MORGAN (2016)

Genre: Sci-Fi/Thriller
Director: Luke Scott
Cast: Kate Mara, Anya Taylor-Joy, Toby Jones, Rose Leslie, Boyd Holbrook, Michelle Yeoh, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Giamatti
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Violence)
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Official Website: http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/morgan

Opening Day: 15 September 2016

Synopsis: A corporate troubleshooter (Kate Mara) is sent to a remote, top-secret location, where she is to investigate and evaluate a terrifying accident. She learns the event was triggered by a seemingly innocent “human,” who presents a mystery of both infinite promise and incalculable danger.

Movie Review:

Any movie that dares to name itself after its main character better be sure that he or she is worth giving a damn, and unfortunately, ‘Morgan’ fails even on that fundamental level. Who is Morgan indeed, you ask? According to first-time feature filmmaker Luke Scott (son of Ridley, who produced) and writer Seth Owen, Morgan is a genetically engineered superhuman born and raised in a glassed-in cage her whole life, who suddenly goes berserk one day and stabs one of her guardians (Jennifer Jason Leigh) in the eye after her favourite privilege of going outdoors is curtailed. Is Morgan a “she” or an “it”? Is she or it able to experience emotions like anger and frustration just like any other human? These are the questions that form the film’s central mystery, which are supposed to keep us intrigued as corporate risk-management consultant Lee Weathers (Kate Mara) is sent to the compound of this top-secret project to assess its long-term viability.

Not surprisingly, Lee’s discovery of Morgan is meant to be our own, but instead of spending time with the specimen herself or itself, Lee bides her time making introductions with the caretakers in the facility who are frankly just born out of cliché. Among them, there is the officious chief scientist (Toby Jones) who doesn’t want to let years of hard work go down the drain, a hot-headed young behaviourist (Rose Leslie) who shares an unusually close bond with Morgan, a stern and protective ‘mother’ (Michelle Yeoh) who is just as disdainful of Lee, and a nutritionist (Boyd Holbrook) who is probably the least attached to Morgan. Each are defined fleetingly, but just as well, since all of them – and that includes the psychiatrist who was attacked by Morgan – regard Morgan as family and insist on protecting her for what they think was no more than an ‘accident’.

Because Lee is given so little time to interact with Morgan (which is somewhat amusing, considering how the latter is the subject she was sent there to evaluate), we learn more about Morgan through a brief encounter that the smug psychologist Dr Alan Shapiro (Paul Giamatti) has with her. Like Lee, Alan has been dispatched by corporate; his mission to determine whether she has feelings. That single five-minute sequence, which also serves as the turning point at the midway mark, is just about the best thing the film has to offer – not only does it build up grippingly to the point where all hell breaks loose, it also confirms the sort of being Morgan really is on the inside. As much as she just looks like an angst-ridden teenager who mopes about in a nondescript gray hoodie, Morgan is in fact a highly advanced killing machine when provoked – and let’s just say Alan gets deep enough under her skin for her to rip his throat out.

As if afraid that he has put his audience into slumber with an exposition-heavy setup, Scott over-compensates by turning the last third into a frenetic Lee-versus-Morgan action thriller. By this point, it no longer matters if Morgan is a ‘she’ or an ‘it’; indeed, what really matters is whether Morgan kills everyone first before Lee manages to take her out. It should not also come as a surprise that Lee also has her own particular set of physical skills, which further confirms our suspicion from the beginning that she is more than some ‘risk-management consultant’ that corporate has sent to investigate the situation. There is a twist at the end that really isn’t as clever as it thinks itself to be, but is at least more convincing than how all the people who made Morgan are so enamoured with her and appear absolutely clueless about the sort of fighting machine she can become.

Comparisons will no doubt be drawn with ‘Ex Machina’, a far-superior science-fiction which also through the creation of a remarkable new life form flirted with the question of what it means to be human in the age of genetic engineering and artificial intelligence. But whereas the former was indeed keen on exploring the debate, ‘Morgan’ is simply content to exploit it for standard B-action thrills. That probably explains why, besides a coolly unsettling performance by Anya Taylor-Joy as the titular character, the rest of the cast seem utterly uninterested in their roles. We hardly blame them though – good ideas do not a good movie make, especially not when these ideas are ditched halfway through. Like we said at the start, a movie named ‘Morgan’ better make us care about who she is. Who is Morgan? Is Morgan a ‘she’ or an ‘it’? Frankly, we can’t quite be bothered either way. 

Movie Rating:

(If you've seen 'Ex Machina', there's no reason you should even bother about this poorer cousin)

Review by Gabriel Chong