A highly polished but slightly derivative sci-fi which engages the head – but not the heart.

Rating: 7/10 (28 January 2015)

I enjoyed Ex Machina, and it was particularly interesting to watch it on the same weekend as I saw Under The Skin (2014) – a film with which Ex Machina shares a number of themes.
Ex Machina is a very polished piece of technical film making – it looks fantastic and the effects are pretty flawless throughout (Ava's mechanics were absolutely fantastic). It's fairly smartly made, and for the most part the tech/philosophical dialogues between the characters are fairly credible and interesting. However, the film came up a bit short in a few key areas which made it ultimately feel like the kind of film you can admire – but are unlikely to fall in love with. It's also interesting that my opinion of it has diminished a bit in the days since I watched it, and it's not the kind of film I feel the need to see again any time soon (if ever).
The acting was pretty strong throughout, but apart from Isaac's character (who was great fun) both Caleb and Ava felt very thinly drawn. It seemed uncertain whose story we were really following. Caleb's? He was basically just a fairly uninteresting audience cypher. Ava's? She simply wasn't in it enough to really know anything about – let alone to really care about. You never really feel anything for any of the characters because you never really get to know them – they spend most of their screen time discussing concepts. Consequently, while you feel intellectually stimulated by what's going on – you never really feel emotionally engaged.
The plotting was also fairly weak – all the stuff about key-cards and power-cuts didn't really hold up to much scrutiny. I know a story like this needs these kinds of mechanics and contrivances to move along, but they felt particularly weak in this case. I also had some real trouble with the ending, which felt like it didn't hold together from a character perspective at all – and felt a little drawn out and badly edited. I won't go into details here, since I don't want to give away spoilers – especially since the film doesn't come out in the US for a while. The twists aren't of the earth-shattering variety – they're more character than concept based – but none of them really seemed that surprising – and most didn't make much sense on closer examination.
I also have a bit of an issue with films that deal with issues of female objectification – but apparently want to have their cake and eat it. With one hand Ex Machina holds up a mirror to modern male attitudes with a wagging finger – while with the other it gives fan-boys more naked female flesh than they're likely to find in many other cinema releases. It's not really necessary and at the end of the day a bit demeaning for the actresses involved. At least Under The Skin was fairly even handed in its depiction of human flesh!
Overall, I felt the film suffered a bit – as you might expect – from a slight lack of originality. The execution was polished and intelligent, but it felt a bit like we've seen everything here before somewhere – especially in A.I., Bladerunner, iRobot, Black Mirror (the episode Gleeson himself starred in), Cherry2000(!) and last year's The Machine (which is well worth a watch and incredibly was also about a scientist doing a Turing test and falling in love with a female android called Ava!!!). I'm not sure what exactly Ex Machina really brought to the table on top of what the others had already laid out. It's also true that the film is predominantly comprised of two people discussing philosophical concepts – which can be fairly interesting for a single viewing, but isn't exactly the kind of thing you'll feel the need to sit through again.
Anyway, if you liked any of the aforementioned films, I'm fairly sure you'll get a lot out of Ex Machina – but don't expect it to have your world shattered.