Good, solid A.I. movie

Rating: Null/10 (7 June 2015)

Sort of a companion piece to HER, except this time the A.I. has a physical flesh & blood, er... artificial skin and circuits manifestation.
Writer-Director Alex Garland has some fine SF credits to his resume having written the screenplays for the excellent NEVER LET ME GO and 28 DAYS LATER among others. He uses that knowledge of genre to craft a story which delves deeply into the world of what it is to be human vs. a machine. The famous Turing test is at the crux of the tale. On a purely visual level, EX MACHINA works very well within a modest budget (of course, limiting most of the movie to one location and 4 actors helps stretch those dollars). Still, the illusion of Ava the robot is seamlessly achieved through a combination of practical and CGI effects. The sets are spartan, but, fully realized and effective. Where the movie falters is that there is far too much cat & mouse verbal sparring, despite the fine work of Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac. Like with his screenplay for Danny Boyle's flawed SUNSHINE, Garland seems determined to undercut the awe and wonder of the science fiction aspect with petty plot machinations. Fortunately, the themes here are so rich that they overcome most of those issues. And, the finale confounds one's expectations on more than one level - but, in a quite satisfying way in the end (even if it is a bit far fetched). Still one wishes that so much time hadn't been spent on the hoary cliché of defeating the Mad Scientist gambit.
EX MACHINA is a good entry into the expanding sub-genre of A.I.. More focus on the "I" and less on the "A" (artificial plot complications) could have resulted in something truly great, but, it's certainly worth seeing on the big screen.