Jul 062016
 
3,5 reels

There’s been an “accident” at a secret, isolated lab. They’ve been developing a new form of artificial human, one with emotions. Its name is Morgan (Anya Taylor-Joy), and this five-year-old that looks eighteen just stabbed one of its keepers (Jennifer Jason Leigh) in the eye. The corporate office has sent Lee (Kate Mara), a risk assessment specialist, to make a report and do whatever is necessary. The lead scientist (Michelle Yeoh), who is somehow connected to the vaguely reported “Helsinki tragedy,” looks at the situation coldly, but the rest of the scientific team, particularly Dr. Ziegler (Toby Jones) and Amy (Rose Leslie), have grown very attached to Morgan and are worried that she’ll (as they use the female pronoun) be destroyed. The crew has reason to worry, and even more reason when the AI psychologist (Paul Giamatti) shows up to test Morgan, as he appears less sympathetic than Lee. And with his evaluation, things start going very wrong.

Morgan is the latest in a string of first-step-artificial-intelligence films, following 2015’s Ex Machina. The comparison doesn’t do Morgan any favors as it is very similar to Ex Machina for it’s first half, giving one a sense of over-familiarity with ideas that should feel new and exciting. The second half breaks away from that mold, but that hurt the film at the box office as those who wanted an Ex Machina clone were disappointed. I find this the superior film, because neither is as smart as it thinks it is, and when I have digested the ideas early on, Morgan still has something to offer in a little mystery and a lot of violence.

It certainly offered a lot with the cast. Kate Mara and Anya Taylor-Joy are pitch perfect as the dueling leads. There is the proper amount of strange in Taylor-Joy’s performance to accept her as an AI. Both actresses made me want to know more about their characters. And the rest of the cast is amazing for a semi-low budget film. An ensemble including Paul Giamatti, Michelle Yeoh, Rose Leslie, Toby Jones, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Brian Cox is going to grab my attention. These are some of the best actors working.

Morgan starts off as a mystery: Why did the AI attack the scientist? We have a second mystery in just what Lee is really there to do. While these play out nicely in terms of tone and pace, they just aren’t that mysterious. The only reason you won’t guess the answer to the first is that it is so much less than it should have been. As for the second, it’s so obvious that I find myself twisting my sentences not to give it away here. Without something clever in the plot to augment the “What does it mean to be human?” question that all these recent films have been bounding around without any special insight, Morgan ends up feeling rather ordinary.

However, there is one added layer. I mentioned that there is a string of films you could compare this one to, but the one you should is Blade Runner. It plays out as a prequel to Blade Runner. Morgan is a new type of synthetic human, meant to replace an earlier version. Her difference comes from more developed emotions, and one can see why a company would scale back on that idea after the events at the lab. The psychiatrist’s test is not delivered as you would for a human, but rather like a the Voight-Kampff test, meant to upset the AI and get a response. There’s more, but then we’d be into spoilers.

But am I making too much of the two film’s similarities? I don’t think so. Morgan is produced by Scott Free, Ridley Scott’s production company (the Ridley Scott who directed Blade Runner). It was directed by Luke Scott, Ridley’s son, who has spent much of his career working on his father’s films. Is it likely they didn’t notice the similarities? Yeah… No. Considering Scott is now keen to connect his films (if you’re not obsessed with Easter eggs, you may have missed that Prometheus put Blade Runner and Alien in the same universe), I believe it is safe to take Morgan as the first step to Roy. And yes, that does make this film a little bit cooler.