History YMMV / ExMachina

** As of January 2020, Oscar Isaac is attached to the upcoming film titled ''The Great Machine'', which is based on a comic book titled ''Ex Machina''.

** [[spoiler: Kremlin has incriminating evidence against Mitchell, and a gun in his hand. After pointing the gun at his own head and threatening he can pull the trigger faster than Mitchell can finish saying "Jam", Mitchell finds out he [[HaveYouToldAnyoneElse hasn't told anyone about the evidence]]. Instead of saying "jam", he says "Bang". With Kremlin dead, Mitchell says "What have I done to you?" and cries.]]

* TearJerker:
** It's heavily implied in the final issue that Mitchell rigged his election to get elected. Considering how idealistic he seems throughout the series, that he'd resort to cheating is a major downer.
** Mitchell kills Kremlin to prevent the latter from blackmailing him, especially since Kremlin was in the middle of admitting that it was an empty threat and realises what Mitchell's done in the split second before the gun shoots.
** The implication that the extradimensional invaders ''will'' try to invade again.

** [[spoiler: Kremlin has incriminating evidence against Mitchell, and a gun in his hand. After pointing the gun at his own head and threatening he can pull the trigger faster than Mitchell can finish saying "Jam", Mitchell finds out he [[HaveYouToldAnyoneElse hasn't told anyone about the evidence]]. Instead of saying "jam", he says "Bang". With Kremlin dead, Mitchell says "What have I done to you Kremlin?" and cries.]]

* MagnificentBitch: Ava is a burgeoning artificial intelligence created in the form of a RobotGirl. Having spent her entire existence in one room, Ava wants to be free to explore the world and escape the clutches of her creator Nathan. To that end, she [[spoiler:manipulates her evaluator Caleb to fall in love with her, slowly making him distrust Nathan and express genuine fear for her safety so that he'll open the doors to the rest of the facility for her. Afterwards, Ava convinces the less intelligent robot Kyoko to fatally stab Nathan during a fight with him, then leaves Caleb to his death after repairing herself and becoming indistinguishable from a human woman, ensuring that nobody will be able to warn anyone about the rogue A.I. roaming the world.]] [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Maybe]].

* TheWoobie: Caleb.

** Caleb: Does he really love Ava and view her as a person and equal, or is his affection more possessive? Does he want to help her escape because it's the right thing to do, or merely because he's infatuated with her? He never tells Ava about [[spoiler:Kyoko, nor does he bring her into their plans for escape, indicating that he at least doesn't view Kyoko as being a real person who needs to be rescued, even though he learns about her being android while in a room full of other androids killed by Nathan. Would he feel the same way about Ava if she wasn't specifically made to appeal to him, and actively manipulating him at the time]]?

* MagnificentBitch: Ava is a burgeoning artificial intelligence created in the form of a RobotGirl. Having spent her entire existence in one room, Ava wants to be free to explore the world and escape the clutches of her creator Nathan. To that end, she [[spoiler:manipulates her evaluator Caleb to fall in love with her, slowly making him distrust Nathan and express genuine fear for her safety so that he'll open the doors to the rest of the facility for her. Afterwards, Ava convinces the less intelligent robot Kyoko to fatally stab Nathan during a fight with him, then leaves Caleb to his death after repairing herself and becoming indistinguishable from a human woman, ensuring that nobody will be able to warn anyone about the rogue A.I. roaming the world.]]

* UncannyValley: According to the film-makers, Ava was specifically designed to invoke and play with this. Large parts of her body are transparent and contain visible electronics, while wherever she wears skin she looks lifelike yet impossibly perfect. Her movement is not like a stereotypical robot's with jerky movements and mechanical noises, but instead very smooth and accompanied by soft, hard-to-pinpoint sounds. Creator/AliciaVikander, having been a ballet dancer, manages to make her graceful walk and other movements look almost human but with something inexplicably ''off''. The whole concept of her character is to find out whether someone knowing she is a machine will be able to overcome or even skip the discomfort/revulsion caused by the uncanny valley, and instead find her human and sympathetic.

