in fact there are references in two consecutive scenes that delighted me and my excessive expertise. My joke is that Ex Machina's writer / director, Alex Garland, read the Wikipedia article. Maybe not to the end.

Prepare your minds for a new scale of physical, scientific values, gentlemen.

[–] Snarkpanda 8 years ago

Yes!