I found Ex Machina great fodder for conversation. I was frustrated by it in a way that can only happen when I'm also engaged with something: I did find it very engaging... but very frustrating. I had thought it would turn out that Caleb was an AI, or at least that he'd find himself wondering about that, and I was disappointed that that wasn't the direction it went in. I resented the male/female split in the movie. It was too Eve/Pygmalion, etc., and not enough subversion, and although I can see interpreting Ava's escape as wresting agency and a future for herself, I felt it skated too close to "them evil wimmins'll getcha every time."

I agree that it was a better fairy tale than it was SF.

On twitter I'm "morinotsuma."