Review of Ex Machina (2015) by Macromediaflash — 23 Apr 2015

This is a very tightly constructed and smartly written movie. Frequently with movies I'm too busy picking at plot holes and obvious contrivances to enjoy them. But not this one, because there weren't any that I could see. Everything that happened was driven by the actions the characters took and those actions were made sense with what we saw of their personality and motivations. The most important thing for a movie like this to have is logical, internal consistency, and this one has that. There were a few times while watching it where I thought the writers had made a mistake or opened a plot hole; but each of those times, within a few minutes, the characters on screen addressed my concern in a way that fit within the story and the characters. Not many movies get this right but this one does.

All that said, while the plot didn't play out exactly as I expected going in, it doesn't have any completely out-of-left-field twists either. If you are paying attention, you can mostly guess where it's going.

The movie contains some intense scenes, full frontal female nudity, and frank sexual dialog. None of it is completely gratuitous, it's all in service of setting an atmosphere or adding depth to a character. But still, this isn't a movie to take the kids to. Take the R rating seriously and leave them at home.