After months of watching Universal’s deadly killer android M3gan dance her way through social media in the sacred halls of real internet fame, you might think there isn’t much going on in the movie that wasn’t already spoiled by trailers. But like his eponymous toy of the future, M3gan packs a surprisingly powerful punch that takes a handful of narrative bugs and turns them into a wonderfully comedic horror feature.
Caught somewhere in between After Yang and the most recent Child’s play, M3gan — from director Gerard Johnstone (Housebound) and screenwriter Akela Cooper (Luke Kooi, Malicious) – is yet another tale of what happens when AI-powered androids become too sensitive for their own good. Rather than simply viewing advanced pieces of technology as ripe for evil, M3gan goes for the jugular by focusing on the very real fears that can come with parenting and the way people sometimes try to cope with those feelings by relying too much on tools.
A young girl named Cady (Violet McGraw) is loved by all the adults in her life. But people like Cady’s parents are also busy, distracted, and constantly pulled in a million different directions, which is a big part of why interactive, Furby-like toys called Perpetual Pets are such a hit. With a Perpetual Pet – a toy that Cady’s robotics engineer Aunt Gemma (Allison Williams) helped design – on board, parents can feel like their kids are constantly engaged and know they can always take down the talking, chirping, farting creatures with the companion smartphone app. But when a little commotion surrounding Cady’s Perpetual Pet leads to a terrible accident that leaves her orphaned, her and her aunt’s lives are turned upside down.
With a deadline to present the next generation of Perpetual Pets to her boss David (Ronny Chieng) towering over her, it’s not grieving for her sister or making her niece take things Gemma expected to have on her plate. But the stress and mess of their situation force Gemma – a flat-out workaholic who isn’t the best with kids – to finally put the finishing touches on her very expensive, highly ethically questionable side project, M3gan (voiced by Jenna Davis and physically played by Amy Donald).
Although the first of M3gan‘s hysterical fake commercials for Perpetual Pets gives you a good sense of humour, the film takes a bit of time as it first gets going and paves the way for a story that is unexpectedly thoughtful. Cady’s discomfort with Gemma has less to do with her aunt being too focused on her work than with the reality that they both experience a kind of sadness that is hard to express – especially for young people experiencing it for the first time . . Some of M3gan‘s most effective scenes almost feel like they could have been plucked from a straightforward drama. McGraw controls the screen like a kid full of anxiety in front of Williams (who feels more or less checked out for most of the film). And when Cady and M3gan first start to be friends, that’s the movie really starts to cut loose and come to life in an impressively satisfying way.
Long before M3gan the puppet actually starts killing people, M3gan, the movie, encourages you to just go ahead and chuckle at the silliness of the premise. It is aware that it is not exactly reinventing the wheel. Rather, it’s taking the classic killer toy + unsuspecting public formula and using the result to do some solid stuff with one of the most disturbing puppets to star in a movie since. Breaking Dawn of the Twilight Saga: Part 1.
The human physicality of Donald’s performance often makes M3gan feel like a believable, fluid, dangerous machine that’s always ready to switch gears and hunt on all fours. But some of M3ganThe funniest scenes just seem to be human actors doing the opposite of a lifeless prop that seems to move with in-camera tricks and clever angles. Similar to how some of The Muppets’ best jokes were really just people throwing dolls in front of a camera, there are times everywhere where M3gan just pops into view, and you can’t quite tell if she’s an actor crouching down, or that an M3gan mask has simply fallen in front of a camera in a way that is meant to surprise you.
It’s not always clear if you’re watching an actor pretend to strangle another or if you’re seeing an actor holding a glamorous kid’s hand to his throat, but it almost always works in context because of how deliberately ridiculous the film becomes . Sometimes you can clearly see that the tape and glue stick metaphorically M3gan together, and the film’s internal sense of logic feels inconsistent more often than not. But M3ganis able to partially redeem itself because it never feels like it is trying to give itself everything Which seriously and for the way it manages to pull off an amazing number of pointed jokes – many of them musical – about consumerism and being addicted to screen time.
As January debuts go, M3ganis one that more than punches above its weight class and thankfully understands the value of clocking well under two hours – something more movies asking you to go on wild rides with them can remember.
M3gan also with Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Stephane Garneau-Monten, Arlo Green and Lori Dungey. The film will hit theaters on January 6.
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.