Wasted potential

Rating: 3/10 (25 March 2019)

This movie could have been great but it has a lot of plot holes and ultimately makes no sense. There is absolutely no character development, we know nothing about either of the characters from beginning to end. They present no reasons for them to do anything besides the fact that they do it to move the story along. I can accept the cold-opening and lack of backstory, but Ex Machina does not do anything with its concept.
They never explore the philosophical implications of ANYTHING. There was so much wasted potential here. Initially you think that Caleb has some interesting questions for the robot, but it never goes anywhere! The most they could do is shoehorn a couple quotes in there instead of actually delving into philosophical ideas. The dialogue in this movie is stilted. The conversations are not meaningful when they should have been the whole focus of the movie.
I really wanted this movie to be good but it's another case of the trailer being better than the film. If you're looking for insightful thoughts on AI and human behavior, then this movie does not deliver; it's shallower than a kiddie pool.