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Created May 04, 2015 11:02PM PST • Edited Aug 10, 2016 11:16PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Really Great 4.5

   Ex Machina deserves the fulsome praise it has received from professional and amateur critics alike. Intellectually intriguing and erotically provocative, it unsheathes surprises and turnabouts to the very end. However, it does have a glaring flaw, one that deserves attention before further examining its virtues.

   First some scene setting: Ex Mock-in-a tells the tall tale of a tech billionaire who plays god with comely robotic assistants of his own invention. This becomes a tangled web indeed when he invites a useful idiot to his fortress-of-solitude estate to interact with Ava, his latest model. She’s bewitching, a robotic mermaid.

   The two men discuss the misdirection value of a magician’s hot assistant, a concept that plays out several levels deep in Ex Machina, including a level deeper than we’re supposed to notice. To wit, the robot is only realistic because she’s played by Alicia Vikander, a sexy Swedish actress comfortable in her own skin. Apparently Ava wouldn’t be realistic if created solely as an FX-apparition, let alone if she was a real robot.

   The process of turning Alicia into a robot is akin to Michelangelo’s approach to sculpture. Simply remove what’s not necessary. A real woman was required as the base however. IOW, Alex Garland’s SciFi movie posits that a robot who can pass intellectual and erotic Turing tests is within our reach. Yet such a being is not much closer today than it was when Mary Shelley first imagined Dr. Frankenstein’s creation in 1823.

   Now back to Ex Machina’s manifold virtues. For starters, it flaunts being deeply manipulative, making the whole thing extra delicious. Think of Alex Garland’s movie as the Dangerous Liaisons of Robot Movies.

   Most intriguingly, it explores post-human human-consciousness in ways fresh and even funny. In this regard, it extends the run of recent SciFi masterpieces that explore similar notions, e.g., MOON and Her.

   Ex Machina ultimately dazzles because of its deep humanity, even if it hides some of it in plain sight. To wit, Oscar Isaac & Alicia Vikander turn in exceptionally smart & sexy performances, with no A.I. involved.

4. Acting

   Really Great 4.5

   Oscar Isaac builds on his monumental career playing the richest hacker in the world. One of the great actors of his generation, Isaac plays visceral and physical just as easily as cerebral and neurotic. His Nathan from Ex Machina follows his Llewyn Davis from Inside Llewyn Davis and his jealous ex-con from Drive.

   Alicia Vikander’s Ava becomes a femme fatale for the ages, the robotic ages. Vikander imprinted herself on we besotted fans in A Royal Affair. Her canoodling Queen of Denmark in that movie was as profoundly human as her fembot in this one is subtly mechanistic. Wowza

   Domhnall Gleeson is more than adequate as a dorky engineer who goes on the ultimate company trip.

   Sonoya Mizuno, Claire Selby, Symara A. Templeman, Gana Bayarsaikhan, Tiffany Pisani and Elina Alminas form a fembot harem.

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

   Oscar Isaac perfect, Domhnall Gleeson very good

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

   Alicia Vikander

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Good 3.0

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    Sexy Turing Test is the high concept for Alex Garland’s 10th screenplay and inaugural directorial effort. He builds his film around a mashup of Steve Jobs, Tony Stark and Dr. Frankenstein, the type of guy who would have an Asian doll as a personal concubine in his luxurious hideaway.

    Of course he’d make his robot comely, with large expressive eyes, perfect skin and perky breasts. Why not, he’s just a man, a man playing God, but just a man. Sexuality is fun, per him. In his world, he’s right.

11. Direction Really Great 4.5

    Garland includes several touches of whimsy that give his film a delightful weirdness, including a funky dance scene to Get Down Saturday Night.

12. Play Really Great 4.5

    It’s a bit churlish to carp about trivial defects in such a terrific screenplay, but calling a lifelike robot an “A.I.” is awfully reductive.

13. Music Perfect 5.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0

    The Juvet Landscape Hotel located in Valldalen Norway stands in for mogul’s remote estate.

    As to Ava, the gorgeous robot, she was apparently created by a dozen FX artists layering on translucent images atop footage of Alicia Vikander.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.5

17. Sex Titillating 2.5

18. Violence Brutal 2.6

19. Rudeness Salty 2.5

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.9

    Deeply Surreal

    Want Ava to draw your picture? Ava-sessions.com

22. Circumstantial Surreal 3.0

23. Biological Surreal 2.6

24. Physical Surreal 3.0