A certain level of directorial skill is expected when you’re Ridley Scott’s son. That’s putting it bluntly, but then again, Luke Scott’s feature directorial debut, Morgan, comes across as nothing less than blunt.
Morgan has incredible potential. Besides a fairly stellar cast, it boasts some really pretty scenes, courtesy of director of photography Mark Patten, and is marked by beautiful scenes of lush, verdant forests (that to be honest, also look like they’ve been put repeatedly through a series of Instagram filters).
Unfortunately, Morgan treats the heavy theme of humanity it works with like, well, a heavy bat.
The movie revolves around “corporate troubleshooter” Lee Weathers (played by a typically stoic Kate Mara), who is sent to a remote, top-secret laboratory to investigate a bloody accident.
The accident turns out to be the brutal eye-stabbing of a researcher by her subject, a girl named Morgan.
Weathers finds out early on that the young Morgan is the definition of a test-tube baby stretched to its extremes. A “human being” grown in a laboratory
Morgan is the culmination of Weathers’ employers’ research into artificial intelligence, completely biological in nature, being both with the capacity for emotion and, as Weathers finds out, incredible violence.
As I mentioned earlier, the movie attempts to wrestle with the heavy theme of humanity, questioning just how far one can stretch the definition of humanity, and how and when the “creation surpasses the creator”.
In other words, something very similar to Blade Runner. And if you’ve watched Blade Runner, you know what’s coming at the end of this movie – as if it doesn’t hint at the twist so many times throughout the movie.
Seriously, you could probably die of alcohol poisoning should you make a drinking game out of it.
Anya Taylor-Joy plays the titular character gamely, doing her best to imbue her killing-weapon character with as much humanity as possible whenever she isn’t ripping someone’s throat out with her teeth. She is one of the movie’s main saving graces, given how nobody else in the movie seems to show any real emotion.
Sure, Toby Jones plays his usual role of “tired and jaded scientist” as researcher Simon Ziegler to the hilt, with his worn face conveying depression pretty much accurately.
Malaysia’s very own Michelle Yeoh also stars in this movie as head researcher Dr Lui Cheng, but even her performance is surprisingly depthless.
Game Of Thrones fans will also be briefly thrilled by the sight of Rose Leslie here as researcher Amy Mensler, who plays Morgan’s tether to humanity, as will BBC’s Sherlock fans be by Vinette Robinson and Jonathan Aris.
Morgan is repeatedly referred to as “it” and “she”, as if the characters cannot seem to decide what she is. Which is, of course, the point, but why is that made so obvious? It honestly gets tiring by the end.
So is Morgan worth a watch? Sure, but switch off your brain at the door. You’re not going to need it.
Morgan hits Malaysian cinemas on Thursday, Sept 1.