EX MACHINA (2015)

Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) is a computer coder in New York for the world's largest internet company, Bluebook, when he wins an inter-company lottery to spend a week with the company's brilliant, reclusive CEO.  Flown by helicopter to a remote area in the Alaskan mountains, he meets Nathan (a brilliant Oscar Isaac) - a guy protective of his secrets who drinks, works out, and has a unique experiment waiting: Caleb will test and interact with the most advanced artificial intelligence ever created.  Her name is Ava, (Alicia Vikander), and her level of humanity is such that Caleb starts to question his own feelings toward her ... and his feelings for Nathan, whom Ava warns is not all he appears to be.  The film is well-done, the effects spectacular, the mind-games it plays on the viewer first-rate - yet, somehow, the tense ending we spend most of the film leading up to just sort of ... happens, with little fanfare and no real surprises.  Mixed on this one. (rated R)  B-