It Came From The Cineplex: Morgan

Morgan was written by Seth Owen and directed by Luke Scott.

Owen previously wrote Seriously Weird and Peepers, whatever the hell those are. This is Scott's first time in the director's chair (theatrically, at least).

Luke Scott is also the son of Ridley Scott, the famed director of ALIEN, Blade Runner, Gladiator and The Martian, among many, many others. Yeah, that Ridley Scott. Gosh, I wonder how his son got this gig?

Actually I'm fine with that. I've never quite understood why the general public frowns on nepotism in the entertainment field. If Will Smith was a plumber and pulled some strings to get his kid a job fixing leaky sinks, no one would bat an eye. But he uses his influence to get his son an acting job, and suddenly the whole world clucks their tongues in disapproval. Why? Why shouldn't a celebrity help out their kid if they have the means?

Morgan is yet another entry in the already crowded "A.I. Goes Wrong" genre.

The problem is every A.I. movie I've ever seen has had the exact same plot. Scientists invent an artificial intelligence, it starts learning at an exponential rate, it becomes smarter than those who created it and instantly decides to kill them. It's like the Frankenstein story for the computer age.

Plot-wise, Morgan is somewhat similar to 2015's Ex Machina, which was a thoughtful and intelligent look at artificial intelligence and what it means to be human. Morgan desperately wants to follow that same path, but unfortunately it trips and falls flat on its face. There just aren't any ideas or substance present in Morgan, leaving it as hollow as the title character's blank-eyed stare. Heck, it even devolves into a standard action film in the third act!

There's a big plot twist near the end of the film that you'll likely see coming a mile off. Once you know the twist, you'll see the clues were there all along, and were pretty darned obvious. I'm ashamed of myself for not figuring it out earlier than I did. Like in the first reel.

So far the movie's tanking at the box office, managing to scrape up just a measly $2.5 million in its opening weekend. I can't say I'm surprised. I go to the cineplex every weekend, and I didn't see a single trailer or even a poster for the film before it came out. In fact I had no idea it even existed until the day I went to see it! If the movie ends up being a huge bomb, Fox has no one to blame but themselves. If you want people to see your movie, you've got to spend some cash to let them know about it!

ARTIFICIALLY INTELLIGENT SPOILERS AHEAD, INCLUDING A THIRD ACT PLOT TWIST YOU'LL LIKELY SEE COMING!

The Plot:
Deep in an underground lab, Dr. Kathy Grieff (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh) enters a secured glass cell housing Morgan (played by Anna Taylor-Joy), a young girl who's some sort of artificial human. They chat for a bit about how the artificial life form is feeling. Suddenly Morgan lashes out, violently stabbing Dr. Grieff in the eye before being sedated.

The next day Lee Weathers (played by Kate Mara of Fant4Stic fame) arrives at the lab. Lee is a stoic, Vulcan-like (Hmmm…) risk-assessment specialist, who works for the shadowy Corporation funding the Morgan experiment. She's basically an insurance adjuster, there to determine whether the Morgan project should be shut down or salvaged.

Lee meets the various scientists working on the project. Among them is Amy Menser (played by Rose Leslie of Game Of Thrones), who's been placed in a time out from the project for taking Morgan on an unauthorized trip to the woods. She also meets Skip, the lab's nutritionist, who takes an unrequited shine to Lee.

Dr. Simon Ziegler (played by Toby Jones) speaks with Lee and explains the genesis of the "L-9" project and how Morgan was created. Morgan is a synthetic human, who grew to adolescence in the space of only six months. Lee cuts him off, saying she's familiar with the process (Hmmm...). She also says the scientists shouldn't refer to Morgan as "she," but rather "It."

Dr. Grieff tells Lee that the attack was her fault, as she accidentally "provoked" Morgan. In fact all the scientists in the facility seem to bend over backward trying to excuse and justify Morgan's behavior. Are they genuinely concerned for her welfare, or just trying to protect their meal ticket project?

Lee demands to meet Morgan, and is taken to her glass cell. Morgan already knows who Lee is, as she seems to have mild telepathic powers. Morgan seems upset by her recent behavior, and says she knows what she did was wrong.

