A good Sci-Fi yarn

Rating: 7/10 (20 June 2015)

When I first saw the trailer for Alex Garland's Ex-Machina, I was pretty sure it was going to be 'up-my-street' – I wasn't disappointed, as I must admit that I was caught up by the storyline and was eagerly waiting for the 'sessions' between Ava and Caleb. To be frank Caleb is not particularly important to the plot and the continuously inebriated Nathen left me wondering how the hell did he build this complex machine? However, I found myself fascinated by the robot Ava.
Ava (played by Alicia Vikander) is a beauty with the ability to show the charms of a human while assuming the persona of a machine. Alicia plays this to perfection with her soft controlled voice and calm designed movements.
Garland takes on the age old problem of A.I. versus human and what this implies with gusto; the setting is stunning and the plot is tense and thought provoking from the start. While I believe comparable with Blade Runner and Space Oddity, the plot was unfortunately predictable in that all the 'twists' were a bit obvious.
Well worth the watch but it's not flawless; my biggest problem with this film is that notwithstanding Ava's supposed meticulous design, Isaac Asimov's 'Three Laws of Robotics' appears to have been completely overlooked...