Morgan

We, as a society, seem to have a fascination in creating something artificial from an natural source, and in most cases, the object is that of another human being, and believe we can get away with it. We've seen many incarnations of this in films: "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" '01, "Godsend" '04, "Ex Machina" '15 plus others. This concept of film ideas basically came from "Frankenstein" '31 and has not let up since to the point that we have yet another in the form of "Morgan".

A corporate risk-management consultant, Lee Weathers (Kate Mara) must determine the fate of a mysterious bioengineered artificial being called Morgan (Anya Taylor-Joy), which has begun evolving at a faster rate than anticipated. When Morgan inexplicably attacks one of her creators, Dr. Kathy Grieff (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the group including Dr. Simon Ziegler (Toby Jones), Dr. Amy Menser (Rose Leslie), Dr. Lui Cheng (Michelle Yeoh) and others surrounding her are pressed to make a decision. They even attempt to bring in an outside psychiatrist, Dr. Alan Shapiro (Paul Giamatti) to assist in their findings, but eventually to no avail.

Others to round out the cast are Michael Yare as Ted Brenner, Chris Sullivan as Dr. Darren Finch, Boyd Holbrook as Skip Vronsky, Vinette Robinson as Dr. Brenda Finch, Brian Cox as Jim Bryce, Crispian Belfrage as Charles Grimes and Jonathan Aris as David Chance.

One thing I've noticed about newer directors and writers is that they are either very good or very bad in their execution. This was remarkably well directed by Luke Scott ("Loom" (short) '12) plus TV. Of course, his father being that of famed Ridley Scott, some of his talent had to of rubbed off on son, Luke. The emotion (or lack thereof) that he was able to exude from actors Mara and Taylor-Joy was phenomenal. I am interested in what he will be handed next. It was written by virtual newcomer Seth Owen ("Peepers" '10) plus TV. Again, considering the lack of theatrical experience, this script was well thought out. Surely, there were some areas of choppiness and slowness, but certainly not enough to distract from the premise at hand. The real stunner here was Mara's role as the cold, calculating risk management consultant. She absolutely made that role just off the pages of the screenplay. And Giamatti's small but pivotal role as the psychiatrist was one of his best.

As with the other films, this certainly teaches us that we can't and should not attempt to alter anything that is natural, whether it be in cloning, artificial intelligence, or even genetically modified organisms (GMO), lest we run into a plethora of problems that we should come to expect.

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                 Rated: R                                    92mins.