That night at dinner, Lee meets Dr. Lui Cheng (played by Michelle Yeoh). Lee speaks to Cheng in fluent Mandarin, which the others don't understand. She brings up a similar experiment in Helsinki, involving both Dr. Cheng and Dr. Ziegler, in which most of the science team was killed. Cheng excuses herself and leaves.

After dinner Skip tries to put the moves on Lee, who shows no reaction whatsoever (Hmmm...). He awkwardly apologizes and leaves. Amy goes down to Morgan's cell and turns off the cameras so they can chat without being recorded. Cut to a flashback of Amy taking Morgan into the woods. Morgan's amazed at everything she sees. She then spots a wounded deer and calmly breaks its neck, putting it out of its misery. Holy crap!

The next day Lee brings in psychiatrist Dr. Alan Shapiro (briefly played by Paul Giamatti) to evaluate Morgan. Shapiro insists he needs to be inside the cell with Morgan with her to properly do his job, in what may be the most blatant and obvious plot contrivance I've ever seen in a film. The scientists reluctantly unlock the door and let him in. He begins grilling Morgan, deliberately trying to push her buttons to see how she reacts. He even asks her what she'd do if he recommended she be terminated. To absolutely no one's surprise, she leaps across the table and rips out his throat with her teeth.

The scientists are horrified, and rush in to sedate Morgan and try to save Shapiro. Naturally Morgan escapes the second they open the door to her cell. Lee grabs a tranquilizer gun and follows. Morgan runs outside and sees Amy, which distracts her long enough for Lee to shoot her. Morgan's then strapped to a table as Lee orders her to be terminated. Morgan comes to and tearfully pleads with Dr. Cheng, who she calls "Mother." Cheng coldly says she's not her mother, and orders the scientists to give Morgan a lethal injection. Cheng then leaves the lab and goes to her room (another plot contrivance!) instead of watching the procedure.

The other scientists are too attached to Morgan, and refuse to kill her. Lee says, "Oh for f*ck's sake!" and enters the cell to do it herself. One of the scientists shoots her with a tranq gun to stop her, and Lee beats the living crap out of him, which seems beyond the job requirements for an insurance adjuster (Hmmm....). Lee passes out from the tranq dart and is locked in Morgan's cell.

The other scientists try to take Morgan to safety, but she escapes her restraints and kills them all (natch!). She then goes to Dr. Grieff's room and finishes her off, hangs Dr. Ziegler in his closet (?) and kills her "mother," Dr. Cheng. Morgan tells Amy, who she considers her friend, to get in an SUV, and the two drive off.

Lee wakes up and breaks out of the cell. She runs into Skip, who Morgan apparently overlooked. He tells Lee he knows where Morgan's going— to the lake where Amy promised to take her some day. Lee tells Skip to stay there and drives off after Morgan and Amy. Lee catches up and tries to run them off the road, but Morgan forces her into a tree. Skip drives up, and Lee shakes off the impact (Hmmm...), takes the car and speeds off yet again..

Lee finds Morgan's abandoned car and heads into the woods after her. Morgan attacks and the two engage in an epic battle, full of powerful punches and impressive back flips. Seriously, are all insurance agents trained in hand-to-hand combat like this? Morgan finally ends the fight by shoving Lee onto a sharp, jagged tree root that impales her in the gut. Lee grimaces a bit, but otherwise seems unaffected (Hmmm...). 

Morgan leaves Lee for dead, which is another plot contrivance, and joins Amy at the lake. Morgan gazes at the scenery in wonder. Just then the Terminator Lee suddenly appears, and throws Morgan into the lake and holds her underwater until she drowns. Lee climbs out of the water and casually shoots Amy in the head. She heads back to the car and Skip runs up, asking what the heck's going on. She shoots him as well. I guess that's that then! Everyone in the movie's dead except for Lee!

Cut to the Corporate boardroom, in which an executive pronounces the L-9 project a failure. Another executive asks, "What about Lee Weathers?" The first executive says, "What about her? She's perfect."

We then see Lee sitting in a diner, staring at her hands just like Morgan did. Gasp! Get it? Eh, did you get it yet? Hey, did you get the shocking twist ending?

Thoughts:
• One of the film's biggest problems is we're never quite sure just what Morgan is, or why she goes nutty and starts killing. 

