Rating: 5/10 (edit: I updated my rating to 9/10 upon second viewing)
I finally decided to watch Devs because of Alex Garland's stellar track record thus far. The concept did not disappoint. Like with Anihilation, Garland found a way to convey on the screen some very complex ideas, and he deserves credit for that.
However, the execution of the film/series could have been better.
Story: I won't go into detail regarding the story. Everyone who talks about this movie seems to be incredibly mindful of spoilers but, within the first 20 minutes of episode 1, it should be easy to guess where things are going. In a way, the story follows turns similar to Ex Machina. Ironically, and perhaps unintentionally humorous is that "Devs" completes the phrase (you will see what I mean if you get to the end). There are some huge plot-holes in this story, and I am not even talking about the scientific ones. For instance, the character of Jen simply disappears without explanation, and without Kenton's involvement, even though she was involved in a deception along with Lily. Nobody seems to care or ask what happened to Jen. The ending is, there is no other way to say this, terrible. The moral dilemma of the characters is not even touched upon during a final episode that is mostly filler.
Acting: There is some great acting, but mostly (at times) on the part of Nick Offerman and Zach Grenier. Also, I love some of the dialog given to Stephen McKinley Henderson's character.
Directing: Some of the episodes seem to have been directed by someone else. The style is not consistent throughout. For example, there are some episodes where the emotion of the story is palpably heavy (i.e. the first 2 episodes), while during the middle episodes, much more terrible things happen without much of a pause - and that is saying something in a story that moves so slowly.
Other nit-picky stuff: The choice of music was at times very good but I did not get the connection between 60s songs and religious chants. They did not seem to be associated with anything, though they sounded good. if you are an audio fanatic you will also hate how some of the microphones appeared to have distortion when the actors' voiceovers were recorded. There were many lens artifacts on some of the shots - I am not just talking about artistic lens-flare here and there; I mean even dirt on he lenses. During one of the scenes in episode 7, you can even see movement reflected behind two characters sitting at a table when only two characters are supposed to be in the room. These production mistakes gave the impression that the project was rushed.
I think us sci-fi fans are tougher on this movie because these concepts are seldom put in the hands of such a capable director, and we expected more "wow". I do recommend that people watch this series for the though-provoking concepts, both technological and philosophical, that it presents.
I finally decided to watch Devs because of Alex Garland's stellar track record thus far. The concept did not disappoint. Like with Anihilation, Garland found a way to convey on the screen some very complex ideas, and he deserves credit for that.
However, the execution of the film/series could have been better.
Story: I won't go into detail regarding the story. Everyone who talks about this movie seems to be incredibly mindful of spoilers but, within the first 20 minutes of episode 1, it should be easy to guess where things are going. In a way, the story follows turns similar to Ex Machina. Ironically, and perhaps unintentionally humorous is that "Devs" completes the phrase (you will see what I mean if you get to the end). There are some huge plot-holes in this story, and I am not even talking about the scientific ones. For instance, the character of Jen simply disappears without explanation, and without Kenton's involvement, even though she was involved in a deception along with Lily. Nobody seems to care or ask what happened to Jen. The ending is, there is no other way to say this, terrible. The moral dilemma of the characters is not even touched upon during a final episode that is mostly filler.
Acting: There is some great acting, but mostly (at times) on the part of Nick Offerman and Zach Grenier. Also, I love some of the dialog given to Stephen McKinley Henderson's character.
Directing: Some of the episodes seem to have been directed by someone else. The style is not consistent throughout. For example, there are some episodes where the emotion of the story is palpably heavy (i.e. the first 2 episodes), while during the middle episodes, much more terrible things happen without much of a pause - and that is saying something in a story that moves so slowly.
Other nit-picky stuff: The choice of music was at times very good but I did not get the connection between 60s songs and religious chants. They did not seem to be associated with anything, though they sounded good. if you are an audio fanatic you will also hate how some of the microphones appeared to have distortion when the actors' voiceovers were recorded. There were many lens artifacts on some of the shots - I am not just talking about artistic lens-flare here and there; I mean even dirt on he lenses. During one of the scenes in episode 7, you can even see movement reflected behind two characters sitting at a table when only two characters are supposed to be in the room. These production mistakes gave the impression that the project was rushed.
I think us sci-fi fans are tougher on this movie because these concepts are seldom put in the hands of such a capable director, and we expected more "wow". I do recommend that people watch this series for the though-provoking concepts, both technological and philosophical, that it presents.