4 September 2016. Ridley Scott's son has put together an icy, cynical, but very intense and psychologically tight sci fi thriller. I assume that many audience members will overlook the superb acting and directing especially when it comes to Morgan, the primary character. What's really difficult to evaluate is the basic underlying premise and twist in the movie which isn't likely to endear audience members with its distinctly anti-audience pleasing expectations. What this movie does as well or better than the best of the scientifically created human movies is the theoretical presentation of the development of a life form that is usually just handled with stereotypical laziness or perhaps better described as underdeveloped primitiveness. Writer Seth Owens and director Luke Scott both put extensive and artful portrayal of artificial life persona into the big screen with both creepy and emotive effectiveness. While Splice (2009) also offered a carefully appealing psychological developmental process of human created life, Morgan offers up an additional covert agenda (with some resemblance to Alien (1979)) as well as an even closer look and vibrant and compelling relational interactions between and among the characters in the movie. Morgan spends more time allowing the audience to experience and absorb and evaluate for ourselves Morgan's existence and its meaning.
Albeit, a number of audience members will likely miss the nuances of this movie and reasonably compare it to Event Horizon (2009) or Cube (2009) due to its cynical nature and that's all. Yet a closer experience of Morgan can also reveal even deeper resonating and at the same time frustrating emotions if one compares Morgan to an assassin movie like Hannah (2011) or La Femme Nikita (1990) of which there are similar parallels in character development and the ethical underpinnings as well as conspiracy theories that tie these movies together.
Unlike Kurt Russell's sci fi character in Soldier (1998), Morgan presents a rather more complex and more opaque presentation than even Roy Batty's character in Blade Runner (1982). Overall, Morgan is a good addition as well as sometimes an apparent improvement on the vast majority of artificial intelligence movies to date, ranking with the best of them including the more forward looking Ex Machina (2015)(which I found an actress being too human trying to be an artificial life form instead of the other way around)), Transcendence (2014), Lucy (2014), Automata (2014), EVA (2011), and my favorite The Machine (2013).
Albeit, a number of audience members will likely miss the nuances of this movie and reasonably compare it to Event Horizon (2009) or Cube (2009) due to its cynical nature and that's all. Yet a closer experience of Morgan can also reveal even deeper resonating and at the same time frustrating emotions if one compares Morgan to an assassin movie like Hannah (2011) or La Femme Nikita (1990) of which there are similar parallels in character development and the ethical underpinnings as well as conspiracy theories that tie these movies together.
Unlike Kurt Russell's sci fi character in Soldier (1998), Morgan presents a rather more complex and more opaque presentation than even Roy Batty's character in Blade Runner (1982). Overall, Morgan is a good addition as well as sometimes an apparent improvement on the vast majority of artificial intelligence movies to date, ranking with the best of them including the more forward looking Ex Machina (2015)(which I found an actress being too human trying to be an artificial life form instead of the other way around)), Transcendence (2014), Lucy (2014), Automata (2014), EVA (2011), and my favorite The Machine (2013).