 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Morgan • Year: 2016 • Country: USA • Director: Luke Scott • Main Cast: Kate Mara, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rose Leslie • Runtime: 92 minutes • Production company: Scott Free Productions, TSG Entertainment, Twentieth Century-Fox • TRAILER |
Let’s play a game. Imagine Ridley Scott directed Ex Machina (2014), but instead of a robot, the being created by men would be some kind of a “perfect killer”. And instead of Ridley Scott, it would be his son, Luke Scott. Wait a second, don’t squeeze your brain, because, in fact, that is what you will find if you watch Morgan. The premises are really very similar to Ex Machina (2014). An isolated building in the middle of the forest, a group of scientists living there working for that secret project. And then, a foreign person, agent Lee Weathers, played by Kate Mara, showing into scene to carry on an investigation. To evaluate the subject. A little girl locked in a glass cell.
This is a simple thriller science fiction tale. The mystery is surrounding most of the part of its running time and then is when the film could hold some interest. Because once that mystery vanishes and we know what the experiment is about, the film loses interest. The text written by Seth Owen is filled with dull conversations and pretty mediocrely described characters. Maybe more used to his easy family comedy acts, he imprints to Morgan a structure already too used in these sort of films, something rarely can attract anymore. And Luke Scott surely can’t give the story the necessary amount of thrilling needed. The cinematography is interesting and cold looking, which could be a good thing for a thriller of these terms, but here it has no personality. And the music is so average, and so out of pace with the images, that instead of helping one to get into the feeling of the movie, it’s pushing you out.
One of the highlights for Morgan is, undoubtedly, it’s cast. A long list of interesting performers that the filmmakers couldn’t manage to get the best from. The young creature is played by Anya Taylor-Joy, another exquisite performance as she already has us accustomed to like she did in titles like The VVitch: A New-England Folktale (2015) or Split (2016). With her, and the already mentioned Kate Mara, names like Rose Leslie, Michael Yare, Toby Jones, Chris Sullivan, Boyd Holbrook, Vinette Robinson, Michelle Yeoh, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Giamatti or Brian Cox can be spotted along the running time. New and veteran stars, both thrown to waste.
The movie was punished with a severe bad receiving from the audiences. It was a solid box office disaster, had a very poor opening weekend and was pulled from theaters even before it was originally set to. Perhaps this is a very severe penalization for a movie that, although doesn’t bring anything new to the panorama, it’s not worse than many others more out there.
Really, Morgan feels like Ex Machina (2014) meets Species (1995) under the hand of the Scott family. You know Ridley Scott, his son has the same eye, does the same mistakes and has the same virtues, like could be a love for science fiction and the will to surprise the audiences. Take it or leave it.
RATE: 4/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4520364
