I’ve just watched Ex Machina and Chappie back-to-back, and I think it’s appropriate to write about
them in a single post, since, as the title implies, one movie suffers because
of the existence of the other (or by watching them back-to-back).
Ex Machina tells the story of Caleb, a programmer working for Bluebook
(the Google in this story’s universe), who wins a company lottery to spend a week
with Bluebook’s visionary CEO and founder, Nathan, in his uber-modern, secluded
residence. On Caleb’s arrival, Nathan
reveals to him that his home doubles as his research facility and he has
been secretly developing a humanoid robot with advanced AI named “Ava.” Nathan solicits the participation of Caleb to
conduct a Turing test on Ava to determine if she can pass off as human, which
Caleb agrees to. As Caleb continues to interact
with the sensuous Ava, he wrestles with his growing feelings for her as well as
the nagging suspicion that Nathan hasn’t been completely honest with him
regarding the experiment.
Narrative-wise, the trailer of Ex Machina has unfortunately revealed
enough details for someone watching the movie to predict almost every plot
development and every plot twist, which diminished the suspense and surprise. However, despite that, the narrative was
consistently absorbing and intriguing.
The cast delivered compelling performances, and the dialogues were
intellectually stimulating.
In summary, Ex Machina is a superb, fresh, insightful, disturbing, and gripping
science fiction psycho-thriller straight out of The Twilight Zone or Black
Mirror.
Chappie is set on Johannesburg, South Africa wherein the police employ
a state-of-the-art, armored robot force that they purchased from the weapons
firm, Tetravaal. Deon, a Tetravaal
employee and the creator of the police robot units, develops an AI that can
function the same way as the human mind.
Deon installed his AI on a damaged police robot unit intended to be
disposed and it is reborn as “Chappie.”
As one would expect (it’s a familiar story), the rest of the movies sees Chappie struggling with
his identity, being baffled and mimicking human behavior, and being eventually seen as
a threat by mankind.
While Ex Machina (rightfully) received acclaim
from critics, Chappie, on the other
hand, was brutally panned. However, personally,
I think it’s not that bad as its 30% Rotten Tomatoes rating suggests. It does have its share of some genuinely
entertaining and heartfelt moments. But
the story was generally untidy and uninteresting. It felt like it was trying to be Short Circuit and District 5 and other things all at the same time. Its tired but thoughtful message was lost in
all that clutter
It can’t be
helped to compare Ex Machina and Chappie.
Both movies tackled the same artificial intelligence premise, and both attempted
to provide thought-provoking case studies on the implications of sentient,
self-aware humanoid robots. However, only
Ex Machina succeeded in doing it in such
a rich, engaging, and cerebral manner, that it simply can’t be helped but ruin Chappie, which is actually not a
terrible film, for an audience who watched both movies within the same year.
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