After some teasing disguised as banter, Nathan presents Caleb with his task. He must run a Turing test on Ava, to determine whether the humanoid robot is one of science's holy grails: an artificial intelligence. That the test usually depends on the human judge not knowing they're conversing with a machine doesn't bother Nathan, who isn't keen on explanations.

Alicia Vikander as the humanoid, Ava, is curious and inscrutable.

The creation of new forms of life, and the dangers that poses, has informed screen classics from Fritz Lang's Metropolis in 1927 to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner in 1982. Intimations of evolution and extinction mark Caleb and Nathan's daily debriefings, but Ava is curious and inscrutable, keen to know the outside world but uncertain of where she might belong. She has both menacing warnings and seductive focus for her inquisitor.

Garland has written a number of distinctive science-fiction films, from the infection-ravaged 28 Days Later to the solemn Never Let Me Go, and for his directorial debut he favours sleek, reflective surfaces, whether physical or emotional. Some of the touches are sublime, such as an artwork Caleb – and the audience – casually admire, but which inspires powerful emotion inside Ava.

Gleeson's geeky embarrassment is contrasted by Isaac's alpha-male bonhomie, and the latter's Nathan is the ultimate brogrammer – a coding savant who casually tells Caleb that Ava has an opening between her legs complete with a "concentration of sensors". Nathan may have created a new form of life, but Ava's purpose is mired in his own male needs.