Thought provoking but too evasive

Rating: 6/10 (19 May 2017)

The writing started out good. The atmosphere of morbidity and surrealism was pretty well conveyed. The 'ominous ambiance', as it keeps appearing in the subtitle column, played a major role in establishing this undertone. The setting was pretty classic sci-fi. A 'Mozart' level brilliant CEO, who lived in a secluded deep mountain in a luxurious mansion like Falling Water by Frank Lloyd Wright, with a spark of a whim invited a mediocre programmer to witness his revolutionary AI experiment. It should have been dreamy, exciting and adventurous at the beginning, then taking a steep turn to be shocking and pathological when the dark secrets of the scenic set-up was unveiled. But it didn't quite get there before the film quit this story scheme and irritatingly settle on the morbid atmosphere that too impatiently burst out. Domhnall Gleeson could't curb his realization that the film was going to slide towards the horror genre, therefore we as audience are painfully aware that he didn't make an effort to try to appear human at all. He was reticent and hesitant way beyond necessary, his untimely suspenses was not a symptom of social awkwardness, but a sign of laziness in the actor's part, trying to shift the burden of major emotional breakthroughs onto Nathan's shoulder. I kept observing him closely, trying to make out his personalities from his pitifully scarce actions and speeches, but couldn't really. His unsuccessful attempt to be transparent made him even more obtrusive in the story plot. I wonder why his sporadic silence was not edited out.
Alicia Vikander was the reason I attempted to try the film, and she didn't flunk my expectation. Her acting was very natural and fluent. Ava's girlish expression in her floral dress was absolutely adorable. When she ascended the stairs in Nathan's mansion to 'the free world', her smile was the purest child-like pleasure of exploring the world. Ava's vindictive condescension after the knife was immersed in Nathan's belly was also very satisfying to watch. But of course she wasn't the perfect Hepburn-ish heroine, since she manipulated Caleb's affection, Kyoto's trust, and used them to murder her creator. Her sociopathy steered the story away from the moral advantages or disadvantages of AI. She was the character holding the helm and made sure this outlandish story didn't turn out to be another moral lesson about an invention we hadn't made yet.
And of course I have to comment on the Asian factors that were there just to be exotic and exciting. The salmon, the sex toy Asian girl Kyoko, Jade in the closet whose skin Ava was wearing, provided a seamlessly perfect ethnic backdrop for the white characters' story. Kyoko wasn't given a single line, and Jade, who banged against the wall until she fell apart, just proved another horrendous crisis for the white cast to face. The Japanese factors were exploited and pickled in their own miserable silences, much resembling a cinematic colony. This accusation could have been shunned if Ava was played by an Asian actress, but I guess an Asian protagonist is still too progressive an idea in the filmmaking world. It would have stung less if not for the abnormally small cast and very isolated stage, which categorized the film vaguely as an art film, and lifted our standards for sophistication of ideas encompassed.
The writing was comparatively good for a sci-fi film like this. Acting possessed more sensibility and thoughtfulness than an average commercial film. But I think we can unanimously decide that this isn't a classic.