M3GAN

• Directed by Gerard Johnstone
• December 7, 2022 (Los Angeles) / January 6, 2023 (US)

An artificially intelligent doll develops self-awareness and becomes hostile toward anyone that comes between her and her new human companion.

Let us deal with what is for me the elephant in the room. I know I’m not the first to comment that the design of M3GAN (Model 3 Generative ANdroid) (Amie Donald performance/Jenna Davis as the voice) looks too much like an Olsen Twin. Take your pick if you recall their names. That is one of the more if not most distracting elements of the movie.

Like so many movies involving anything computerized devices, the problems start in M3GAN because of poor wording to the machine on the part of a user (here the creator) which takes the command literally. It is a bit of a science fiction cliché. They make up for this in the film by having issues occur in small and excusable doses at first.

There is a distinct theme of dealing with trauma (or the avoidance of doing so) for both the aunt and the girl central to the story. M3GAN allows the aunt to not only avoid helping her niece get better but avoid responsibilities of being a new parent. M3GAN allows the young girl retreat into a fictitious reality where everything is still good and her life is relatively normal. She doesn’t have a need to confront any of her bad feelings. 

They do a good job of giving a level of realism to the relationship between Gemma (Allison Williams) and her niece Cady (Violet McGraw). It is not instant love but a slow bonding. To the credit of the storyteller Gemma starts out quite reluctantly as a sudden parent being more concerned about her work than about her niece and deceased sibling. Now that I think about it, they never tell to which parent Gemma is related.

None of this would’ve worked if M3GAN was not a threatening character. I thought the design looked a bit silly in the promos (and even in the film she does) but she becomes a genuine threat because her drive to protect Cady becomes obsessive. The delivery of lines is cold and matter-of-fact with the approximation of a human face evoking the fear of that creepy doll so many people have. Toss in some witty and threatening one-liners as well and you have the makings of a great baddie.

M3GAN does rise to being a great machine threat. She acts intelligently and is manipulative but not in a way that would alert even Helen Keller. It has a plan along with a set of rules that it follows. M3GAN is more shocking and disturbing than it is scary. There’s an appropriate amount of humor yet it never becomes a distinct comedy. It has more in common with the horror of the 80s than anything.

Few of the kills you are looking forward too. All the characters are likable or even entertaining even if they are douches. Gemma’s boss and his assistant deaths worked because of their entertainment value. The kills though were not visceral or heavy on gore. Plenty of blood but no entrails.

There’s no mystery or very much that you will need to create with your own mind. This movie hands at all to you, but it doesn’t do so to the point you lose interest. Yet it’s also not nearly as attention holding as it could be. The concept is very surface level with the themes it could handle providing an excuse for the story to happen.

Though it does engage in some pretty standard stuff, M3GAN presents everything interesting. It doesn’t bore you to the point you’re going to forget about this. You will get some chuckles and a few jump scares in the mix. Maybe not the best thing to come out in recent years, but not the worst.