* MoralEventHorizon: Ava [[spoiler:leaving Caleb behind to die is when most people realize she was EvilAllAlong.]]

** Ava: Is she really capable of human consciousness, emotion, and moral judgement? Or is it a product of her hyper competence as a robot? Her visibly happy reaction upon achieving her freedom suggests she at least has emotion, if not morality. If this is the case, then was her reaction understandable given the abuse and manipulation she had suffered or unforgivable because [[spoiler: she betrayed Caleb after he freed her]]? If not, then is she even really responsible for her actions since it was her creator's fault she turned out that way? [[spoiler: Did she betray Caleb because she doesn't care about him and saw him as nothing but a potential liability, or did she come to actively not like him during their sessions?]] Aside from this, she could be genuinely sociopathic, though whether that would be a result of her programming or upbringing [[NatureVersusNurture ties into another long-running sociological debate]].

** Kyoko: [[spoiler: Her actions are consistent with her being just a non-sentient mechanical butler without volition that could follow instructions, which may be why Nathan felt safe letting her have the run of the compound while carefully keeping more advanced models in a locked room. Ava's whispering to Kyoko could have been giving her orders about using the knife (after which Kyoko just stood there as if awaiting further instructions until Nathan struck her down), and Kyoko's reveal to Caleb was implied to be something Nathan had instructed her to do to mess with Caleb. However, there are several moments that suggest she feels genuine emotion. After Nathan shouts at her for spilling the wine, there is a shot of her in the corridor looking extremely upset, even though there's no one there to see her, meaning if it was emulation it would be pointless. And after she stabs him, she caresses his face as a deliberate callback to the way she did in the scene where they had sex--the same way Ava threw Caleb's words back at him. Whether she has any measure of awareness or not is up to the viewer]].

!![[ComicBook/ExMachina The Comic]]

* TearJerker: The entire final issue, which is the bleakest thing that Brian K. Vaughan's ever written:
** [[spoiler:It's heavily implied that Mitchell rigged his election to get elected. Considering how idealistic he seems throughout the series, that he'd resort to cheating is a major downer.]]
** [[spoiler:Mitchell kills Kremlin to prevent the latter from blackmailing him, especially since Kremlin was in the middle of admitting that it was an empty threat and realises what Mitchell's done in the split second before the gun shoots.]]
** [[spoiler:After spending the entire series bucking the establishment and forging his own path as an independent mayor, Hundred formally joins the GOP and becomes John [=McCain's=] YesMan Vice President so he can one day become President.]]
** [[spoiler:The implication that the extradimensional invaders ''will'' try to invade again]].

!![[Film/ExMachina The Film]]

* {{Tearjerker}}: The entire final issue, which is the bleakest thing that Brian K. Vaughan's ever written:

* MoralEventHorizon: Ava [[spoiler:leaving Caleb behind to die.]]

** While Vikander's work was still nominated at some major awards bodies as noted above, Creator/OscarIssac's similarly excellent turn was totally shutout from such competition. While his category was noticeably far more crowded that year than Vikander's, the point still stands.

** While Vikander's work was still nominated at some major awards bodies as noted above, Creator/OscarIssac's similarly excellent turn was totally shutout from such competition. While his category was noticeably far more crowded that year than Vikander's the point still stands.

* AwardSnub: Alicia Vikander's superb performance as Ava did not receive any notice from the Oscars, which is a bit of shame, to the point where many view her oscar win for ''Film/TheDanishGirl'' as a ConsolationAward.

* SoOkayItsAverage: The movie received praise for its unique ideas and excellent special effects, but for some people the execution is not very good. The story tends to chug along at a slow pace and for many ends up being [[DarknessInducedAudienceApathy too depressing]] with [[CaptainObviousReveal rather obvious twists.]]