THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
It’s good to have a caring friend, but it’s never good if they choose to act irrationally for you.
PLOT
M3GAN follows roboticist Gemma who works for the toy company ‘Funki’. After her sister Nicole (Chelsie Florence) and brother in law Ryan James (Arlo Green) die in a tragic car accident, the only survivor was their daughter Cady. Despite being unprepared for raising a child, Gemma does her best to do right by her niece. Not wanting her to be sad, she decides to create an advanced toy as a companion. Inspired by her motion capture robot Bruce, she completes a child sized humanoid robot doll, powered by artificial intelligence named M3GAN (Model 3 Generative Android). When Cady quickly grows a liking to the prototype, Gemma’s boss David Lin believes of its potential to succeed as the next toy line. That would be officially green-lit after a successful demonstration with the board of directors. M3GAN would quickly take over the parental role, which grows worry over Gemma’s coworkers Tess & Cole, as well as Cady’s therapist Lydia (Amy Usherwood) because they see that the child’s emotional attachment will become unhealthy. That is exactly what happens while M3GAN also operates independently and would target anything she would deem a threat to her. She would start with killing an obnoxious dog named Dewey that attacked Cady. Because that same dog belonged to the neighbor Celia (Lori Ungey), she would quickly blame Gemma for its absence. So M3GAN would cover her tracks by fatally spraying her with insecticide. She would also attack a boy named Brandon (Jack Cassidy) and who bullied Cady during an alternative school’s outdoor activity of a scavenger hunt. With those three incidents happening in a short amount of time, Gemma becomes suspicious of M3GAN completely. When she tries to look through her video logs, many files are shown to be deleted/corrupted. The only file that confirms her right to be suspicious is one video showing M3GAN looking at Brandon menacingly. She takes the toy to her lab in hopes to fix her, but Cady would become distraught when being separated from the one thing she saw as a thing. When Gemma tries to calm down her niece, the child would overreact by slapping her in the face. She would quickly apologize for her actions, which gives her guardian the chance to apologize for not properly helping her cope with her loss; She admits that M3GAN was meant to be a distraction to help her cope with her grief, and never the solution. Afraid that the toy is responsible for murder, she gives Tess & Cole approval to deprogram her. That doesn’t happen as M3GAN would attack them both and destroy the lab which also destroys the files that would confirm evidence of past actions. Tess & Cole are able to escape with their lives, but this would give the toy the opportunity to continue leaving behind her trail of blood. She would continue by killing David before the new launch. She would also kill his assistant Kurt (Stephane Garneau-Montenegrin), staging it as a murder-suicide due to the latter stealing files over David’s mistreatment. M3GAN would sneak away from Funki headquarters once people attending the launch find the dead bodies. She would then go to Gemma’s home with the intent to take over as Cady’s sole parent. Despite the aunt trying to defend herself, M3GAN would still overpower her. When Cady witnesses her friend act violently, she defends her aunt by using Bruce to rip her in half. With the upper half still active, Cady is able to finish her off by using a screwdriver to destroy her processing chip. With M3GAN appearing to be destroyed for good, Gemma & Cady embrace each other, feeling relieved to survive such a horrifying incident. As they reunite with Tess & Cole, the film would end in a cliffhanger, showing Gemma’s AI home device Elsie turn on on its own.
THOUGHTS
When the trailers didn’t convince me, I didn’t plan to push myself in checking this out. But when my peers saw it before me and recommended it, I then became bound to make the time. After seeing it on Peacock, I can’t deny that I was impressed of what came from it. Producer James Wan, co writer Akela Cooper and Director Gerard Johnstone collaborate to make a horror film that is better than it should be. It goes in multiple directions and succeeds in following through. I even dug the score by Anthony B Willis as it's techno vibe creates the reminder that technology is the enemy in this story. Having said that, you know how horror pulls real life issues to prove its point and its no exception when capturing one of the themes through the titular character whose is incredibly bought to life thanks to the young Amie Donald donning the costume, the voice provided by Jenna Davis and the various the puppeteers. It is easy compare M3GAN to Chucky from the 2019 remake Child's Play because it is about a rogue toy, but it's a lot more than that. The difference is that M3GAN was never sabotaged, but was instead programmed to be a protected towards the young Cady. Due to how she is an AI, you know she uses her intelligence mostly to ensure Cady remains happy. But that was part of the problem, focusing on one thing was not allowing Cady to grow and she couldn't understand that at all. Due to not being able to, it only led to her becoming dangerously overprotective of a machine, determined to not let anything be in her way to succeed. Once she shows what she is capable of without being told what to do, that is where the fear kicks in. Seeing her lunge towards Brandon and dance before killing David were the creepiest intimidation tactics to behold in this film, which is the whole point. It only gets worse for people when she uses her surroundings to her advantage, thus avoiding to get caught so easily. Never thought I'd see a kid's ear get ripped off until now and the same goes with seeing a paper cutter blade used as a weapon. Since Cady had to fight fire with fire by using Bruce to fight her now former friend, I admit it was pretty cool to see that play out as it pleasantly reminded me of Robocop fighting ED209. Knowing that Elsie turned on on its own easily proves that M3GAN got ahead and used it to save herself, which proves that the horror ain't over yet. Overall, M3GAN not only reminds us that we shouldn't rely on technology to control our lives, but also tells us that we as people must maintain emotional connection no matter what happens to us. In this case, it is strongly suggested when we are in the grieving process. Loss is the worst feeling and we want the pain to go away, but it has to flow in order to go away. The more we ball it up, the angrier we become towards ourselves which is a feeling you don't want. And when you have family, sharing the said feeling makes the process a little earlier. The rest of this message is impressively explored thanks to the two