Atmospheric, contemplative, and cerebral. Visually accomplished

Rating: Null/10 (14 May 2015)

The fact that this is Alex Garland's directorial debut is nothing less than impressive. The control he has here, every frame, every edit, every piece of music is able to fit together as a whole to give the film its defining atmosphere, and what atmosphere it is. It's not at all the really tense sci-fi the trailer showed, and it's all the better for it. Well, it is tense but in a very brooding, very contemplative way. The problem with films like these is that so many times their final act proves to undo so much of what made the rest of the films great. Here, it never tries to pretend to be anything too complicated. Don't get me wrong, it's playing with some really resonant themes, but it's also not convulted or complicated for the sake of being complicated. It's certainly a mind game though, for all of the three characters involved but it's also not predictable in the usual sense because there isn't any big twist that the film had been trying to hide all along. There's no "gotcha" moment, and so the film's haunting quality persists throughout. The three performances are great, but it's Vikander who truly impresses on another level. She's just absolutely perfect
All in all, really fantastic and this deserves to maintain a cult following. Technically-wise, it's such a gorgeous film, and the script is really strong