High-style fills in the gaps that substance leaves behind.

Rating: 7/10 (30 April 2017)

But those gaps are smaller than in same-ish movies I've seen before. Stream-of-consciousness just having finished the film: Ex Machina has beautiful cinematography and/or high-end cameras, but that doesn't make a film. I want a story that's true and well-told, and characters that are real reflections of humanity (and other beings). This movie has the latter, with people (especially the main character) that I definitely saw in people of real life, including myself. And if I were my so much more self-absorbed self of 10-15 years ago, I would've identified with Caleb (main character) even more. And the utterly nouveaux-modern-next-generation-techy feel of it all (think Shattered Glass + Goodwill Hunting characters and youthful pride, with whatever newest tech and beautiful and maybe stark-cold CGI as a visual basis) is alright, cool, but where's the integrity? My main issues are with Ava--the A.I.--and Caleb--the good boy thrown into the situation. What are the moviemaker(s) trying to say here? Sexuality can just be programmed into software? And also attraction can? And friendship? And that an incredibly smart A.I. would trust the first man she meets that isn't her creator? And all within a week? Even putting all that aside, I see a suturing of elements in the characters. I can't explain it, it would seem. I am just not being given the words. But scene to scene as I watched, I saw people embodying things that seemed contrary to who they were introduced to be. Well, maybe I'm wrong and that was the whole point of the movie. Because I admit that possibility, and because of the style, it gets a 7 instead of 5 or 6. Not that those numbers really matter. I'd recommend it for all but the most thinky evenings.