Ex Machina is a film I should have watched a long time ago - I put off seeing it in the cinema but when it was initially released on DVD, I purchased it due to Selena Gomez tweeting about how fantastic it is. I have has this on DVD since June 2015 and still not watched it - it then won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects and a few people I know have recently watched it and said it was worth a watch. Why did it take me so long to watch this film!?! I'm pretty confident when I say that if I had watched it last year it may have topped my Best of 2015 list - Ex Machina is incredible and I am so annoyed with myself that it took me so long in getting round to see it. Ex Machina is probably one of my favourite films of all time - I really enjoyed it. 

For a film that revolves around just 3 characters, acting has to be good and Ex Machina doesn't have good acting, it has great acting! Alicia Vikander is outstanding and I can now understand why people wanted her to get awards attention for this role over The Danish Girl - Vikander deserves to be an Oscar winning actress as she is exceptional in this film. Oscar Isaac also does a superb job - he is unrecognisable from his role in Star Wars which just shows his diversity as an actor - fantastic!  Domhnall Gleeson matches those other two performances as he is really strong as well - Gleeson is the lead and he definitely holds the film really well and just does a really good job. 

The plot for Ex Machina is actually pretty fast paced - you are thrown into it right from the start. The film isn't fast paced in the way you would expect a sci-fi to be fast paced, it is through the dialogue that keeps the story moving. I also found the film pretty tense at times - especially when we first meet Ava and see cracks on the glass - we have no idea whether she is aggressive, has evil intentions or anything - she was very creepy at first. Some may say the fast pace of this film means it lacks character development but they are wrong - the script is so well written that you learn all you need to know about the characters through dialogue. 

SPOILERS

The twist is very good - I think the fact that Caleb wasn't a competition winner and that Ava has been designed specifically for him was really clever - even though there was that little odd piece of dialogue about porn. I think once the story starts to unfold with this twist, everything clicks and makes sense and some things become even more shocking. The whole twist with Ava is fantastic and she does turn out to have bad intentions but not in the way you'd think she would. The reason I really like the twist with Ava is that a big part of the film is about an experiment to do with seeing whether a computer can manipulate a human so they believe and treat them like a human. It is fascinating that Ava can do this to Caleb but what is even more amazing is that she can do this to the audience. I love how at the start Ava is clearly a robot but as the film goes on, the audience starts to develop feelings for her and she starts to become even more human like appearance wise. At the end of the film, she could easily pass as an human. I love how what is happening on screen mirrors how the audience will feel - genius! 

Ex Machina won the Oscar for visual effects so it is only necessary that we speak about the visuals and whether it deserved the win. I think even though the visual effects were extremely minimal with just one character but Ava was created to perfection and her interactions with humans was done fantastically - you wouldn't think it was visual effects. The other films in the category all had big and flashy special effects but what made Ex Machina stand out was that they focused on just one thing and made it to perfection. 

Ex Machina is an outstanding piece of filmmaking - it is a piece of art. Ex Machina is so effective with the tension building and also how it manages to manipulate the feelings of the audience like it does the character. The twist is satisfying and brings everything together. The visuals are excellent and Vikander, Gleeson and Isaac all bring something different to the table but create a really dynamic threesome of characters. They all do exceptional jobs and I think they should all get lots of opportunities from this film. Ex Machina is a film I wish I had seen sooner and may make my list of my favourite films - it is entertaining as well as being a superb piece of filmmaking. 

5 STARS

A+

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