lil vid about ex machina

Finally watched this movie yesterday, and was a big fan. It also appears to me that the Wikipedia page has been edited. My interpretation is certainly more complicated than the Wikipedia summary, but also somewhat different than yours; I spent a lot of time discussing thoughts with my girlfriend afterward and we both had some of our own ideas. Very pleased with the film, all told.

It's wild that the Wiki entry was so simplistic. I remember the internet eating up this movie in fairly spirited debate. I certainly recall recoiling at Ava's betrayal, and feeling that it was cold. The film had done a good job convincing me that Caleb was the protagonist, what with all of the people lying to him. Others were being lied to, sure, but all of that was more like backdrop, consistent as a natural state of the household we were learning about. Now, during the climax, I immediately regretted not paying more attention to Kyoko. I knew that I needed to rewatch it for that, but never did. I had also been lulled into thinking that either Caleb had outsmarted everyone and that we would be left with loose ends (like the abandoned android garden) or a confrontational bloodbath, possibly preserved in a house forever. Duh, no. This suddenly clicked into place as the android's redemption. Great breakdown. I'll watch the movie again, and then your final video!

Absolutely loving the new background image

I think the movie having a lot of manipulative characters puts viewers in the mind to see all the characters and their actions as manipulative. But yeah, also sexism. It's sad to say but people are more likely to see women as manipulative and men as genuine.

Just to let you know: someone has gone and edited the Wikipedia plot summary

I hadn’t seen this movie before and not only did you do a great job explaining it to someone unfamiliar, but you also really made me want to watch the movie! Excellent analysis as always :)

This is great. When I saw Ex Machina I enjoyed it but had a very surface-level understanding of it and just felt it was predictable because I'm a sci-fi nerd. I have been meaning to revisit it for a long time. I also appreciate this because I really enjoyed Dan Olsen's video on Annihilation where similarly a bunch of people had really lousy explanations for what was going on in the film.

Trying to avoid spoilers in the comments for now, I assume I should watch the movie before checking out the video?

Film crit hulk has a really interesting article about this, if you can get past the all caps. https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2015/05/11/film-crit-hulk-smash-ex-machina-and-the-art-of-character-identification

Love the Skutch art

Also, nice to see you doing rage induced film analysis again. I always enjoyed the Cinemasins videos. I actually don't watch films much, watching and reading analysis like this is basically my way of knowing about them.

Can't wait to see the full version Shaun! I've found that any clips less than 10 seconds are fine re: YT's cursed copyright system.

Artwork is great. I have received response from ECH, haven't looked at it yet. I got it three times because I complained three times about the lack of response last week.

Excited and pre-disappointed at the content of the video and response respectively of the BBC response video as well <3

I completely agree with your interpretation, though it is by no means the full picture. There is a certain nihilistic quality to the narrative, especially with regards to women insofar as the futility of escaping persecution and objectification even when you're not human women. Also, reading previous comments concluding that Ava is also not a good "person" further doubles down on the nihilist aspect, and concludes that, organic or synthetic, everyone is ultimately just out for themselves and one's entitlement to compassion or assistance depends entirely on the beholder's perspective of that person, with very little objectivity playing any part in the end result.

I didn't love this movie and don't think it's as thought-out or interesting as Shaun did, but that's a cool thing about art. Different people get different things out of it. Banger short vid nonetheless.

That art is amazing! I love it!

My interpretation is different both from the Wikipedia version and from yours. That's what I love about this movie—it provides a lot to think about and is open to interpretation.

My only question to this interpretation is why doesn’t Ava try and save or rebuild Kyoko? If this ending is a matter of androids sticking together then why is Ava so quick to discard her?

This was really neat! I'm a big fan of Ex-Machina, and it was very cool hearing your take on its ending!

The new background is so pretty! I especially love the mug. Great video too.

very cool video

Love the new skull, love your work, sure I'll love this. Watching immediately.