Movie Blog Post: MORGAN

A Sci-Fi Version of And Then There Were None

 by Tinsel & Tine Editor, Le Anne Lindsay

It’s gotta be tough to follow in your father’s footsteps when he wears big shoes the likes of “Alien” and “Blade Runner”, but it looks like Luke Scott, son of Ridley Scott is off to a good start with room to grow a size or two.

MORGAN, written by Seth W. Owen, has a sci fi premise involving corporate funding of an experimental project birthing humanoid creatures with artificial DNA. The first prototype of this version to make it longer than a few hours is Morgan (Anya Taylor-Joy). The team who brought Morgan to life all live in a remote house with a laboratory. They’ve developed close ties with each other and in raising, monitoring and studying Morgan, have come to love her. They use female pronouns when talking about Morgan, however, Risk Management consultant Lee Weathers (Kate Mara), who comes on the scene to assess whether Morgan should or should not continue to exist after a horrifyingly violent incident, corrects the team by using “it”.  We know nothing of her/its genitalia.  Which brings up a good point, obviously the movie is being compared with last year’s Ex Machina (click for T&T post) starring Oscar winning Alicia Vikander as a fembot (stay tuned for post on The Light Between Oceans her new movie with on screen/off screen romance Michael Fassbender). Director Luke Scott has this to say about the comparison…

You go in a very different direction from “Ex Machina,” where there’s a very clear reason why the A.I. bot is female. The genesis is very different.

Absolutely. Not to be put too fine a point on it, but “Ex Machina” is closer to “Weird Science” than this is. And I loved “Ex Machina”! Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was a terrific movie, but there’s clearly a kind of sexual motivation there.

Right, that isn’t really there in “Morgan.” READ MORE – Moviefone.com

 In terms of the look of Morgan – It’s all about the hoodie. I suppose it’s like a security blanket, as Morgan’s only been alive for 5 years even though she looks like a teenage, I think it’s also a way to make it look androgynous, but it’s such a part of Morgan’s persona it seems like it should have a specific significance.  I felt like the silvery makeup on her face was over done, but the size of the contacts just right, not too obsidian, yet strange enough that you know her eyes aren’t human.  Taylor-Joy does a good job of playing something that seems to understand emotions like betrayal without knowing what to do with such feelings other than lashing out with lightening fast reflexes and feral instincts.

Bottom Line: Kate Mara has always been an actress I gravitate to, and I have no complaints about her performance as an uber professional, who carries out her job with perfunctory effort; but somehow I feel the part would have been suited better for her colder, resting bitchface sister, Rooney Mara.  Basically, Morgan starts out as a film which explores what makes us human and switches to a slasher flick of who will be the last person standing.

T & T’s LAMB (movie bloggers association) Score: 2.75 outta 5

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