Ridley Scott's son makes his directorial debut.
The age-old debate of nature versus nurture gets put through the sci-fi lens in 20th Century Fox's new film Morgan. Director Luke Scott (son of Ridley Scott, whose influence is clearly felt on this film) makes his feature-length debut with a stellar cast, but Morgan fails to live up to the full promise of its premise.
Kate Mara stars as Lee Weathers, a risk management consultant sent in to investigate an incident where a genetically engineered being went rogue. She is tasked with determining whether the creation, Morgan (The Witch's Anya Taylor-Joy), should be terminated or allowed to live before it causes more havoc.
The scientists who created Morgan -- an impressive lineup of stars including Michelle Yeoh, Toby Jones, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Game of Thrones' Rose Leslie and Narcos' Boyd Holbrook -- are quick to call her "special" and brush her violent outbreak aside. The film does a bad job of explaining what exactly they were looking to accomplish with this artificially created human model, the L-9; essentially they're trying to prove they can create a peaceful model that isn't ruled by its nature as a weapon, which is why this outburst is a major issue for them and the company they work for.
Morgan has a special relationship with Leslie's Dr. Amy Menser, the behavioral specialist on the team. Morgan snaps after she's forced to be kept inside her cell instead of going on a promised trip to the lake with Amy. Lee Weathers is analytical of her analysis of Morgan, but it's clear the two have a connection -- and if it wasn't clear, Scott makes a point to have their faces align in the glass reflection of Morgan's cell. See, they're so similar! The same visualization happens later in the movie with Amy and Morgan, but the film remains vague to its detriment about their connection. Is it maternal? Romantic? Though Leslie gives a good performance, Amy is one of the weakest characters in the film.
Anya Taylor-Joy and Kate Mara in Morgan
The two leads carry the movie, and the dynamic between Morgan and Lee is the most interesting of the story. While the supporting characters feel half-baked in their depictions, the motivations of Taylor-Joy and Mara's characters are earned. When the drama turns into action in the third act of the movie, each actress convincingly makes the transition from dramatic performer to action star, and Mara's Lee in particular makes for a great on-screen badass.
Where Morgan falls flat is in its repeated use of familiar tropes and sci-fi story beats. The big twist at the end of the film is telegraphed pretty early on, and even with its interesting premise it didn't feel like it offered something fresh to the sci-fi scene, as Ex Machina did in 2015. It's easy to compare the two projects, but the story falls short here and it fails to explore any especially compelling themes. The scientists working on Morgan are blinded by their love for her in a frustrating way, and the storytelling lacks subtlety in contrasting how they view the artificially created being as a human and how Lee/the company view it as a creation.
The biggest issue is the moral question at the center of the story. Morgan hinges on the debate of nature vs. nurture, but never comes to any satisfying conclusions. It's easy to assume that the point of the film is to showcase that artificial intelligence is always a bad idea, but it even muddies that conclusion. Paul Giamatti makes a short appearance as a company-ordered psychiatrist who is supposed to evaluate the mental state of Morgan, and his appearance underlines the main problems with the climax of the movie. The outcome of his evaluation of Morgan is inevitable, and as he pushes all her buttons and turns her into the monster he wants her to be, the film also expects us to vilify her and fear for him when she snaps.
Paul Giamatti in Morgan
The film sets up Morgan as a sympathetic character and then starts depicting her as an antagonist; Lee is her foil in many ways, but she's someone you root for even though she has the more villainous arc. The character turns for Morgan undermine any sort of positive conclusion or message it might have been building toward, instead relying on fear of familiar topics -- change, technology -- to bring the movie to a close. The final moment of the film is meant to be triumphant, but instead rings hollow when trying to parse out what the story was trying to accomplish.
It's frustrating that Morgan -- like its title character -- had the DNA to be great, yet falls short of its potential. There's good in the movie, but ultimately it never ends up being as compelling as it reaches to be.
The Verdict
Morgan might not have much heart, but it is a fun action thriller and its sci-fi trappings are visually appealing, even if its sci-fi storytelling doesn't get especially deep. Kate Mara and Anya Taylor-Joy make for great action heroines, selling their fight scenes and committing to the drama. The problem is in the film's muddied message and its retreading of familiar sci-fi concepts without adding much new for it to stand out next to others of its ilk.
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