She's definitely not a simple robot like Ava in Ex Machina, because we're told she grew from infant to tween in the space of six months. One of the scientists calls Morgan a synthetic life form, but then Dr. Ziegler claims they created her by fusing nanites with human embryos or some such. I guess she's like a test tube baby or a lab-grown, enhanced human? But then wouldn't she have her own consciousness? Why do they talk about her "programming" and artificial intelligence. It's all very vague and confusing.

We definitely needed some clarification here as to just what the hell she's supposed to be.

We also never find out just why she likes to kill so much. Is there something wrong with her programming? Does she kill because she doesn't have a soul? Is it because she grew up too fast and hasn't had time to learn morality and the rules of society? Your guess is as good as mine.

• "Don't Let It Out" may be one of the worst tag lines I've seen on a poster. Every time I see it I think of someone trying to hold in a fart. Or worse yet, it's a warning to the studio— "Don't let this movie out to theaters!"

• Kate Mara was the perfect choice to play an artificial human killing machine. With her mask-like, immobile face and emotionless demeanor, it's the role she was born to play. Zing!

• The short-haired, superpowered, lab-grown Morgan is incredibly similar to the short-haired, superpowered, lab-grown Eleven from Netflix's Stranger Things series. About the only thing missing from Morgan is Eggos!

Stranger Things came out just a month or two before Morgan premiered. That means they were probably both in production at the same time, so I doubt either would have been able to copy from the other. But man, that is one huge coincidence.

• Speaking of Stranger Things and coincidences:

Chris Sullivan plays Dr. Darren Finch in the film, and despite the fact that he considers Morgan his friend, she ruthlessly kills him.

Oddly enough, Sullivan (very briefly) played diner-owner Benny in Stranger Things, befriending the enigmatic Eleven right before meeting a similar fate.

This Sullivan guy definitely needs to stay away from doe-eyed little supergirls.

• Poor Jennifer Jason-Leigh. She tries to be Morgan's friend, and gets beaten up, stabbed in the eye and later on has her head crushed for her trouble.

Earlier this year she played Daisy Domergue in Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, and spent the majority of the run time being severely beaten by Kurt Russell.

Apparently Jason-Leigh's agent has it in for her, and only casts her in films which call for her to be violently brutalized. I don't know what she did to piss him off, but she needs to apologize to him, stat.

• It's always nice to see Michelle Yeoh onscreen. Too bad she's not in more films here in the States.

• As I said earlier, the big plot twist is telegraphed well in advance. One of the biggest and most obvious clues comes when Lee first meets Morgan. As Lee stands outside her cell, Morgan's face is perfectly reflected in the glass over her own, visually indicating their secret kinship.

It's not exactly subtle, but I thought it was pretty well done. The film could have used more cool little touches like that.

Oddly enough, later on this scene is duplicated almost exactly, as Morgan's face is reflected over Amy's. Is that supposed to be another clue? Is Amy another synthetic human, just like Morgan? Amy never shows any signs that she's anything more than human, so I honestly don't know what that little scene meant.

• After Lee is locked in Morgan's underground holding area, she notices a skylight at the top of a tall shaft. She then shinnys up the shaft, smashes the skylight and climbs to the surface.

I guess in all the time Morgan was held in the cell, it never occurred to her that she could have escaped the exact same way.

• Once Morgan escapes, Lee springs into action, becoming a female Terminator as she relentlessly tracks her down. As she kicked multiple asses I was thinking, "Damn, this is one tough insurance investigator! Do NOT attempt insurance fraud when she's around!"

When she was impaled by the tree root and just shook it off, it finally hit me that she was much more than just a pencil pusher.

• All through the movie I was convinced that the filmmakers used CGI to subtly alter Anna Taylor-Joy's eyes. They seemed a little too far apart, and something about them just seemed... off somehow.

Welp, apparently they didn't, and that's just the way she looks! Earlier this year Taylor-Joy starred in The V V Itch, and she had the same wide-set, otherworldly eyes there as well.

Morgan would love nothing more than to be a thinking man's sci-fi film, but it's far too vapid and empty to qualify. It degenerates into a standard action movie in the third act, and you'll likely see the big twist coming a mile off. Skip it and re-watch Ex Machina again to get your A.I. fix. I give it a C.

