MAD MAX MACHINA
Jun. 16th, 2015 08:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogI haven’t been getting to the cinemas as much as I would like these days. But I have managed to see a couple of things.
Mad Max: Fury Road
An argument could be made that we really didn’t need another Mad Max film – not least since any “reboot” would have to live up to at least the first two films, if not Beyond Thunderdome. But if yr going to revive the series, this is the way to do it.
George Miller made two very wise decisions with Fury Road: (1) real car stunts that rely as little on CGI as possible (though perhaps not little enough at times) and (2) going with an all-new story instead of rehashing Max’s origins, although the plot follows a framework similar (but not identical) to Mad Max 2.
Still, it’s the details that matter, and on that score, the film delivers just about everything you’d want in a new Mad Max film: insane car battles, insane post-apocalyptic tribes, and insane visual design, with a decent story engine driving it along. My only real complaint is the CGI thrown in for 3D purposes. But that’s a small quibble for a film where everything is deliberately over the top. Where else can you see an assault force led by a heavy-metal guitarist with a flamethrowing guitar?
Meanwhile, Tom Hardy is a worthy successor as Max, but Charlize Theron steals the show as Imperator Furiosa. Which has apparently upset the Men’s Rights groups who are annoyed at all the "feminism" George Miller poured all over their movie. If that’s not a recommendation to go see it, I’d like to know what is.
Ex Machina
Almost the polar opposite of MM:FR in terms of OTT energy, Ex Machina is a slow-paced but absorbing AI-thriller written and directed by Alex Garland. The story involves Caleb, a coder at a giant search engine company (not that one), who wins a company lottery to work with reclusive legendary founder Nathan Bateman on a super-secret project that turns out to be Ava, a female robot with artificial intelligence. Nathan wants Caleb to apply the Turing Test to Ava whilst already knowing she’s not human. But as the tests go on, Caleb suspects that both Nathan and Ava have their own agendas.
Oscar Isaacs is great as Nathan, equal parts brooding psychopath and charismatic-to-the-point-of-intimidating genius, and Alicia Vikander makes for a smart and sympathetic Ava. Domhnall Gleeson is a little lackluster in comparison as Caleb, but fulfils his role as the average guy who finds himself in over his head.
Like other films Garland has written, the third act falls a little short on logic, and some bits are predictable. On the other hand, he does avoid some of the more obvious tropes for this kind of film, and does a good job using the storyline to explore the ethical issues involved with developing AI (especially the way in which Nathan went about it), the differences between human intelligence and AI, and the possible consequences. Even the inevitable sexbot trope serves more to raise the ethical issues involved instead of “hey guys, sexbots!” Overall, if yr expecting a straight techno action thriller, you’ll be disappointed. But if you like yr SF a little more thoughtful, this should be right up yr street.
Smarter than the average robot,
This is dF
Mad Max: Fury Road
An argument could be made that we really didn’t need another Mad Max film – not least since any “reboot” would have to live up to at least the first two films, if not Beyond Thunderdome. But if yr going to revive the series, this is the way to do it.
George Miller made two very wise decisions with Fury Road: (1) real car stunts that rely as little on CGI as possible (though perhaps not little enough at times) and (2) going with an all-new story instead of rehashing Max’s origins, although the plot follows a framework similar (but not identical) to Mad Max 2.
Still, it’s the details that matter, and on that score, the film delivers just about everything you’d want in a new Mad Max film: insane car battles, insane post-apocalyptic tribes, and insane visual design, with a decent story engine driving it along. My only real complaint is the CGI thrown in for 3D purposes. But that’s a small quibble for a film where everything is deliberately over the top. Where else can you see an assault force led by a heavy-metal guitarist with a flamethrowing guitar?
Meanwhile, Tom Hardy is a worthy successor as Max, but Charlize Theron steals the show as Imperator Furiosa. Which has apparently upset the Men’s Rights groups who are annoyed at all the "feminism" George Miller poured all over their movie. If that’s not a recommendation to go see it, I’d like to know what is.
Ex Machina
Almost the polar opposite of MM:FR in terms of OTT energy, Ex Machina is a slow-paced but absorbing AI-thriller written and directed by Alex Garland. The story involves Caleb, a coder at a giant search engine company (not that one), who wins a company lottery to work with reclusive legendary founder Nathan Bateman on a super-secret project that turns out to be Ava, a female robot with artificial intelligence. Nathan wants Caleb to apply the Turing Test to Ava whilst already knowing she’s not human. But as the tests go on, Caleb suspects that both Nathan and Ava have their own agendas.
Oscar Isaacs is great as Nathan, equal parts brooding psychopath and charismatic-to-the-point-of-intimidating genius, and Alicia Vikander makes for a smart and sympathetic Ava. Domhnall Gleeson is a little lackluster in comparison as Caleb, but fulfils his role as the average guy who finds himself in over his head.
Like other films Garland has written, the third act falls a little short on logic, and some bits are predictable. On the other hand, he does avoid some of the more obvious tropes for this kind of film, and does a good job using the storyline to explore the ethical issues involved with developing AI (especially the way in which Nathan went about it), the differences between human intelligence and AI, and the possible consequences. Even the inevitable sexbot trope serves more to raise the ethical issues involved instead of “hey guys, sexbots!” Overall, if yr expecting a straight techno action thriller, you’ll be disappointed. But if you like yr SF a little more thoughtful, this should be right up yr street.
Smarter than the average robot,
This is dF
