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Morgan
Stars: Kate Mara, Anya Taylor-Joy, Toby Jones, Rose Leslie, Boyd Holbrook, Michelle Yeoh, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Giamatti
Director: Luke Scott
Luke Scott, son of director Ridley Scott, regrettably misses the mark with this derivative shocker which, despite obvious echoes of Ex Machina, owes much more (unacknowledged) to Mary Shelleys creature creation classic Frankenstein.
Seth Owens lumpy screenplay introduces the eponymous Morgan, a DNA created-human female played by Anya Taylor-Joy who, while apparently fully formed as a teenage woman, is intellectually only five years old and initially behaves badly by stabbing doctor Jennifer Jason Leigh in the eye.
Enter icy risk management executive Kate Mara who has been sent by the company who bankrolled the experiment to the isolated unit where Morgan lurks in her glass cage. Maras mission which she has accepted is to decide whether to continue to invest in the project or pull the plug on Morgan
The cast works hard Toby Jones furrows his brow credibly as a dubious scientist - but like Morgan, Mara is suitably cold and Taylor-Joy does what a scientific creation has to do; but, as the story staggers to its predictable climax like a exhausted android, only shockfilm neophytes might be surprised.
Alan Frank
USA 2016. UK Distributor: 20th Century Fox. Colour by deluxe.
88 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.
Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 1, Swearing 2.
Review date: 08 Jan 2017