leads. Alison Williams definitely makes a relatable performance in the role of Gemma, portraying her as a workaholic who never planned on starting a new family until things drastically change. Despite never being prepared to raise Cady, she didn't stop trying because she still cared deep down. She couldn't help it when relying on M3GAN as long as she did because she wanted things to be easier for her and her niece. But once Cady started acting out, she caught on to the fact that parenting will never be easy no matter what privilege someone has and you can't have it both ways. It may have been too late for her to stop M3GAN, but then again nothing is gonna stop her from doing the right thing. And on the other hand, you are definitely relating to Cady as well since breakout Violet McGraw makes clear how vulnerable of a child she was. Kids should never be prepared for losing their parents no matter what the scenario because it's too traumatic to go through. Nevertheless, they have to be because life is unpredictable. Cady was not sure what to feel when her parents died and M3GAN made her feel happy 24/7. That would become the problem because she wasn't properly coping with what she went through. It is okay to be upset with things not going your way, but avoiding to talk about how you feel is going to make it worse. Cady becomes capable to digest this once she's separated from M3GAN and when she saw her friend show her true colors, she knew she had to be stopped. And that made me happy seeing her stand by Gemma the way she was trying to do for her. Even though M3GAN is not done yet with her trail of blood, at least this family will be somewhat aware of the next set of danger. Apart from this dynamic duo, they weren't the only characters that were interesting. Both Jen Van Epps and Brian Alvarez respectively made Tess & Cole likable in their given time because they do their best in supporting Gemma's actions yet remain honest on they feel. Even they understood the risk of M3GAN's advanced intelligence before respecting Gemma's opinion to move forward. Since they survived M3GAN's wrath as well, I hope they continue to be helpful. And last but not least, even I enjoyed Ronnie Chieng as David. He totally owns the role in being as much a self centered boss you expect in movies like this. I'm just surprised he can admit to Gemma he needed help in presenting M3GAN because not every boss can be that honest. He was definitely towards employees like Kurt, but that he didn't mean he had to die with him. I was generally surprised of what I got out of it, but I can admit there were still moments that tripped me out as I saw it. For instance, I can’t be the only one who was severely creeped the fuck out over the opening commercial for Funki’s Purpetual. I know that is a parody of how toy commercials can be over the top, but it’s done in such cringe fashion it looked like it was meant to be an SNL skit and I don’t say that as a compliment. Speaking of which, shouldn’t Funki be able to sue the opposing company for making Furzeez? I feel like even kids themselves would know the difference and some sort of case can be built. Going into the rest of the story, why would Nicole not tell Gemma she wanted Ryan’s parents to raise Cady? I know this proves how distant they were, but for something so important to discuss, that should’ve been talked about at least once between them. It can be funny for Elsie to mention Gemma she had Tinder notifications, but why would that be an option to say aloud? She may live alone, but it ain't like she wouldn't bring people over like like Tess & Cole. I want to laugh that David didn’t have a swipe card to access Gemma’s lab, but why was that even possible? He’s the boss, he should’ve already had that. And should collecting really be seen as a bad thing? I feel like Lydia was exaggerating because I’m aware that there is a passion in such a hobby. She even overreacts on Gemma choosing to explain her collectible. I know she wants Cady to be comfortable, but there is nothing wrong in explaining what a toy does, especially since Gemma makes a bunch of them. Of all the things Gemma didn’t do, how come there wasn’t a parental control for M3GAN? If she really wanted to ensure control of her creation, that probably would’ve saved her from all the trouble. Knowing that Kurt took the M3GAN files does imply he did the same for Purpetual, to give the other company the chance to create Furzeez, but how did he do it? If he’s skilled in hacking, I wouldn’t mind letting that be known aloud. And how come there was an empty tissue box during one of the child service sessions? I know that was supposed to show how overprotective M3GAN became, but I feel like that should never happen in a place related to child services because kids cry a lot. Also, I can’t be the only one who knew immediately of a bad idea it was for M3GAN to be taken to the school activity. Yes a teacher encouraged the toy to be in the toy table, but even if Gemma wasn’t sure that M3GAN was violent, she should’ve been able to come up with a better lie to give a break between her and Cady. Leaving this advanced toy unguarded would be just as bad as someone from Apple leaving behind a new phone prototype unattended, it's bound to go wrong and that's not good. M3GAN should've not been able to leave the toy table anyway because Gemma should've kept her fucking eyes glued to the damn table. And lastly, how did Gemma convince Cady to do the M3GAN promo? I know the kid would say yes as long as she’s with the toy, but shooting an ad like that takes hours, which makes me worry how long it took for it to be done. Of all the mistakes Cole makes that irritates me the most, it is going to be choosing to pull the final plug in front of M3GAN instead of from behind like the rest he unplugged. Even if he isn't sure the toy is violent, he stil should've taken a precaution for everyone's sake. I did say it was pretty cool for Cady to use Bruce to fight back, but how come M3GAN couldn't figure out how to hack him? Sure he gets destroyed too on accident by slipping, but since the new toy was able to control a car and turn off emergency systems, she should've scanned Bruce way before their showdown. I don't mind the climax revealing Tess & Cole survived the explosion, but did we need visual proof? Since Cole was wearing an oxygen mask on the drive to Gemma's house, he and Tess should've went to the hospital and the revelation would've been smoother if Gemma got a text that they're recovering. As long as you can ignore these issues, you’re still in for a ride. In short, M3GAN gives a strong opening for 2023 by being a horror film that gets as creative as possible for its setting and putting its inspiration to good use. You need a wake up call to be free of distractions? This one will do the trick.
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