REVIEW: M3GAN
Rated PG-13 • 1 hour, 42 minutes • The bottom line: A ludicrous experiment that's just creepy enough to work
Synopsis
A robotics engineer at a toy company builds a life-like doll that begins to take on a life of its own.
Director: Gerard Johnstone
Writers: Screenplay by Aleka Cooper; Story by Cooper and James Wan
Key Cast: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis and Ronny Chieng
Producers: Jason Blum, James Wan
What worked
The premise is strong, and its philosophy is mostly sound
The acting, particularly by the child performers, is really remarkable
The music and score amplify the audiences’ feeling of dread and chaos
What didn’t work
The final result is a bit over-the-top, even if still enjoyable
The timeline for the film just felt a bit rushed and unearned
With its uniquely creepy look at the growing role of technology in our daily lives, M3GAN is an highly unsettling but tremendously insightful film. What’s more it could be the start of the next great thriller franchise—a thought that be just as unnervingly effective as the film itself.
The film follows the budding but strained relationship of Gemma (Allison Williams) and her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), after Cady’s parents are killed in a car accident. Gemma, a robotics engineer, has no discernible parenting skills and instead leans on technology to bridge the widening gap between Cady and herself. As part of her work for a major toy company, Gemma develops a life-size doll android called M3GAN (Jenna Davis as the voice, Amie Donald as the actor) that uses artificial intelligence to learn and better respond to its users’ needs, whether emotional, academic or otherwise.
M3GAN works because it’s a simple, emotionally driven story that is accentuated by a philosophical look at artificial intelligence through a practical lens. That is, for as outlandish and campy as the film is on its surface, it has a lot of interesting things to say about modern parenting and the way technology is changing every facet of our lives. In some ways, the most terrifying part of this film is just how on-the-nose it is—to a point where in 10-15 years, when there’s inevitably an companion android on the market, people will point to this film as a stark warning.
At the core of the film is a question whose answer is generally divided along generational lines: How big of a role should technology play in not only our daily lives, but how we grow as families and teach future generations? Whatever your answer to that question is, this film manages to challenge it—all while showcasing a mostly one-note, but effective, worst-case scenario of what happens when good tech goes bad.
This film leans heavily into that all-or-nothing sentiment toward technology, often to great effect. But M3GAN does fall short in exhibiting how artificial intelligence and even more basic technology, when used properly, can and does benefit both emotional learning and social skills, both in adults and children. This approach by screenwriter Aleka Cooper is fine, in one sense, but it does so while also lampooning characters that take a non-traditional approach to children and learning (without spoiling the details, there’s a scene at an alternative outdoor educational center that is clearly meant to lambast), even just moments after defending them. While some may see this as the movie willing to skewer anyone and anything, from the way this particular situation is executed, I personally view it as a wrinkle in the film’s philosophy.
All of this to say that I truly did enjoy this movie. The acting overall was quite good and the portrayal of Cady and Gemma’s relationship really sold the strains of the fostering/adoptive process—particularly one where an adult is being thrust unexpectedly (and perhaps undesirably) into a parental role and a child is coming in with trauma tied to a family member’s death. It also nails the way attitudes have evolved about use of technology in parenting, and the dangers of outsourcing parenting responsibilities and emotional vulnerability to others beings—real or artificial. It does all of that in a way somewhere between subtle and preachy, but it never felt overboard.
There’s a lot of violence in this movie, but most of it is implied rather than visceral or bloody. There’s also no shortage of tense moments and even a few jump scares. In a couple instances, I emptied part of my popcorn on my lap due to an unexpected jump scare; then again, I’m pretty easily frightened.
The dialogue at times was a bit stilted and stale, but rarely did any of the movie seem forced. Overall, though, the film felt a bit rushed and at times the results came off unearned, even if it was something that played well on the screen. The music is really strong and adds to the sense of impending dread and chaos.
Amie Donald portraying the physical manifestation of M3GAN knocks it out of the park in her movements and mannerisms, and she and McGraw play really well off one another; Jenna Davis as the voice of the android is perfectly creepy, too. There are a few characters in the film you are meant to hate, and boy, did I—in large part because the actors delivered such strong performances.
Overall, this is a great movie that’s worth checking out if you like horror, suspense or thrillers. It’s not one I’d take my 8- or 9-year-old to, but if they were just a couple years older, there’s little overtly objectionable that would make this a no-go for them. The end in some ways is open-ended, so I’m looking forward to seeing if this grows into a larger franchise.
Bottom line: This is a fun, thrilling movie that’s a great exploration of the philosophy behind changes in technology. It’s ludicrous experiment in storytelling that's just creepy enough to work. Score: 7.5/10