R | 92 min.
This movie takes an interesting premise and discards it like trash. Its high concept devolves into low-grade horror schlock, resulting in one of the most predictable and disappointing endings you’ll ever see. If you insist on going, trust me and leave after 45 minutes. Whatever ending you imagine is guaranteed to be better than what director Luke Scott delivers.
Lee Weathers (Kate Mara) is a risk management consultant for a technology company. She ventures to a remote area after a scientifically created, human-like synthetic organism called Morgan (Anya Taylor-Joy) attacks one of its caretakers (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Lee arrives to assess if Morgan is worth preserving or should be eliminated.
The facility’s staff share an affinity for Morgan and want to protect it—they’ve raised Morgan from infancy for the last five years.
Unlike last year’s fantastic Ex Machina, which looked at the sentience and desired humanity of synthetic organisms, Morgan simply goes all out monster movie. Morgan begins to attack and kill those who’ve loved it for years, and the whole time you wonder why you’re bothering to watch another bland horror movie.
It would’ve been so much more interesting to dig into the science and examine why Morgan snaps, how it can be fixed, and how its evolving emotions might be a factor. The movie was set up for this. And then Morgan starts biting people’s faces.
Luke Scott is director Ridley Scott’s son. This is Luke’s feature film debut, so you can understand why it’s not a refined piece of art. Writer Seth W. Owen also is to blame for a story that goes so bonkers off-the-rails asinine. It’s never explained why Morgan does what it does, and the resolution of Lee Weathers is completely uninspired, as is all the killing and chasing and pleas for help.
In terms of aesthetic production value Morgan is fine, but that doesn’t matter if you can’t get the story right.
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