The Walking Dead Season 6, Episode 4: Here's Not Here

Welp, I can see right now how this first half of Season 6 is going to play out. The whole "Walkers Attack Alexandria" storyline (which apparently takes place in a single afternoon) is going to be dragged out for eight episodes, ending with a cliffhanger at the mid-season break.

This week The Walking Dead takes a slow, meandering and unexpected break in the action, as we learn what happened to Morgan between the time Rick last saw him (in the third season episode Clear) and last year's finale, and how he got his awesome bo staff skills.

It was a well-acted character study, but it didn't tell us anything we absolutely needed to know about Morgan, or couldn't have guessed on our own. After the past few episodes, this low-key, introspective character study was honestly a bit boring. And the timing was positively atrocious! After building up an unrelenting and extremely tense momentum the past three episodes, did we really need to bring the show screeching to a halt for an origin story? I don't mind the occasional reflective and thoughtful episode, but WHY NOW? Surely there was a better slot for this episode?

It was also a very predictable story, mainly due to its flashback structure. We've already seen Zen Morgan the past few weeks, so we know he's going to find peace and redemption before this episode's over. And it's pretty easy to guess Eastman's fate, since he doesn't show up in Alexandria along with Morgan. There's also a lot of heavy handed symbolism, mostly involving Morgan and the various doors (both literal and metaphorical) he has to pass through on his journey to redemption.

I'm wondering why this needed to be an extra long episode? It was dull enough without stretching it into a ninety minute time slot.

Lastly, I noticed that Stephen Yuen (who plays Glenn) wasn't listed in the title sequence this week. So I guess that means he's really dead after all, wink wink.

Pulling his name from the credits is exactly what I would do if I wanted to make everyone think Glenn was really dead.

SPOILERS, I GUESS!

The Plot:

The episode begins with Morgan talking to the Wolf he captured but apparently didn't kill a couple weeks ago. Morgan proceeds to regale the Wolf with his recent history, starting with how he accidentally burned down his apartment back in the Season 3 episode Clear.

Morgan then stumbles through the forest for months, killing walkers as well as any humans who cross his path, including a father and son duo who pursue him. He mumbles incoherently to himself and uses walker blood to write cryptic messages (such as "Here's Not Here") on the surrounding rocks.

He eventually stumbles onto an impossibly well-maintained cabin with solar power and a live goat staked out in front. As Morgan attempts to steal the goat, he's knocked out from behind. He wakes inside a jail in the cabin, which seems a bit odd. The cabin's owner appears and says his name is Eastman. He was a forensic psychologist before the world ended, and now lives a peaceful life with his goat, Tabitha. He also practices akido, and refuses to kill as he believes all life is precious.

Morgan, who's little more than animal at this point, begs Eastman to kill him. Eastman feeds him and carries on a one-sided conversation with him for days. Eventually Morgan calms down a bit. Eastman tells him that the door to his cell was never locked, and he has two choices, leave or stay. Morgan opens the cell and attacks Eastman, who easily knocks him on his ass.

The next day while Eastman's out, Morgan hears walkers attacking Tabitha. He saves the goat and drags the walkers away. He discovers a vast graveyard near the cabin, where Eastman has reverently buried every walker he's ever killed.

As you might expect, Morgan and Eastman then form a bond. Eastman teaches him akido and how to use a bo staff through the power of a montage. Weeks later a walker intrudes on their practice session. It's the son half of the duo that Morgan killed a while back. Morgan hesitates, and Eastman steps in to save him. He's bitten in the back before he can dispatch it.

Knowing he's dying, Eastman then tells Morgan his story-- he refused to recommend parole for a murderer named Crighton Dallas Wilton, because he believed he was pure evil. Wilton then escaped prison and killed Eastman's wife and two children before calmly turning himself in. Eastman then abducted Wilton while he was on highway detail and kept him in the cell in his cabin. He starved Wilton to death, which took forty seven days. After he was dead, Eastman went to town to turn himself in and found the world had ended. He's since vowed to never take another life.

Eastman offers his cabin to Morgan, but advises him to set out and find other survivors. We next see Morgan after Eastman has died. He sees a sign advertising Terminus (remember that?) and heads off in the distance.

