_3pa_jpghr-2Starring Kate Mara, Anya Taylor-Jones, Toby Jones, Michelle Yeoh, Rose Leslie, Boyd Holbrook

Directed by Luke Scott

Twentieth Century Fox, out now

Creating life comes with responsibilities…

If you’re well-versed in science fiction movies, you’re going to find a lot of Morgan sounds and feels very familiar – there are references to multiple previous films about artificial intelligence (Blade Runner and 2001: A Space Odyssey are both noticeably “homaged” in key scenes) – and unfortunately there aren’t a lot of original ideas around it. Even the “twist” ending you’re likely to see coming from early on – I guessed it within the first ten minutes – and you may well wonder if a scene featuring Brian Cox was a late addition to the movie to try to give it a unifying theme that’s otherwise not present.

That’s not to say that Morgan isn’t entertaining. Kate Mara’s Lee Weathers is a risk assessment specialist sent to investigate an artificial life experiment that seems to have gone badly wrong – Morgan, the “teenager” involved (Anya Taylor-Jones), has committed grievous bodily harm. What Lee finds is a group virtually in thrall to Morgan, from Toby Jones’ righteous scientist (not a million miles away from his Wayward Pines character) to Rose Leslie’s psychiatrist upon whom Morgan itself fixates. Then Paul Giamatti’s psychologist arrives and pushes everyone too far…

There are some nice visual touches from rookie director Luke Scott – the flyover at the beginning and the use of the reflecting glass in some scenes between Leslie and Taylor-Jones in particular – but the film can’t decide if it’s a discussion of the ethics of creating life, a slasher feature or a Bourne-like thriller. A lot rides on Taylor-Jones’ shoulders, and she carries it well, and while it’s not quite in Sixth Sense territory in terms of making you rethink how you see the movie on a second or subsequent viewing, there are elements of all the actors’ performances that make a lot more sense once you do.

The Blu-ray includes a commentary from Luke Scott, as well as deleted scenes (with optional commentary), and some short but interesting pieces about the current state of the scientific art.

Verdict: Entertaining enough, but by no means an essential addition to the plethora of films about the dangers of artificial intelligence. 6/10

Paul Simpson

Morgan is out now on Digital HD, Blu-ray and DVD from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment