Parents' Guide to

Ex Machina

Movie R 2015 108 minutes
Ex Machina Poster Image

Common Sense Media Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson By Jeffrey M. Anderson , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 17+

Brilliant, emotional, mature sci-fi tale could be a classic.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 17+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

age 16+

Based on 22 parent reviews

age 18+

age 16+

Too reliant on visuals, not enough going on

48% 
Solid visual effects, unfortunately, are not enough to make up for how much of a bore this film is. There’s just not enough happening here.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (22 ):
Kids say (30 ):

Author (The Beach) and screenwriter (28 Days Later, Sunshine, Never Let Me Go, Dredd) Alex Garland makes his directorial debut with this film; not surprisingly, it's an atmospheric sci-fi movie. Much more surprising is the fact that it surpasses everything else in his filmography. Every aspect is expertly constructed. It's bursting with ideas, theories, and moral questions about the concept of artificial intelligence, and it leaves these theories open to interpretation by a smart audience.

Ex Machina's overall design is brilliant, using the spacious frame to juxtapose nature and science, chaos and order. The creepy, futuristic music score by Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury rings true emotionally. The visual effects around the Ava character are seamless, and the human characters are believable and fascinating, with strong performances by everyone involved. Ex Machina achieves that rare combination of eliciting both strong thoughts and feelings, and it deserves to be known as a sci-fi classic.

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