Going into Ex Machina, I knew what the premise was, but beyond that, I was pretty much in the dark about the plot. Once Caleb "wins" the lottery that allows him access to Nathan and that he would be doing a test of some sort with Ava, I knew immediately that the lab rat was Caleb and not her. Knowing this does not hurt the movie one bit in my eyes. If anything, it makes it better as it's a pretty profound statement about humans, more than any other movie or show of it's kind. This movie really does make you think long and hard about the ramifications of AI and more importantly about how today's Social Media and search engines are slowly stripping away our humanity. Laugh if you must, but it's true. The interactions between Ava and Caleb are cold and calculated, meant to bring them "closer" together, but in fact it's the opposite. With the amount of different options we have of ways to "communicate" with others online, we are losing touch of the real thing and it's why I hate Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, etc...). Great twist at the end, leaving Caleb to basically become the literal rat in Ava's maze, with no way out. Special FX is damn impressive. Definitely with a Rent if you want a thinking-man's Sci-Fi story.

This wasn't planned, but getting to watch this today, before the Season Finale of Humans later on tonight, seemed ordained somehow. I was on the wait list at the Library for a couple months, waiting for my DVD copy to arrive and it came yesterday. I think some sort of AI is behind this....plotting....manipulating todays's events to have this all line up as it did.