‘Morgan’ Review: Kate Mara Battles a More-Human-Than-Human Hybrid

If director Luke Scott wants to avoid comparisons to his father Ridley, perhaps his feature debut shouldn’t touch upon themes from “Blade Runner”

There’s a lot to like about this slick sci-fi thriller, but it makes the frequent big-movie mistake of overexplaining itself and tying up the plot too neatly — imagine “Ex Machina” after a round of studio notes.

Nonetheless, director Luke Scott’s directorial debut is an admirable one, assembling a strong ensemble of actors and giving most of them something to do while creating an eerie sense of menace in a milieu that feels believably slick without being overly art-directed.

[...] if Scott is looking to get out of the immense shadow cast by his father, Ridley Scott, Luke might have reconsidered a screenplay (by Seth W. Owen) that calls the more-human-than-human characters of “Blade Runner” so immediately to mind.

Lee Weathers (Kate Mara) is a no-nonsense corporate fixer, making her way to a secluded location where the corporation that employs her has been spending a great deal of resources in creating a genetically modified human being with accelerated mental and physical capacities.

The lab is hidden inside a spacious but somewhat gothic old house, and “Morgan” cannily mixes its hi-tech horrors with old-school spooks; it’s a monster movie, but it asks questions both philosophical and pragmatic.

Scott and Owen keep us guessing along the way, with a few fun feints and twists, and a meaty sequence that allows Paul Giamatti to very deliberately devour the scenery as a psychiatrist sent in to determine Morgan’s mental state.

Cinematographer Mark Patten makes everything a bit forbidding and a bit gorgeous, from Lee’s original drive to the property (which looks like an ad for German sports cars) to a final confrontation in a dense forest.