Garland Fully Arrives. Recommended.

Rating: 8/10 (23 June 2015)

Watching Ex Machina you'll witness a talent coming into his own. That would be Alex Garland who wrote and directed this movie which feels, at times, on a plane with 2001: A Space Odyssey. The viewer glimpses into a future in which so much will go wrong at the hand of man. It's often an uncomfortable watch, yet totally mesmerizing due to Garland's masterful vision and compact writing.
This movie may, at first, not seem nearly as amazing as it is. The idea of the AI genie out of the bottle isn't, of course, remotely original. Forget that, however, because the AI as realized in Ex Machina is. What could be cold and analytical is compelling with little sensationalism save for some well envisioned futuristic technology.
Ex Machina never bores, nor does it seem to speed along. The blackness just creeps in and builds. The locale and sets impress. The cinematography captures the feel of a Moreau's Island type world within a world, complete with the out-of-touch brilliant mad scientist. The protagonist, Caleb, is both lab rat and a litmus test of morality and conscience. It's a great conflict keeping the viewer off-balance in a good way.
Garland, like the visionary director/writer Orson Welles, along with an amazing performance by Alicia Vikander as bot Ava, has constructed an disturbing view of the hubris of man. Domhnall Gleeson plays the central figure, Caleb, in his likable geek persona. Worth special mention is Oscar Isaac as the bent billionaire scientist Nathan, he's the right balance of unconscionable menace and futuristic visionary. Perhaps not for the masses like the Kubrick's epic "2001", it many times feels more prescient.