bevanmortimer

Nathan played by Oscar Isaac, and looking like Alan from The Hangover, is the head of the Bluebook Corporation, Google by any other name. Caleb, played by Domnall Gleeson, is a gifted programmer who has 'won' a week long getaway with his boss. Very early on in the film we discover that Caleb has been specially selected by Nathan to test out his latest creation. Caleb's task is to determine whether Ava, a beautiful female robot played by Alicia Vikander, is the first truly artificially intelligent lifeform.

The film has only three main characters, Nathan, Caleb and Ava and this adds to the isolated and claustrophobic feel of the film. The action takes place in a handful of locations in Nathan's subterranean research facility. The atmosphere is dark and brooding and it is clear that the relationship between the mercurial Nathan and Ava is not as it first appears. The film mostly concentrates on Caleb's relationships with Nathan and Ava, purposefully avoiding the three central characters being in the same scenes; this adds to the films brooding intensity.

I had been waiting for a long time to watch this film, the subject matter is one that interests me. The set up for the film and the acting is first class. Vikander's performance as Ava is especially powerful. I really enjoyed watching Domnall's character develop from naïve computer geek into a slightly less naïve almost freedom fighter! Although the subject matter is contemporary, the film's strength is the development of the relationships between Caleb, Nathan and Ava. There are numerous layers and twists and turns in the plot and we are given the impression that Caleb is not in full possession of the facts behind his visit.

Although I would recommend the film, I have a few slight reservations. I thought the ending was a little too clichéd and while I didn't object to the female nudity, it was unnecessary.

I had heard lots of terrible reviews of this film and seen a few clips. I was intrigued to know why so many Hollywood A listers would star in such a poor film. I wanted to see just how bad it really was.

I didn't wan't to spend even a couple of $$ renting this movie, so I managed to borrow it free from the local library. I actually feel quite dirty and ashamed for saying it, but I laughed out loud all of the way through this movie - I really enjoyed it. The movie, is actually not really a movie at all, but a collection of sketches that have no connection with each other. Some are better than others, some cruder than others, but they all made me laugh to some extent. All of the sketch ideas are original, I'm sure you will never have seen them before. I'm not even going to attempt to describe the them, as the shock value is one of the best things about them. All I will say, is the that some of them rely pretty heavily on 'toilet humor' and 'gross out value' and one sketch in particular is pretty bad taste - but still funny. If you don't offend too easily you could do worse than watch this film. 7/10