Ex Machina
Director: Alex Garland
Year Released: 2015
Rating: 2.0
A computer programmer (Domhnall Gleeson) wins a 'contest' at his work place that involves spending a week with his reclusive mastermind boss (Oscar Isaac) and test if his newest creation, a female robot named Ava (Alicia Vikander), can pass the Turing Test (provide responses/converse like a human being). Little more than a glossy, Kubrick-inspired Frankenstein update with an unsatisfying third act too full of contrivances and question marks and one very off-putting self-mutilation scene. Garland's dialogue between the all-too-confident Isaac and meek Gleeson is full of jargon and concepts but that's about it: it's just talk trying to distract from the simple morality tale beneath ("don't play God ... duh"). Another perk: there's some phenomenal CGI.
