It's Not a Glitch 'Morgan' Is One Weak Twisted Creation Tale

This Girl is Hard-wired! Morgan Review

Katniss and Alicia Keys may be girls on fire, but ferocity comes in many forms. Morgan’s claim to fame? She’s one big GMO. The science-fiction/thriller Morgan played in theatres fall 2016, with much fanfare that Ridley Scott of Alien fame is the producer. However, the similarities between the two movies are scarce. Morgan doesn’t take place on a spaceship, and there are no intergalactic parasites picking off the members of a crew one by one. Instead, Morgan is firmly set on Earthen soil and  is focused on the biomedical sciences. In a word: evolution! We’re not in space so everyone can hear you scream! That is, if Morgan actually was scary. Spoiler alert: it’s not.

In Morgan a community of scientists discovers the secret to creating artificial intelligence. Their own personal touch? Merging it with human DNA. These devotees to an organization that’s simply known as “Corporate” have their own little labor of love: five year-old Morgan. This test tube baby was synthesized by doctors and raised in a compound with them. In a quick as a wink introduction, we watch some shaky, bright, home-video footage of Morgan as a little girl bouncing around enjoying the outdoors, celebrating her first birthday and growing exponentially! The accelerated growth of her genetically tricked out body and mind means that Morgan isn’t a kindergartner, but instead is an eighteen-year-old young woman with highly refined abilities and a nearly unearthly beauty. (Yes, in my humble opinion!)

Lee (Kate Mara) & Amy (Rose Leslie) don't see eye to eye.

The large team: Dr. Simon Ziegler (Toby Jones, The Hunger Games), behaviorist Amy Menser (Rose Leslie, Game of Thrones), nutritionist Skip (Boyd Holbrook), and the lead scientist Dr. Lui Cheng (Michelle Yeoh, Kung Fu Panda 2) along with a couple other invaluable support staff left the city behind to live in their own little universe. Conducting these artificial intelligence (or AI) trials means for the past seven years the team has been living in an isolated lab complex. One that’s refreshingly surrounded by lush, springy (and even ethereal looking at times!) nature.

The project comes under fire when Morgan (Anya Taylor Joy) lashes out at Dr. Kathy Grieff (Jennifer Jason Leigh) when she’s told that her outdoors privileges have been revoked. Naturally, Morgan can’t have just any old temper tantrum, so she gouges out Kathy’s eye. Yowch. It’s this attack  that brings our protagonist Lee Weathers (Kate Mara) to this rural neck of the woods. Lee is a humorless risk management consultant there on Corporate’s orders. Her disdain for the project is obvious from the get-go. Lee is cold and a skeptical about Morgan being a “special” girl, and Mara’s performance here comes across a lot like Olivia from season 1 of Fringe. Her stony-faced silences and the strained encounters she has with Morgan and the other scientists speak volumes about Lee’s character. All the while, a mounting sense of dread follows Lee around like a shadow.

In the titular role of Morgan is Hollywood’s new horror starlet: Anya Taylor Joy. The actress made her film debut in the 2016 colonial horror The Witch, where she played Puritan teen Thomasin being tormented on her family’s farm by demonic forces. Here in this science-fiction universe, Morgan is a 4th wave model of AI and the pride and joy of her scientist “family”. Taylor Joy brings the same quiet intensity to Morgan as she did her previous role.

The distorted reflections have a Hitchcock vibe to them.

She’s confined behind panes of glass for safety protocol and spends time honing her abilities which is pretty much her playing chess by herself and reading the minds of anyone and everyone who visits her. She has an uncanny perception that impresses even the scientists who’ve been with her for years. She also spends plenty of time on the floor huddled up against the walls, both sinister and lethargic. Ok, soooo Morgan doesn’t do a whole lot. But when she does have close encounters with other characters there’s a dark predatory nature to her calm, reserved and at times harmless looking facade. Her clothing alone conveys some of this: her soft and loosely fitting heather-gray hoodie makes her look vulnerable and times even childlike. There’s a distinct “hospital patient” feel to it that reinforces that we never forget that Morgan isn’t a who, but instead a what. Alone in her dislike for Morgan, Lee stubbornly insists on referring to her as an “it” or “specimen”. Tensions zip between the characters and leave us prickling with anxiety of what’s to come. Like a crocodile half submerged in the water hunting down its kill, we all know that before the movie is over Morgan is going to snap. It’s just a matter of when.

Lethal teenagers who’ve been genetically tampered with have been along for quite a while. Saoirse Ronan played the titular role in the movie Hanna. Directed by Joe Wright and released in cinemas back in 2010, and in all ways Hanna is a thriller/chase movie that far exceeds the plot of Morgan. The pulse-pounding and electronic soundtrack from The Chemical Brothers is also absent here, instead Morgan is subdued and solemn for for much of its runtime.

As far as twisted creation tales go, Morgan could have been a far more potent science-fiction/thriller. Instead, the overarching goal of “Corporate” is never elaborated on. Except for that it’s shady business. Which is true for just about every typical sci-fi bad guy/antagonist. The scientists efforts to create the perfect superhuman fail. What else is new? Their ultimate  goal we find out, was to create a peaceful, refined and very intelligent new life form; one that would help us to become our best selves. From the opening video where we see Morgan lunge at Kathy across the table, digging out her eye it’s obvious how this is going to end. Hint: not pretty.

Dr. Finch, Dr. Chen & Dr. Ziegler with their little bundle of joy in the opening montage.

There are lyrics in David Bowie’s song “Life on Mars” that really describe the type of movie Morgan is. That when the “girl with the mousy hair” goes to the movie theatre she sees that “the film is a saddening bore/ for she's lived it ten times or more”. Morgan is very much something we’ve seen ten times or more. It’s quite derivative. And the high body count and liberal bloodbaths at the tail end of the movie aren’t enough to redeem it. One of the best scenes in the film though is the startling twist ending. The extent of Lee’s stern and by-the-books mentality is finally revealed and while it’s not exactly unexpected but it is unsettling and eerie. If the rest of Morgan had that same atmosphere it would’ve been so much more shocking and scary. At its core, Morgan is a warning we’ve heard time and time again: be cautious of creation.

Maybe she's born with it....Maybe it's MAYBELLINE. 

images from IMDB