Making new friends, or building new friends out of metal and plastic, is a popular topic in science fiction right now. After Yang, Ron’s Gone Wrong, and Klara and the Sun have all featured robotic, artificially intelligent companions for children. Now, it happens again in a fun little horror film directed by James Wan and James Blum, two of the top names in the genre. Although M3GAN isn’t exactly a classic, you can bet that it will inspire a lot of sequels and Halloween costumes: The waxed face, long blonde hair, cream dress, and stripey pussycat bow of the title character appear to have been designed not with plausibility in mind but rather with the ease with which fans can imitate them at fancy-dress parties.
The film’s best opening scene is a satirical advertisement for PurRpetual Petz, a toy line that looks like Furby. Each toy is “a pet that lives longer than you do,” and it is made by Funki, a company in the United States that is definitely not Hasbro. However, a rival business is soon offering a fraudulent alternative that is even better: Their buttocks change color depending on how they feel!” Gemma (Allison Williams from Girls and Get Out), one of Funki’s engineers, is given the task of fighting back with a cheap PurRpetual Pet. Gemma, on the other hand, is of the opinion that innovating is the key to success: In particular, she wants Funki to produce life-size robotic girls that will learn proper conversational skills. What is her name for this innovative new invention? M3GAN, or the Model 3 Generative Android, is its abbreviation.
Gemma’s sister and brother-in-law were killed in a car accident recently, and despite having no maternal instincts, she is forced to care for their orphaned daughter Cady (Violet McGraw). She decides that Cady will be entertained in their posh suburban bungalow while she is away at work by the robot (Amie Donald, narrated by Jenna Davis) if she can get a M3GAN prototype running. After all, a traumatized, lonely child sharing a room with an experimental android with superhuman strength could not possibly be dangerous.
Even if you haven’t seen the trailer, you’ll know exactly what makes it dangerous, and even if you have, you’ll have a pretty good idea. M3GAN is a generic slasher movie that is made up of parts from Child’s Play and Frankenstein. It doesn’t give any new twists to the old idea that robots could go crazy and start hacking people to pieces. The android with big eyes and no smile is so creepy that her transformation into a tiny Terminator is not surprising. Akela Cooper, the film’s writer, and Gerard Johnstone, its director, don’t mince words when it comes to laying the groundwork for how the film will end. You can predict what will happen in the next half hour by looking at one shot of a car in the snow, a neighbor’s dog, or an obnoxious schoolboy.
M3GAN does not suddenly turn into a singing, dancing, serial killer for any logical reason other than the fact that this is what always happens in movies like this one. However, the payoffs are enjoyablely nasty. The android makes it a point to torture and kill people in creatively sadistic ways. The contrast between its girlish appearance and its homicidal tendencies makes for some delightfully tense and bloody scenes. The opening advertisement’s wry wit also reappears from time to time. The CEO of Funki is optimistic that kids everywhere will adore their robo-buddies: even those without deceased parents!” M3GAN, on the whole, is a film about artificial intelligence, but it could have used more real intelligence. Despite how funny the killings may be, the plotting is sloppy, the product placement is obvious, and the dialogue between them is awkward. For instance, Gemma tells M3GAN to keep Cady safe, which, from the android’s perspective, might justify some violence. However, aside from the fact that this is what always happens in films like this one, there is no logical explanation for its sudden transformation into a singing, dancing serial killer.
Considering its contemporary subject, M3GAN also feels oddly outdated: It could be based on a short story that was written in the 1970s by Stephen King or Ira Levin, or it could be based on a story that was written by Ray Bradbury a decade or two earlier. It could be filmed in the early 2000s, when Simone and A.I. Artificial Intelligence came out and Furbies were the hottest new toy in the world. The robot’s deliberately retro styling, which, once more, appears to have more to do with its viability as a fancy-dress costume than anything else, contributes to the feeling of being out of date. However, the film neglects to acknowledge the most recent advancements in computing. The android is shown as an amazing te.
