Luke Scott directs Anya Taylor-Joy, Kate Mara and Rose Leslie in this genetically modified superhuman goes berserk horror.

Luke Scott isn’t a bad director but equally he is not a particularly inspired one given his pedigree. Taking his father and producer’s premise from Alien (work colleagues who don’t live in harmony get trapped in with something deadly) while constantly hinting that one character might be “more than human.” And I’m not talking about the titular Morgan as the Deckard / Ash in our midsts. And by “hinting” I meant bludgeoning you over the head with the… ahem… twist every other line or scene. Aside from riding on Daddy’s long coat tails, the film itself is redundant in its set up. We’ve done all this far better too recently in Splice, Ex Machina and this summer’s Netflix hit Stranger Things. A tough sell to make your villian the phenomenon everyone is currently crushing on right in the eye of that storm. So Fox have modified the trailer to include a Nostromo-a-like countdown and alarm bleeps that never occur onscreen. “IT’S MADE BY RIDDER’S SON, PLEASE BUY A TICKET!” Legacy aside, does Morgan stand up? There’s a great cast but only a one scene Paul Giamatti gets to have any fun as a pushy shrink. All the other talent is wasted, introducing themselves in a tension free build up then dying like dominos in a rushed climax. The joyless massacre of such an enviable ensemble aside, we are stuck in a scentless, gritless world where cars drive through reinforced steel gates with nary a scratch sustained and inescapable cells have ladders leading up to smashable skylights. We are a long way from the fantasy realism of 2019 or LV-426. Unengaging.

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