Confusing & Bad Casting Choice for Main Character
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Ex Machina
JaysonT — 9 years ago(August 15, 2016 07:07 PM)
My friend Helen and me always watch movies together, and decided this time it was a night for Sci-Fi. Unfortunately we went for the most overrated one of last year.
Ex Machina
is a movie that really should have been a short film; it's a 10 minute concept stretched out over two hours.
Domhnall Gleeson plays a geek named Caleb, who is a computer programmer chosen in a contest to visit a very rich man's mansion in the middle of nowhere. Oscar Isaac would be that man- who invents robots.
Right of the bat, we hated Caleb. What a dweeb. He has no personality, is very uptight, and uses words so big even our next door neighbor who's a physicist couldn't comprehend half his dialogue. Why the hell did Hollywood cast this nobody in the lead? Helen and me come from a time when real actors with charisma commaned the screen. Men like Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, Jack Lemmon. You also realize the names I just listed are easy to spell and pronounce. Not the case for Domhnall Gleeson. A HORRIBLE first name! He should have had SAG change it right away- it looks like a name where spell check and autocorrect collided in a bad way.
Oscar Isaac also bad choice- he's way too short and comes off awkward next to his costar. His evil, murky personality is instantly noticeable.
Only Oscar winner Alicia Vikander has any life we enjoyed, and the problem with the plot is it's pretty confusing- why exactly is Caleb so off-put and upset when he see's Vikander's robot walking around in her room? Nothing odd about that at all.
The rest of the movie was pretty hard to comprehend, and Helen and me eventually zoned out. The terrible casting of the leading men ruined it. They should have cast better known actors- Tom Cruise or Bradley Cooper would have been more sufficient in Gleeson's role. We suspect he got the role because he knew someone.
FINAL GRADE: D for Drastically Dull -
SkippyJustice — 9 years ago(August 16, 2016 11:26 PM)
I thought Caleb was a bad actor. Very similar to the acting of both actors cast as Anakin Skywalker. Very wooden. Caleb sounded as if he was reading an instruction manual. The other guy was odd but appropriately creepy. Could have been better choices for him but low budget. Fasbender would have been better which would be interesting because he played a robot in Promethius.
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nathanialwest — 9 years ago(August 23, 2016 01:52 AM)
Dude with this post youve outed yourself as a total moron and a philistine a dozen times over. Oscar Isaac is top tier stuff and Gleeson was perfect for the role. You just didnt like the film and you should have left it at that instead of trashing someone who has probably accomplished more than you ever will. Go watch a movie with Cruise or Cooper if you like them so much, there are plenty of them out there and they all target shallow pieces of vapid trash like you.
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FloopyDoopy — 9 years ago(September 05, 2016 02:24 AM)
Not sure what you have against Gleeson, I thought he did very well in Ex Machina. He's meant to come off uncomfortable and insecure. I don't think Cruise or Cooper have the versatility to pull off that sort of role and it wouldn't be believable anyway. It would just distract from the film.
Complaining about his name is just silly and shallow. He's Irish, he's from Ireland. He has an Irish name. That's what happens. Also, Isaac was perfect as Nathan. Another very versatile actor. I never caught on that his role in this film, Star Wars and X Men Apocalypse were even played by the same actor. -
Meldove — 9 years ago(September 26, 2016 12:09 AM)
The role of Caleb called for an insecure, lonely type of individual, a young man without much of a social life, who often feels awkward in social situations. The casting for the film was perfect, the three main leads Oscar, Alicia and Domhnall were magnificent.
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jh099 — 9 years ago(October 15, 2016 12:06 AM)
So what you're actually saying is that because you didn't understand why the two male leads were the way they were, and because your small vocabulary left you unable to understand a few scenes, you didn't like the movie.
Perhaps you should stick to coloring books and Sesame Street reruns. -
MyOpinionIsFact — 9 years ago(November 12, 2016 05:54 AM)
Perhaps, just perhaps, you are Helen are morons?
and uses words so big even our next door neighbor who's a physicist couldn't comprehend half his dialogue.
I'm guessing you neighbor is a
student
studying physics, not a physicist. First, this movie's dialog is about computer science, not physics. So having a computer science background would be more valuable than physics. But no dialog in this movie that should be challenging to a physicist. Generally speaking physicists are aware of the computer science terminology used in the film. If your neighbor is a physicist, they have a weak vocabulary and are not very well read, which makes me think that either A) very unlikely to be a real physicist or B) they are a lousy physicist.