Ex Machina (spoilers)

[anansi133]

A friend of mine recently taught me about the film genre, "Fem-Jep". A woman in jeopardy. The film, _Gravity_ was the example she used: our main interest in watching this movie, is seeing our heroine, Sandra Bullock, be placed in jeapardy, again and again, until by luck and persistence, she reaches the conclusion of the film. It doesn't make for

Comments

[suzanne]

I kept trying to talk myself into seeing it, but the more I hear the less interest I have.

[anansi133]

It's the kind of movie I recommend people wait till it comes out on DVD. It's also a perfect example of ironic sexism. The robot is a sex doll not just for the villain of the story, but also for the viewer. So even though the bad guy is punished for being bad, the viewer is invited to share in his sin.

[johnpalmer]

That's a scary-accurate way of thinking about it. (It="the concept" - I haven't seen the movie itself, so I can't judge.)

[m_cobweb]

I'm so tired of fembots I'm not even interested in seeing it. That and hot badass alien chicks. Apparently they don't make SF flicks for me.

[anansi133]

Now I'm curious,what kind of Sci if movie do you wish they'd make?

[m_cobweb]

Let's see, SF TV and films I like include Deep Space Nine, Babylon Five, Solaris, Alien and the sequels, Pitch Black, Her.

So I'd have to say a film with characters meeting challenges and/or confronting each other without gender playing a significant role, with politics and maybe aliens, philosophical, maybe a little scary. Something that uses metaphor to make a point and something that takes me into a very different world. Bonus points for interesting, diverse teams of people.

I was surprised how much I liked Her. But in retrospect, it made points about human connections and interactions without degenerating into sexist stereotypes, and it played the SF angle out to the end. I hadn't expected that.

[anansi133]

_Her_ was just like ex machina, except complete reversed. We saw the male protagonist is fall for a disembodied voice without any idea what she might look like. Whereas in this one, appearance is all important, what's underneath just a guessing game.