#2,147: Ex Machina

World of Tomorrow - ★★★★★
Mm, so many ideas. Modern weird fiction. Existential horror wrapped up in laughs and wonder. "Discount time travel" is a beautiful phrase that will haunt me for a while. In a fun way.

Woman in Gold - ★★★☆☆
This was fine. Just fine. Everyone did a reasonable job, and I bet it was turned in on time and on budget. It's a single in movie baseball. Even the rave reviews of it I've read are just 3 stars.

I understand why we had so many scenes with nazis and glossed over a lot of the boring present-day courtroom stuff, but the present day bantering is a lot more fun than the flashbacks of oppressing jews. I mean, they know that. That's why the trailer is all investigating and adventuring, not weeping and losing property.

Age of Adaline - ★★★★☆
We go to the movies to learn about the world and ourselves. One thing I've learned is that nobody makes a good trailer anymore. I'd've never gone to see this based on the advertising, and that'd be a shame, because I thought this turned out great. I'm surprised that so many reviewers here are brushing it off as 'okay, for a chick flick,' but then, I think that every movie is really a horror movie. This one included.

Tiny complaints for an ending more inevitable than surprising, and a weird father and son thing that is important to the plot but would probably be kind of unsettling.

Also, I like to think that she's been naming her dogs alphabetically.

Ex Machina - ★★★★☆
I thought it might be like a sequel to Chappie, but it's more like a prequel to Under the Skin. Except thoughtful and reasonable. I appreciated the appropriate lack of sentimentality.

Keeping with today's theme, I'm so glad this movie is not the thing glimpsed in its misleading and half-hearted ad campaigns (although I guess it probably would have been better for the film if the marketers had understood what they were selling...)