Neither Ex Cellent nor Ex Crement.

Rating: 5/10 (23 February 2019)

I have mixed feelings about Alex Garland: on one hand, he wrote the hugely entertaining 28 Days Later and the criminally under-rated Dredd; on the other hand, he has bored me senseless with ponderous pap like Sunshine and Annihilation. Ex Machina falls somewhere in the middle: it has an intriguing premise but it fails to do it justice.
Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) is a computer programmer who wins a week as the guest of internet genius Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), CEO of the firm at which Caleb works. Flown by helicopter to Bateman's high-tech rural retreat, Caleb is given the enviable task of assessing his boss's latest triumph, an A.I. Robot called Ava (Alicia Vikander), to see if she truly possesses consciousness. Over the course of the week, Caleb becomes attached to Ava and plans to set her free, but is he being manipulated by his boss, the sexy robot, or both?
Extremely slow burn and heavy on the dialogue, this is what some people like to describe as intelligent sci-fi, posing questions about what it is to be human and the inevitable evolution of machines, but just how intelligent is a film that boasts so many glaring plot holes? Why are Ava's robotic parts visible when Bateman has perfected synthetic skin? Why does Bateman use card keys in his home when a retinal scan would be far more secure? Why can't a genius like Bateman solve the problem of his power outages? Could one man working alone really build a lifelike artificially intelligent being? Why does the skin of an Asian robot somehow match Ava's skin-tone? Why doesn't the helicopter pilot question the young woman who returns to the landing location? Wouldn't Bateman have programmed the laws of robotics into his creations to prevent them from rebelling? All awkward questions without satisfactory answers.
If Ex Machina wanted to be taken seriously as an intellectual look at the implications of A.I., it really should have addressed the basic problems with the script first.
5/10 for the hilarious dance scene and for all the sexy robot nudity.