Sci-Fi fans really can’t complain at the moment. While Dune: Part Two is just finishing its run in cinemas, the series 3 Body Problem started on Netflix a few weeks ago and the video game adaptation Fallout was added to Amazon Prime Video. Today will that too TV conquered by AIs and aliens – with two of the best films that the genre has produced in the last 15 years.
There’s just one catch to the whole thing, because the two films are running at exactly the same time. So it should be today Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival be – or rather Alex Garland’s Ex Machina? To make your decision easier, let’s take a closer look at the two masterpieces.
Ex Machina: Gripping sci-fi thriller that could soon become reality
After Alex Garland had already written the script for films such as 28 Days Later and The Beach, the filmmaker made his directorial debut in 2014 with Ex Machina and spins a futuristic story based on the ancient legend of Pygmalion and Galatea. However, this is more relevant than ever, as artificial intelligence is taking on an increasingly larger role in our society and the question is raised Reality and illusion is becoming increasingly difficult to answer. This makes it all the more exciting to watch Ex Machina again – or for the first time – with this question in mind, even 10 years after its theatrical release.
Universal
Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander and Oscar Isaac in Ex Machina
The young web programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) is allowed to spend a week in the remote house of his boss Nathan (Oscar Isaac) in the mountains. There he gets to know an artificial intelligence in the form of the robot woman Ava (Alicia Vikander) and during his stay he is supposed to check whether she is human consciousness owns. What begins as an experiment soon becomes bitterly serious for Caleb. Because the boundaries between man and machine are becoming more blurred for him every day and he is starting to develop feelings for Ava…
Arrival: Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi debut that paved the way for Dune
As is well known, Denis Villeneuve had the dream of filming Frank Herbert’s sci-fi epic Dune since his childhood. However, in order to be able to master this with the competence and expertise necessary for the genre, the director initially practiced with two other films in 2016 and 2017. Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 were born, the one for Villeneuve Sci-fi playground should represent – and also became two of the best representatives of the entire genre. The Canadian ultimately received a total of eight Oscar nominations for his sci-fi debut Arrival – including for Best Film and Best Director.
See the German trailer for Arrival here:
Arrival – Trailer (German) HD
When alien spaceships want to land on Earth and their crew tries to make contact, the military enlists the help of linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) and physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner). They try one together Way of communication with the alien beings to make it clear whether the newcomers are friends or enemies…
Whether it’s Ex Machina or Arrival – sci-fi fans can’t go wrong with this decision
The Moviepilot community is also almost divided as to which of the two sci-fi masterpieces is the better choice. Ex Machina has an average rating of 7.7/10 points just ahead of Arrival, which has a score of 7.6/10 comes. Both films tell their stories with calm and complexity, rather than using big sci-fi war scenes, and illuminate the relationship between man and machine in a way that has rarely been seen before. It’s always worth tuning in, no matter what you decide in the end.
Ex Machina is on today Tuesday, April 30, 2024 at 8:15 p.m. on Tele5 on free TV. Arrival, on the other hand, is running around 8:15 p.m. on Nitro. Just in case, you can also catch up on both films on various streaming platforms. Ex Machina is currently available as a streaming subscription on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, while Arrival is currently available as a subscription on WOW and MagentaTV.