I got that. Which may be part of my issue.

Essentially: Put tech frat bro, white knight, and trapped woman in room. Turn time crank.

I generally have issues with stories that feature static characters (they feel contrived, no matter how well textured). And to me Ex Machina felt exactly like that, albeit using the concealing veil of delayed exposition to create an illusion of dynamicism.

To put it another way, if you knew everything the movie tells you about the nature of all the characters at the start of the movie, couldn't you have predicted the outcome from the beginning?

And if so, then what's really being said?

If we're looking at interesting statements in gender politics, I'd contrast it negatively with something like Stephen Universe.

Yeah thats interesting. There's a lot to think about with this film.