A bargain bucket 'Ex Machina'. That is my review. I have to write more words.

I actually enjoyed this film more than I thought I would, although the first half-hour didn't really work on me. I could see the low-budget in the initial shots. Because of this, I wasn't fully paying attention. However, I kept finding that I needed to keep rewinding to check out what I missed since the plot was actually moving along quite fast.Then at about the half-hour point, this movie really captured and kept my attention throughout. I really like the acting and the way the lead actress moved (including her dance and combat movements).As for scenes, the interior shots were set up well. The dark lighting was really effective and the eye glows worked very well. Editing was actually pretty quick and the story was compelling. I was actually concerned for the characters (which doesn't seem to happen for me very often in movies today).One of the real standouts is the visual effects work. It's phenomenal (especially considering the low budget). The intro credits look fantastic, the robot-creation sequence is just amazing, and the glow effect on the robot was pretty phenomenal. I have a feeling that the VFX teams did some serious overtime on this one. I also suspect the effects houses didn't make much on this production although I suspect the shots they did will make great portfolio material.If I had a qualm with this movie, it's the soundtrack. On one hand, it uses very cool CS80 sounds, similar to Blade Runner. Unfortunately the shots that used this instrument didn't have the 'weight' to warrant that sound. Believe me, I love that synth, but it needs to be used strategically. Then there's the other style of music which is typical of movies like Her or Ex Machina. I didn't think that score worked particularly well either. Perhaps something in-between the two styles would have worked better. The Blade Runner style was more mysterious and haunting than this film's presentation and the more modern score was too light and nondescript for the shots it was attached to. Regardless, there were sections of music that did work nicely. I seem to recall the music near the end of the film being spot-on.In general, this is a film that I can recommend to people who like science fiction and the topic of A.I., androids, cyborgs, etc.... It's actually quite a thoughtful film. Interestingly, I found that I prefer this movie over both Her and Ex Machina.

you either love it or you hate it, it seems. Half of the reviews put it up there with the likes of blade runners, while others call it, I quote, "the worst sci-fi movie ever". To be honest when I saw this movie got only 6 out of 10 stars I was a bit surprised. It captivated me all the way through to the end, if only the plot was a little slow moving and could have done with some of the scenes chopping out. However, it has a very "ghost in the shell" feel to it, especially the parts where the robot is being assembled and "born". The weak side of this movie is that the two of the three main characters are just so bland. The evil MOD guy gave more the impression of a smarmy over confident middle manager than a ruthless sadist, which is essentially what he was supposed to be, and the main character, the scientist, went through the whole movie portraying the full gamut of emotions from passive indifference to stoic indifference. The acting of the robot / Eva character was good enough. The music, special effects and setting were all perfectly adequate, some reviews complained about them, but I thought they were perfectly acceptable. The only thing I didn't like was the armour piercing bullets bouncing off of what was essentially a rubber surface layer without leaving any marks. They should have at least messed up the appearance of the robot, but been able to regenerate over time or something.I can't say this is a terrible sci-fi movie because it explores some interesting concepts in AI and projects a fascinating potential future world scenario as well, and I bothered to watch it all the way through. If only the actors had put more into their roles, and a few extra scenes had established character bonds, such as between the father and daughter, and also between the scientist and the robot life he created, the story arc and finale would have been so much better.For that reason alone, this movie gets a 7/10 instead of 9/10.

I had heard nothing about the film before seeing it. I quite liked the mood - dark, dystopian. Blade Runner (BR) came to mind. More and more BR as it progressed. Too much BR at some point to be sincere. Also some Ghost in the shell, Resident Evil and others. Like a collage more than an original artwork. A lot of this going around lately, though. Choice of music was OK, but it felt cheesy. So much Vangelis' BR that it started to distract. Plagiarism, homage - 50/50? Sound effects, lens flare and other mood enhancers became too much after a while, characters remained shallow. Clinical, disconnected, restrained. Some things seemed illogical, like soft-shelled liquid-filled android that shows no marks after being shot at with armor-piercing bullets etc. Film felt like it never really took off. Despite all the shortcomings it was still quite enjoyable, at least for a sci-fi fan.