A boring sci-fi mystery without thrills...

Rating: 3/10 (28 April 2017)

I had heard nothing but good things and praise for director Alex Garland's "Ex Machina", and after having read the synopsis, I decided to sit down and finally get around to watching it.
However, the movie failed to live up to the expectations that I had given all the good things I had heard about it. Why? Well, because the storyline was unfathomably slow paced, and very little actually happened throughout the course of the movie.
Now, I know that this movie is meant to be a movie that gives you something to think about in terms of artificial intelligence and the prospect of self-thinking robots. However, the concept was just slaughtered by the slow pace and the lack of anything interesting happening.
And it didn't really help much that almost the entire movie took place in a secluded house. While it did have that sense of seclusion and isolation, then it was also serving as a restriction to the movie.
What did work in favor of the movie was the special effects. And boy, oh boy, did they have impressive effects. The visual presentation of Ava was just impressive. And it really looked quite realistic. But special effects are hardly enough to carry a movie.
As for the acting performances, well I will say that people were doing good enough jobs with their given roles. However, it got a bit strained to just sit and watch three people interact with one another for the entire duration of the movie.
Sure, there were elements to the movie which were thought provoking, but they were overshadowed by the rest of the movie, especially by the sheer boredom that permeated the movie.
I was disappointed with "Ex Machina", and this is definitely not a movie that I will return to again.