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The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Thought provoking, visually stunning, and extraordinarily entertaining. It's rare today for a Sci-Fi film to surprise us, and Alex Garland guides this movie to that goal masterfully. At face value, one of the better movies of this decade so far.Two flaws prevent this movie from being a pure masterpiece. Firstly, the conclusion of the film feels somewhat rushed. This is redeemed by a twist at the end, *spoiler alert* in which Ava demonstrates a change in character that likely fooled most viewers. To that end, ten more minutes added to this film would've made all the difference.The second issue, and this may surprise some to hear, is the originality of the plot. Once you cut off all the fat - remove the exceptional performances by Alicia Vikander and Oscar Isaac, (followed closely by Domnhall Gleeson), the remarkable special effects, the beautiful imagery, the well-thought-out writing, and the outstanding relevance to modern life - stripped down of all that, the plot is a modern retelling of a story written by a 20-year-old Mary Shelley, 200 years ago. One might argue this is nitpicking, but if you cross Frankenstein with 2001: A Space Odyssey, you have the plot for this movie. Originality has to be celebrated.For those two reasons, and a few very minor infractions, one star must be taken. However, for pure execution, including but not limited to the successes listed above, this movie earns the other 9 stars. Top quality film, particularly among those in both the Sci-Fi genre and in the modern film scene.

A classic. Wonderful performances from the small cast. Technically stunning too, was amazed to hear no greenscreens were used. Beautiful location and animation that didn't look bad. The story was excellent; there was always tension lurking so it had me guessing what was going on, which the film then suggested and dismissed. Some interesting philosophical ideas were brought up. The climax had me initially upset, but upon reflection I realized that that was the whole point of the movie, and I had been played like certain characters. The music was not dominate and supported the movie in the right way, playing with tension and creating moods to compliment or contrast what was happening visually.

A fun movie for sure, but sometimes seems to take itself too seriously. The plot develops well, and if you like the typical sci-fi movie plot you'll probably like this. I can see where others have issues with this movie though, and if you're not a fan of sci-fi, you might find this a little too weird. I personally love the genre, but I was always expecting more to happen with every plot point. The ending is also your usual sci-fi movie twist ending, and is pretty fun. I'd suggest this movie to friends who like sci-fi and want a fun movie to watch without getting into anything too serious. I thought the acting was above what I expected, and the special effects, as far as I can tell, were pretty good. They never detracted from the movie. For me, movies start at a 5 star rating and go up or down from there. I give it a 7, because while I found it interesting and very entertaining at times, there are large sections of the movie where I'm waiting for something to happen in the scene, but it's another couple minutes of a few of the characters staring at each other. For me, at least, this really messed up the pacing of the movie. The plot points that were developed, however, were interesting and kept me hooked in the movie. Really, what I wanted was a more fleshed out universe, because we're shown a lot of interesting things that are never explained. The cinematography wasn't anything that excited me, but wasn't ever anywhere near what I'd consider bad. I may watch it again at another point and see if I feel the same way about the pacing of the movie. Overall, worth watching if you like sci-fi, otherwise, probably avoid it.

Oscar Isaac single-handedly ruined this movie just like he ruins every other movie he is in. It's clear he was a diversity hire from day one, as the man has no talent whatsoever.