Morgan

Anya Taylor-Joy's title character is a lab-grown synthetic human who never ceases to surprise her corporate creators in this sci-fi thriller that marks the directorial debut of award-winning ad man Luke Scott (son of the film's producer Ridley). Morgan has just committed a brutal, unprovoked attack on a sympathetic doctor (Jennifer Jason Leigh), so head office send in Kate Mara's steely troubleshooter to see if the project has a future. As the concrete-bunker setting flags up similarities to the cyborg-themed Ex Machina, the opening encounters build foreboding while musing over what it means to be human. The tipping point however, comes with a bravura scene in which a visiting AI specialist (Paul Giamatti) probes this new creation's emotional limits, after which the movie pretty much dispenses with talk and gets down to rather less interesting action. The dumbing-down is slightly disappointing, since the classy cast (with Toby Jones and Michelle Yeoh in the white coats) is eminently capable, and the tensions crackling among this tight-knit research group conjure up memories of Scott Sr's original Alien. It's very watchable, but not all it might have been.