Some movies, watching once is enough. I saw James Cameron's Avatar in theaters when it first came out and I was amazed. I had never seen anything like it. But then I saw it again. And it sucked. Why? There wasn't anything hidden that you didn't originally get in the first viewing. The movie masked its weak plot line and cliche ending with state of the art CGI. Some of my favorite movies, like books, have completely different meanings after you already know the ending.
Some of my favorite movies that I've seen that are like this are Black Swan and Ex Machina. I rewatched Ex Machina for the fourth time this past weekend and, for the first time, I think I actually understood it.
Looper described the movie best by saying, "Ex Machina tells the story of computer programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), who wins a contest to spend a week visiting the remote estate of Nathan (Oscar Isaac), his company's reclusive CEO. He then learns that this is no simple vacation. He has actually been selected to interact with an android named Ava (Alicia Vikander), to evaluate whether or not her A.I. is truly sentient.
Over time, Caleb finds himself becoming attracted to Ava, and learns that she also wants to be with him. He then grows increasingly uncomfortable with how Nathan treats both Ava and his assistant, Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno). He also discovers that Kyoko is an android as well, and that Nathan has mistreated her and numerous other prototypes before Ava, most of whom were eventually destroyed.
Then finally, Caleb learns that Nathan is going to destroy Ava once the tests are complete, or at the very least, reformat her mind, which is going to erase all of the memories of the she spent with him Caleb. That's when the thrilling race toward Ex Machina's ending begins."
Read More: https://www.looper.com/148401/the-ending-of-ex-machina-finally-explained/?utm_campaign=clip
The first time watching, I was so invested in whether or not Ava was going to betray Caleb *SPOILER* she does.
But what I didn't see the first time was that the movie was essentially a giant chess match between Ava and her eccentric creator, Nathan. Nathan knew Ava was going to try to manipulate Caleb from the beginning, in fact, he encouraged it. He wanted to be the person that created a new species, one better than humans. He wanted to be God. And what better way to test this new species than a test that requires Ava to outsmart her creator?
Nathan knew Ava was going to try to kill him if she escaped.
SlashFilm interviewed Oscar Isaac and director Alex Garland. Regarding Ava and if he would have told the world about Ava, Oscar Isaac stated, "No, I don’t [think he would have told the world.] It was a question that I asked. I said, to what, so what was the purpose? So let’s say she didn’t escape. The actual experiment, which I guess is a spoiler, is “Will this one escape?” Is this one that’s smart enough to escape?” And what happens after she escapes? It’s not my problem, because the truth is when the robot escapes, it’s gonna fucking kill me.
This is why you need to watch movies more than once.
You know what's going to happen, so you don't get lost in the plot. You see all the micro-cues that the actors and directors leave behind that hint at the ending, or an entirely new view of the movie.
Some other great movies that you should watch more than once:
Whiplash (2014)
Shutter Island (2010)
The Prestige (2006)
The Departed (2006)
Black Swan (2010)
Us (2019)
Get Out (2017)
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