With the fifth anniversary of Ex Machina occurring this year, the time has come to ask the question: who are the best movie robots? Depending on your criteria, your answers may change. Maybe you're partial to the early era of movie robots, like The Machine Man from Fritz Lang's 1927 epic Metropolis. Or perhaps you're into the more modern robotic characters, such as Ryan Gosling's K from Blade Runner 2049. Whatever the case, artificial intelligence has been a staple of  science fiction film-making for nearly a century.

A great performance for a robotic character is one that is dynamic, despite the given character's seemingly-emotionless visage. The character should, ideally, feel just as human as their organic counterparts, if not more. They do not necessarily have to be a villain, although many of the entries on this list are. Here are the best performances for robotic characters in film.

7 Alicia Vikander as Ava in Ex Machina

ava_ex_machina

Alicia Vikander exploded onto the mainstream when she wowed audiences as Ava in Alex Garland's directorial debut Ex Machina. Her demure nature is similar to that of a child, as she is technically of a child's age at the time of the film. However, her mind is more powerful than even her creator could have anticipated, and she uses her near-limitless capacity for information to aid her own goals. While not necessarily a villain, Ava's duplicitous nature is just one of the reasons why Vikander's performance will be remembered for the years and decades to come.

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6 James Spader as Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron

The MCU has been host to a number of fantastic villains, but none are more charmingly evil than Ultron in the second Avengers film. James Spader's motion capture and vocal performance as the metal god make this character memorable, especially in what many consider to be the weakest film in the Avengers saga. Ultron's constantly-changing form serves as the film's ticking clock that our heroes are constantly racing against. Add in the constant religious metaphors and other witticisms, and you have a recipe for the MCU's most underrated villain thus far.

5 Peter Weller as Alex Murphy/RoboCop in RoboCop

When Peter Weller's character of Alex Murphy is nearly shot to pieces in the opening act of Paul Verhoeven's 1987 satire RoboCop, the stage is set for one of the greatest revenge stories in sci-fi history. The amount of now-iconic quotes that spawned from Weller's monotone performance as Detroit's first cybernetic policeman is too many to list here, with the best perhaps being "Dead or alive, you're coming with me." Weller uses this line as both Murphy and as RoboCop, and is one of the many ways in which the character is able to retain the humanity that he lost at the film's beginning.

4 Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty in Blade Runner

Anyone who has seen the original Blade Runner will tell you the same thing: love or hate the film as a whole, it can't be denied it has one of the greatest villain monologues in film history. It comes courtesy of Rutger Hauer as the replicant Roy Batty. The "tears in rain" scene is one that allows the viewer to reflect on the actions of Harrison Ford's character of Deckard up until this point. Was he on the right side of this fight? Were replicants more human than Deckard gave them credit for? Batty's impassioned speech is the catalyst for all of this, and had it been the only scene where they appeared in the film, the character would be just as iconic.

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3 Ian Holm as Ash in Alien

Most audiences nowadays only remember Ian Holm as the original Bilbo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but he was a force of nature acting-wise for decades before the seminal fantasy epic. In Ridley Scott's original Alien film, Holm's character Ash was a someone that always seemed to be one step ahead of Sigourney Weaver's Ripley. When the true nature of their mission is revealed to her, she is attacked by Ash in what is one of the truly scariest scenes in the film. This should speak volumes, as the film's true antagonist is one of the most iconic monsters in the horror genre.

2 Sir Anthony Daniels as C-3P0 in Star Wars

Sir Anthony Daniels has long been known as the guy that plays C-3P0, and for good reason: he's really good at it. After playing the character for over four decades, Daniels has refined the personality and intonation of the iconic droid to a point of perfection. Every new film in the Star Wars saga has brought with it many more entertaining moments with C-3P0, including being treated as a god by the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi. Among other things, these moments are what make C-3P0 the golden heart of the space-faring adventure.

1 Douglas Rain as HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey

A close up of the Hal 9000 "eye" from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Everyone recognizes the name of HAL 9000, but does anyone know who lent their voice to the greatest robotic villain ever? Well, the man's name is Douglas Rain, and he deserves all the praise in the world for gifting Stanley Kubrick with the greatest voice performance he could ask for. Although 2001: A Space Odyssey is a very slow film, the dialogue between HAL and the main character of Dave is a consistently-riveting game of intellectual cat-and-mouse.

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