Hanna Runner
Sep. 16th, 2016 04:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishLuke Scott (dir), Morgan
Hanna crossed with Blade Runner, with the atmosphere of Alien. Those latter two shouldn't come as a surprise for the first film from Luke "Son of Ridley" Scott. I wouldn't call it a horror movie but I wouldn't necessarily disagree with someone who did.
The plot revolves around a bunch of scientists who've created an artificial young female human named Morgan. Morgan has poor impulse control and nonstandard thought processes. Lee has come from "corporate" to visit the remote lab and decide whether the Morgan project should continue. As you might expect, Things Go Poorly.
I liked it pretty well. I found Morgan's disconcerting affect and Lee's iron-clad control entirely believable. The setting (Northern Ireland playing upstate New York) is gorgeously green and foggy, and adds to the melancholy-ominous atmosphere. The only character who does something unforgivably stupid (psychiatrist Paul Giamatti) is established immediately as a pompous idiot; everyone else's stupid decisions are justifiable.
Here there be spoilers.
The point of the Morgan project, it turns out, is to breed supersoldiers. Morgan herself has been given emotions to see if this will make for a better supersoldier. In a Big Twist, Lee's iron-clad control is a direct result of her being a product of an earlier Morgan-like project, one without emotions.
The scientists have been locked away in a remote lab for years, hyperfocused on Morgan. As such they've developed some of their own quirks. Honestly it's not that much of a stretch to say that there aren't very many neurotypical people in the movie at all. Like Blade Runner, Morgan gestures vaguely in the direction of "what is 'human' anyway".
Once Morgan got loose there were really only two ways the movie could end: with nearly everyone but the two mains dead and Morgan either dead or run off into the wilderness. I was hoping for a "run off" ending, myself, and it looked for a few minutes like I might get one. Alas. Necessary for the closing scene of two white guys from Corporate discussing Lee's future and explaining the Big Twist for anyone in the audience who was asleep, though.
Also, a strong Bechdel pass. In fact, I believe it may fail the reverse-Bechdel, as I don't think there are ever any conversations between two male characters that aren't about a woman.
Hanna crossed with Blade Runner, with the atmosphere of Alien. Those latter two shouldn't come as a surprise for the first film from Luke "Son of Ridley" Scott. I wouldn't call it a horror movie but I wouldn't necessarily disagree with someone who did.
The plot revolves around a bunch of scientists who've created an artificial young female human named Morgan. Morgan has poor impulse control and nonstandard thought processes. Lee has come from "corporate" to visit the remote lab and decide whether the Morgan project should continue. As you might expect, Things Go Poorly.
I liked it pretty well. I found Morgan's disconcerting affect and Lee's iron-clad control entirely believable. The setting (Northern Ireland playing upstate New York) is gorgeously green and foggy, and adds to the melancholy-ominous atmosphere. The only character who does something unforgivably stupid (psychiatrist Paul Giamatti) is established immediately as a pompous idiot; everyone else's stupid decisions are justifiable.
Here there be spoilers.
The point of the Morgan project, it turns out, is to breed supersoldiers. Morgan herself has been given emotions to see if this will make for a better supersoldier. In a Big Twist, Lee's iron-clad control is a direct result of her being a product of an earlier Morgan-like project, one without emotions.
The scientists have been locked away in a remote lab for years, hyperfocused on Morgan. As such they've developed some of their own quirks. Honestly it's not that much of a stretch to say that there aren't very many neurotypical people in the movie at all. Like Blade Runner, Morgan gestures vaguely in the direction of "what is 'human' anyway".
Once Morgan got loose there were really only two ways the movie could end: with nearly everyone but the two mains dead and Morgan either dead or run off into the wilderness. I was hoping for a "run off" ending, myself, and it looked for a few minutes like I might get one. Alas. Necessary for the closing scene of two white guys from Corporate discussing Lee's future and explaining the Big Twist for anyone in the audience who was asleep, though.
Also, a strong Bechdel pass. In fact, I believe it may fail the reverse-Bechdel, as I don't think there are ever any conversations between two male characters that aren't about a woman.
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Date: 2016-09-17 09:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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