Review of Ex Machina (2015) by Drago? C — 02 Nov 2015

6 out of 10 comes mainly cause I am somewhat of a fan of AI related movies and it's really really generous. The acting was not that special on any part or level. Nice concept, nice idea and an amazing setting for the movie. Other than that, nothing. It was really really frustrating that a no-brain that was chosen to carry out a test, managed to completely screw things up for a guy that had all the mind in the world to build his own empire but had no mind at all for making the place he worked and lived in safer.

He was the best programmer money could buy and yet this other guy that new just the average stuff there is to know, managed to hack him and change his security system. And then you get the amazingly clever AI robot that manages to seduce a guy that has spent lots and lots of hours on illegal websites as it seems, to open the cage and let the beast out! And the best of all is that in the end, this guy that works out every day and was really super strong, cannot muster some courage to hit back the flimsy robot and survive. None whatsoever!

I am all for fairytale, but sometimes, the power in made-up stories comes from real facts in them. This movie is close to reality, it is plausible, but the critical parts, where the outcome of the movie hangs by a thread, are not realistic at all, and lack lots and lots of evidence if you will. Tried to provide this review a week after watching the movie so that I get a bit calmer, but it seems that frustration comes back every time I think about it, so I will stop here.

My overall recommendation, rent it when it comes out on DVD. Don't waste your money on going to the movies for it, you're not missing out on anything.

PS: A note to all the movie/script writers out there: A.I. has been done hundreds of times in movies, following the same basic pattern. Robots are evil and they will be the end of humanity, blah blah blah. Or on the other hand, robots also turn into "humans" eventually. To be able to create something original within all this "already-made" cloud of movies, you have to go the extra mile and I am sad to say that "Ex Machina" did not.