In the present, Morgan finishes telling his origin story to the Wolf, hoping it will inspire him to change his ways. The Wolf has either a huge gash or bite on his side, and says if he survives he's going to kill Morgan and all the other Alexandrians. Morgan leaves the Wolf's makeshift cell and locks the door behind him. He then hears Rick screaming for someone to open the gates.

Thoughts:

• So let's take a look at this episode's timeline, shall we? A couple weeks ago in JSS, Alexandria was attacked by the Wolves, who hacked and killed dozens of unprepared victims. Carol kills several of the Wolves, while Morgan drives the rest away. Then instead of patrolling the town to make sure they're all gone or checking the protective wall for holes, he decides it's the perfect time to sit down and regale a Wolf captive with his goddamned life story. Jesus Christ!

Who the hell would do that in the middle of a crisis? In First Time Again Morgan was helping Rick lure the walkers parade away from Alexandria. He heard the horn blaring and knows there's now half a horde of bloodthirsty zombies heading straight for Alexandria. Despite this, he does nothing about it and decides it's afternoon story time.

• I liked the use of the "throbbing" background during the "Crazy Morgan" scenes. As Morgan grew increasingly agitated, the edges of the background blurred and pulsed in synch with his heartbeat. It was a simple but effective way to show his descent into madness.

• During Morgan's crazy period, he burned the bodies of every walker and human he killed. Well, almost every one. He conveniently didn't burn the human male he strangled, so he could turn and come back to bite Eastman in the ass (almost literally!). 

• I'm not quite sure, but I think I may have picked up on some very subtle "door" symbolism in this episode. After Morgan's spent a few days in the jail cell, Eastman tells him the door has been open the entire time. Woahhhh! Why, it's almost like Morgan has been trapped in a prison in his own mind! And he has to "go through the door" in order to begin healing. Metaphysical, man! As subtle as a bat to the head!

• Was Eastman named after Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (one of whom wields a bo staff)?

• What are the odds that EVERY walker Eastman ever killed just happened to have their I.D. on them, so he could find out their names and write them on their burial crosses?

UPDATE! Reader DannX68 pointed out that a couple of the crosses were labeled "Jane Doe." I missed that little detail. So I'll give the writers this one.

• Eastman's story about Crighton Dallas Wilton doesn't make any sense. Wilton killed Eastman's entire family before turning himself in, but against all logic and reason is allowed to leave the prison on work details. I don't think so. Work detail is for prisoners who've committed minor crimes and can be trusted. There's no way in hell Wilton would ever have been allowed outside again, no matter how "charming and likable" he was.

I also don't understand how Eastman was able to abduct Wilton in his car and get away with it. He says he made sure "the right people" were guarding the work detail prisoners that day, but that's an awfully lame "hand waved away" non-explanation.

• After Eastman abducted Crighton, he locked him in the jail cell in his cabin and let him starve to death. Supposedly it took forty seven days for him to die. So... did Eastman give him water all that time? You might be able to go forty seven days without food, but you can only go about four days without water. Nice of Eastman to set a pan of water in his cell.

Also, once Crighton died, did Eastman not notice him come back as a walker? Or was his starved body too weak to move or even moan?

• There were several small references to previous episodes in Here's Not Here.

Eastman tries to cheer up Morgan by telling him that someday he's "gonna hold a baby again." Morgan did just that at the beginning of this season in First Time Again, when Rick lets him hold Baby Judith.

Also in that episode, Morgan cleans his bo staff with the same rag Eastman used.

In the Season 5 episode Coda, Morgan is tracking Rick when he finds Father Gabriel's abandoned church. He kneels down to pray at the altar, after setting out a series of seemingly incongruous objects, including a rabbit's foot, a Googoo Cluster, and a single bullet.

As we saw in this episode, the lucky rabbit's foot belonged to Eastman's daughter, the Googoo Cluster's were Eastman's favorite candy, and the bullet came from a startled young couple that Morgan decided to spare in this episode.

Did the writers really know who the rabbit's foot belonged to back in Season 5? How far out do they plan these shows?

• The end of this episode stupidly spoils Rick's fate. As Morgan locks the Wolf inside the house, he hears Rick shouting for someone to open the gate. So it looks like he got out of the walker-surrounded RV just fine. Way to go, episode!