Philip K. Dick would have loved it

Rating: 10/10 (19 June 2016)

Philip K. Dick would have really liked Ex Machina, yet he would have felt slightly schizophrenic about not having written it. And rightly so, since in a way he did write some of it or at least pave a way to the film's central ideas with his Blade Runner/Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. You could pretty much sum up Ex Machina in one sentence by saying that it's a prequel to Ridley Scott's classic film. However, that would do no justice to either film. Ex Machina is a clever film with a remarkably hole-free plot. In a claustrophobic setting underlined by an eerie soundscape, you have once again the mad scientist and his creation. And what a lovely creation it is, brilliantly played by Swedish actress Alicia Vikander. The viewer is drawn in the games the characters play with each other, not sure what the goals are and unsure even of who is human and who android. If you are a thinking person, this film will feed you a lot of valid questions about consciousness and conscience, too. I had to watch it twice.