M3GAN (2023) Universal/Sci-Fi-Horror-Comedy RT: 102 minutes Rated PG-13 (violent content and terror, some strong language, a suggestive reference) Director: Gerard Johnstone Screenplay: Akela Cooper Music: Anthony Willis Cinematography: Peter McCaffrey and Simon Raby Release date: January 6, 2023 (US) Cast: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis, Jen Van Epps, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Ronny Chieng, Amy Usherwood, Lori Dungey, Jack Cassidy, Stephane Garneau-Monten, Arlo Green, Kira Josephson. Box Office: $95M (US)/$181M (World)
Rating: ***
Hello and Happy New Year to all! Here’s hoping 2023 will be a good year for cinema. Raise your extra large sodas everybody. Cheers!
In what’s become a tradition, Hollywood kicks off the year with a horror movie, the tech-gone-wild thriller M3GAN. Last year was an exceptionally good year for the genre with solid entries like Scream 5, The Black Phone, Barbarian and the splatterific Terrifier 2. I’d also include X and its prequel Pearl on that list. 2022 is a hard act to follow, but M3GAN is a fairly strong start. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it reminds us why it was invented in the first place. It’s a good albeit derivative genre film that freely borrows ideas from a slew of other movies like Frankenstein, The Terminator, RoboCop, Deadly Friend and, of course, the ones featuring Chucky. Director Gerard Johnstone (Housebound) puts them all together to come up with a fun, sometimes clever fright flick with a generous helping of social satire on the side.
M3GAN (pronounced Megan) stands for Model 3 Generative Android. It’s the latest creation of robotics genius Gemma (Williams, Get Out). It’s more than just a toy; it’s an intelligent lifelike android designed to meet a child’s every need. It’s a parent, teacher, protector, therapist and bff all rolled up into one. It looks like a cross between a Shining twin and an Olsen sister. When Gemma presents it to her prick of a boss (Chieng, Crazy Rich Asians) at the Funki Toy Company, he sees HUGE dollar signs. He wants it on toy store shelves like yesterday despite warnings from Gemma that it isn’t quite finished yet. A lot of testing has to be done. That’s where things fall to you-know-what.
Gemma has recently gained custody of her 9YO niece Cady (McGraw, Doctor Sleep) following her parents’ death in a freak car accident. Gemma is clearly not qualified to care for a child, especially one as traumatized as Cady. She’s too involved with her work to consider the girl’s needs. Then she comes up with what she thinks is a brilliant solution. Despite being ordered to cease work on M3GAN in favor of another tech-toy, she puts the finishing touches on the bot and shows it to her initially irritated boss who changes his tune upon seeing its next big thing potential. By way of demonstration, she has Cady “pair” with M3GAN. The two hit it off right away. Gemma is pleased at first, but then things take a sinister turn when the walking, talking, singing, dancing doll becomes a little too protective of her human.
Much of M3GAN is pretty predictable. We know right away an ugly fate awaits a nasty neighbor (Margo Martindale lookalike Lori Dungey) and her vicious dog. The same goes for a rotten bully (Cassidy, Raised by Refugees) who makes the mistake of picking on Cady. A battle of wills develops between Gemma and M3GAN as the latter becomes more conscious. The finale is a fight to the finish with plenty of PG-13 carnage. That was the one thing that made me leery of M3GAN. It has a few cool violent moments, one in particular involving a nail gun and chemical sprayer, but it mostly avoids gore and bloodshed. This is ordinarily a major turn-off for me, but I didn’t mind it as much this time. I actually enjoyed myself with M3GAN.
What’s interesting is that there appears to be a modicum of intelligence behind M3GAN. It has more on its mind than cheap scares even though it has its fair share of those. Writer Akela Cooper (Malignant) has plenty to say about a society where mothers and fathers use technology (e.g. tablets, iPads, etc.) as surrogate parents. It frees them up to live their busy lives. Gemma has no clue what she’s doing. She didn’t plan on being a parent at this time. It’s likely she never considered it at all. In creating M3GAN, she thought it would be an easy fix for Cady’s issues. She didn’t realize she was creating a monster. So is M3GAN a cautionary tale? In a way, yes it is.
At the same time, M3GAN never takes itself too seriously. Did anybody take the Chucky movies seriously? NO! There’s something simultaneously creepy and funny about a four-foot doll walking around, making threats and going after anybody perceived as a threat. M3GAN is played by Amie Donald who, with the help of digital effects, makes her character feel real and fake at the same time. The way she moves in odd, jerky movements brings to mind the creepy Samara from The Ring crossed with a Dance Moms kid. The way she kills…. well, that could be any evil AI creation in any movie. Any way you look at it, M3GAN is a bot with attitude.
Williams is also very good as the aunt who never counted on becoming a child’s primary caretaker. Her life has always been about herself and her career. Her home isn’t exactly child-friendly. She has a shelf in the living room where she displays collectibles, rare toys still in their original boxes. They’re there to look at, not to play with. How do you make a child understand that? She’s slightly less convincing as a mad scientist-type messing around where she shouldn’t be. For her, it’s less about playing God than furthering her career.
McGraw does fine work as Cady, a child alone and traumatized in unfamiliar surroundings. She’s dealing with a lot. At one point, Gemma tries to enroll her in school, a huge change for a girl who’s been home-schooled all her life. The prospect of being with other kids freaks her out, especially since she’s not allowed to bring M3GAN with her. The doll has made her happy again and there’s no way she’s ever going to give her up. McGraw effortlessly makes it all believable. Chiang gets most of the funny bits as the constantly annoyed boss who, at one point, trash-talks toy giant Hasbro.
When it comes to movies released in January, you can only cross your fingers and hope they’re not too bad. Sometimes they’re really not. M3GAN is one of those cases. It’s a good movie that will please teens and fans of the genre. I can even see sequel potential with this one. I liked it. I liked it a lot. That’s saying a lot.
