Luke Scott, son of Ridley Scott, delivers rock solid work in his feature debut in many respects, but excellent performances and technical achievements can only take you so far if there’s nothing outstanding in the script. Scott takes the time to develop the Morgan narrative from multiple viewpoints, which makes it a rich, exciting experience but he fails to add anything interesting to the familiar big screen scenario of out of control/dangerous artificial intelligence, so it doesn’t resonate as much as it could have.

Kate Mara leads as Lee Weathers, a risk management consultant sent to assess an experiment in a hidden, top-secret facility where the resident scientists successfully created a living being using synthetic DNA. “It” is named Morgan (Anya Taylor-Joy), and while Morgan once lived happily with her creators and had joy in her heart, changing circumstances required that they confine her to a bunker. After a violent episode, Lee arrives on behalf of corporate to determine whether the project is heading in the right direction or if it needs to be terminated.

It’s a scenario we’ve seen before - scientists achieve the dream of successfully developing artificial intelligence, only to have their creation grow beyond their wildest dreams, to the point that they can’t control it anymore and then struggle to decide if they should wipe out years of work. Scott doesn’t break new ground with that concept which is unfortunate, but he still delivers a highly effective sci-fi thriller that works exceptionally well on multiple levels.