Twentieth Century Fox
Hollywood has always had a reputation for people getting ahead because of either the “casting couch” or nepotism. With the arrival of the new sci-fi thriller Morgan, it won’t be hard to ignore the fact that this stripped down, niche film got a major studio release due to director Luke Scott’s relationship with one of the producers, Ridley Scott, his father. Papa Scott gave 20th Century Fox a hit with the original Alien, and is currently at work on more Alien-related films (under the Prometheus banner), so it probably was a no brainer for the studio to do a favor for Scott.
Morgan is the story of Lee Weathers, a “fixer” for a company that develops new biomechanical life forms. Weathers is dispatched to what looks like a dilapidated country estate that also has a secret underground lab. The latest experiment, named Morgan, has severely harmed one of the team and Weathers is sent to take care of the company’s asset. Which means “killing” it. But the team has come to see Morgan as a person, artificial or not, and thwart Weathers’ mission. Of course, things go horribly wrong.
Morgan is a tidy little thriller, but comparisons to films like Alien are unavoidable. That film had a crew trapped on a ship floating through space at the mercy of an alien killing machine, nowhere to run. Here, the good ship Nostromo is replaced by the house and by extension the forest surrounding the facility with more places to run but they still can’t get away. Even the team are cinematic types destined to die, from Morgan’s empathetic psychologist (who may also have more than professional feelings for the “girl”) to the nutritionist who claims to hunt to feed the team but can’t hit a target in a key moment. And there is a twist that most people can see coming from a mile away.
Perhaps it’s the story’s familiarity that at least manages to make the film mildly entertaining. While the cast features a few familiar faces like Brian Cox, Paul Giamatti, Michelle Yeoh, Toby Jones and Jennifer Jason Leigh in very small roles, the film belongs to Kate Mara as Lee and Anya Taylor-Joy as Morgan. Both turn in phenomenal performances and should be the main selling points of the movie. Taylor-Joy (from The Witch) gives Morgan a childlike innocence (she’s technically five years old although she looks like a teen) that can turn to violent outbursts when pushed too far. You want to empathize with her as much as the rest of the team does, and then you’re thrown for a loop when she snaps, seeing how easily she was able to manipulate everyone including the audience.
Mara (House of Cards) is also terrific as the cold, tactical assassin, for lack of a better word, who doesn’t let herself be seduced by Morgan’s innocent charms. She refuses to refer to Morgan as anything other than an “it” and she is totally focused on her mission, even when nutritionist Skip attempts to make an ill-timed move on her. Lee is there to take names and kick ass, and she manages to kick a lot of ass in high heels in the forest. Not the most sensible shoes for the job, but she knows how to work them (and let’s see if she gets the same kind of criticism that Bryce Dallas Howard got for her shoes in Jurassic World).
Luckily, Morgan only runs a bit more than 90 minutes so you won’t feel like you lost hours of your life. It is a very well made film (although some of the fight scenes suffer from the “I don’t know how to shoot a fight scene so let’s make it all a close up” school of beginner filmmaking), and the two lead performances are worth seeing. It’s just a shame that there really isn’t much new or original here (it even evokes the 2009 sci-fi thriller Splice), but Mara and Taylor-Joy should see their stars rise.
Morgan has a run time of 1 hour 32 minutes, and is rated R for brutal violence, and some language.
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