Film Review: ‘Morgan’ Takes Out Intelligence in Artificial Intelligence

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CHICAGO – There is nothing like the feeling of watching a completely immersive sci-fi film that delivers the complexity of technology in a modest package, and uses elements of nature to create a beautiful contrast. Unfortunately, “Morgan” doesn’t deliver on the enlightenment it promises.

Rating: 2.0/5.0

Trying to fill the role created by last year’s masterpiece “Ex Machina”, “Morgan” explodes with superficial artificiality. It poses the question of what constitutes “personhood” and explores it through shallow platitudes and out of character, obsessive behavior. The high concept story development seems to have been an overwhelming task for first-time feature film writer Seth W. Owen. While trying to introduce the same ideas of “humanity” that we’ve seen not only in last year’s films, but from films stemming all the way back to Fritz Lang’s 1927 film “Metropolis”, Owen manages to create a story that feels less like an echo and more like a lazy mimicry.

The story development is exactly what you would expect from a by-the-books science fiction. It starts off taking its time and only feeding you bread crumbs with the promise of a main course at the end. The character exposition is minimal, developing every single character with the bare minimum amount of dimension so they don’t appear too empty. Aside from the two main characters, Lee (Kate Mara) and Morgan (Anya Taylor-Joy) there isn’t even a facade of complexity with every character never evolving past their baseline introductions. The two that were “developed” really just ends up meaning that their characters experience some sort of revealing of their true selves/intentions near the end of the film.

Continue reading for Jon Espino’s full review of “Morgan”

Lee (Kate Mara) in ‘Morgan’
Photo credit: 20th Century Fox

Continue reading for Jon Espino’s full review of “Morgan”