Correct usage.

The story asks thought provoking questions surrounding technology and asks will A.I. technology outsmart us and take advantage of our weaknesses, the way humanoid Ava does in the film.

Can the underlined section take a comma? For instance, if you want to express a shift of ideas rather than running on from weaknesses?

Perhaps you could say: Just like the way humanoid Ava does in the film or use a dash.

Is this a comma splice? The section starting with not leads into a complete sentence, but it's so long and drawn out I wasn't sure.

I was very good at most subjects in school, not because I had any particular aptitude in them, but because normally on the first day of school they'd hand out schoolbooks, and I'd read them—which would mean that I'd know what was coming up, because I'd read it.