One of the best things they did to make M3GAN stand out from Child’s Play was re-edit it into a PG-13 movie because it isn’t a Horror movie, it’s an updated warning about tech and the usual bogeyman, Artificial Intelligence exceeding our control or wisdom. The film’s ancestry is descended from Frankenstein, 2001’s HAL, Electric Dreams, Wargames and Demon Seed and for good measure, throw in the movie version of The Lawnmower Man. M3GAN just seems scarier as we’re inching closer to actual AIs being deployed unlike how hilarious and implausible Electric Dreams was via a personal computer in 1984.
The premise is built around Gemma, a brilliant roboticist working for a successful toy builder tasked with making a cheaper sequel to their hit Furby-like toy. Currently, they’re dealing with a competitor making something similar for nearly half the price. Her project labelled Model 3 Generative ANdroid is her long-shot project but its shelved by the stereotypical (yet mostly true) short-sighted CEO played accurately via Ronny Chieng of The Daily Show. Everything is interrupted by the sudden death of Gemma’s sister and brother-in-law making her the immediate guardian of her nine-year-old niece Cady. Gemma is completely unprepared to care for a blooming tweener since she has spent adulthood focused on her career and share’s the obsessions of tech-oriented people as per Hollywood: collectibles kids can’t touch, writing code, changing the world, etc. Ergo, she isn’t married, not seriously involved with anyone, the house is all computerized, she drives an electric BMW…you know, what Big Bang Theory programmed into the masses.
Given Cady’s recent trauma and Gemma’s need to get work done (it may have been shot in New Zealand with Kiwi tax dollars, but the employer is quite American), M3GAN is removed from the virtual mothballs. The android and Cady hit it off quickly, not a hard sell given the kid was home schooled; another personal prejudice I’m expressing without apology. Socializing is a vital skill to teach children in order to make a functional society with fewer Gates, Musks and other self-important sociopaths who need to understand compromise and the recognizing the contributions of others. I’m also a big enemy of the Person of Greatness argument of History, having worked briefly in games.
Moving along, we’ve all seen the trailers, something goes wrong and M3GAN becomes a murder machine. How it comes about, you have to see and when you do, it’s pretty obvious what Gemma did to make M3GAN “unhinged.” Initially I feared this would be on par with the disappointing Child’s Play reboot. Glad to be wrong, the cause is more plausible given how we live in an era of sloppy, rushed code filled with more flaws than US foreign policy. You’ll see how the android also becomes addictive like an iPad, Gameboy or TV (pick a generation) while Gemma is OK with it; anything to get 10 minutes of peace! Will it change minds? Hell no! Humanity already hit the point of no return decades ago. Fear of robots/AI existed since at least my grandparents’ era (Brave New World, RUR and The Shape of Things to Come) and as long as Kapitalism remains in the driver’s seat in the West, M3GAN will feel quaint if our descendants are alive in a Matrix-esque dystopia with their version of Xi and Musk in charge.
Alamo Extras: Commercials for Robert the Robot (Fifties), Baby Grow, Sweetie Face, Color n’ Curl Candie, Darcia Disco Doll (Seventies) and Strawberry Shortcake (Eighties); Trailers for Devil Doll, Dolly Dearest and Dolls; Alamo’s favorite killer bots: Chopping Mall and Deadly Friend; Alamo’s favorite killer dolls: Chucky in Child’s Play 2 and Herencia Diabolica (Spanish for Diabolical Inheritance, I thought it was Italian given that country’s tradition of Horror); the “Everyday” video by Weyes Blood (the act imitates a slasher movie); a twisted Tim & Eric skit called “Cinco Boy,”; and a Chinese-made stop-motion video of toys coming to life.