Review Roundup: Sci-Fi Thriller EX MACHINA Hits Theaters Today

British sci-fi thriller EX MACHINA opens nationwide today. The film was written and directed by Alex Garland, who recently worked on the screen adaptation of the HALO video game series.

The story follows a young computer coder who wins a vacation at his boss's private mountain house. Upon arrival, he learns he has been selected to participate in an experiment involving the world's first artifical intelligence- a robot appearing as a beautiful young girl named Ava.

EX MACHINA stars Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, and Oscar Issac.

Let's see what the critics had to say!

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: "Ex Machina" is itself a smart, sleek movie about men and the machines they make, but it's also about men and the women they dream up.

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Shrewdly imagined and persuasively made, "Ex Machina" is a spooky piece of speculative fiction that's completely plausible, capable of both thinking big thoughts and providing pulp thrills. But even saying that doesn't do this quietly unnerving film full justice.

Guy Lodge, Variety: Garland's long-anticipated directorial debut synthesizes a dizzy range of the writer's philosophical preoccupations into a sleek, spare chamber piece: Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" redreamed as a 21st-century battle of the sexes.

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: The less you know going into this mesmerizing mind-bender, the better. But know this: Screenwriter Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Never Let Me Go) has made a striking directing debut with Ex Machina.

Richard Corliss, Time: We can almost watch Ava's mind work, not because of the see-through plastic casing but because of the actress's command of each minute stage in her character's evolution. As a spectral eminence yearning to be a woman beyond Nathan's or Caleb's dreams, A.V. makes a great Ava.

Anthony Lane, The New Yorker: In all, she (Ava) seems absorbingly real, enough to overshadow the non-robotic people she meets. That is both the coup and the pitfall of "Ex Machina": the humanoid is more human than the humans.

Joanna Robinson, Vanity Fair: Ex Machina...treads on the well-worn sci-fi territory of technophobia, god complexes, and lethal robots, but it does so with an intelligence and sophistication that never underestimates either the viewer or the capacity of the genre.

Mark Kermode, The Guardian: The idea may be an old one but its execution is fresh and vibrant enough to conjure an attractive illusion of originality.

David Edelstein, Vulture: The movie's design and special effects are, indeed, marvelous, but what makes Ava amazing is all human.

Inkoo Kang, The Wrap: The result is a chilly, yet engrossing drama, elevated beyond its four-people-locked-in-a-house framework by the eerie beauty of the production design and the thoughtful curiosity of Garland's screenplay.

Stephen Dalton, Hollywood Reporter: Like a newly launched high-end smartphone, Ex Machina looks cool and sleek, but ultimately proves flimsy and underpowered. Still, for dystopian future-shock fans who can look beyond its basic design flaws, Garland's feature debut functions just fine as superior pulp sci-fi.

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