Morgan, 2016.
Directed by Luke Scott.
Starring Kate Mara, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rose Leslie, Toby Jones, Paul Giamatti, Boyd Holbrook and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
SYNOPSIS:
A corporate risk-management consultant must decide whether or not to terminate an artificially created humanoid being.
Silver screen representations of artificial intelligence are hardly unfamiliar; in fact they are as frequent in modern filmmaking as portraits of dystopian futures or cliché-ridden teen angst. However with each new arrival, there is an element of hope that perhaps this’ll be the title to really push the envelope. Unlocking the potential of this complex landscape by detailing the protocols and indeed ethics when fabricating humanity.
Unfortunately for debutant director Luke Scott – son of Sir Ridley – he is unable to muster as such with Morgan; rather dipping a toe into frustratingly tepid water as opposed to diving in head-first. Enlisting a particularly starry cast (almost certainly because Daddy has contacts…), many are subjected to spurting dialogue almost as synthetic as the titular character, and are left hanging awkwardly in amateurish frames.
The film details Mara’s corporate risk-assessment manager Lee Weathers who arrives at a stately yet decrepit mansion where she is tasked with interacting with Morgan (Taylor-Joy); a five year-old laboratory experiment who has heightened stimuli which rapidly develop growth, cognitive thinking and communication.
Following a freak accident in which blind-rage leads Morgan to brutally stab one of the staff members, she must be prepped and assured in order for the programme to legally continue. As evaluation and examination progresses – and Morgan’s relationships with her ‘friends’ are further explored – things soon begin venturing down a dark path.
The biggest problem here is screenwriter Seth Owen; fairly new to the theatrical game himself, too. Whilst some characters are rendered enough to produce a sense of intrigue, many others fill the background as blandly as the dour grey colour palette.
Morgan herself is a beguiling enigma; sensitive, free-thinking and building a sense of humanity through the exploration of emotion. Subtleties such as the yearning for hands grazing through grass, or the chill from cool water washing upon the skin are gorgeously showcased, and Taylor-Joy’s wide-eyed bewilderment is put to fine use throughout. After her spectacular performance in ethereal horror The Witch earlier this year, she is most certainly a future talent to watch. Her behavioural therapist Amy – played with gravelly purpose by Game of Thrones‘ Leslie – is too given room to breathe, and together the pair form the film’s principal heartbeat.
Meanwhile Mara, the unquestionable driving force of the piece, falls flatter than ever before: tonally offbeat and inconsistent throughout every scene. So poorly and wrongly cast is she that this role exposes the kinks – nae, bullet-holes – in her abilities. And even worse than the lead being so substandard is the dismal underuse of the great Giamatti. Granted, he appears in the film’s finest sequence; a muscular interrogation which offers up the single piece of Owen’s prose with any anxiety and definition, but he soon vanishes like a flash in the pan.
Morgan then staggers clumsily into a total genre shift. Scott spends the first two acts attempting to build the foundations of a pokey, urgent science-fiction drama, and then pulls an aggressive U-turn, opting for all-out carnage. Beating to a similar drum of an apocalyptic horror movie, blood begins spurting and the body count begins rising. Whilst the action is largely well-paced and provides a sense of isolated paranoia that should have been implemented from the get-go, such a sudden alteration feels desperate. The garden-variety storytelling is no longer working, so now we’ll crank everything up to eleven…
Clearly hoping to replicate the critical and financial success of 2015’s Ex_Machina, this futuristic thriller is too keen to recycle rather than reinvent. Given the talent involved, and indeed production assistance from Scott’s legendary father, Morgan neglects individualism, and with that, a voice worth hearing.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Chris Haydon
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https://youtu.be/b7Ozs5mj5ao?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published September 2, 2016. Updated April 14, 2018.
