Content Advisory: Animal cruelty or animal death
A robotics engineer creates a doll with advanced A.I. for her grieving niece in M3GAN. Gemma (Allison Williams) is an engineer for the toy company Funki, best known for their Purrpetual Pets line. Gemma receives some bad news when her sister and brother-in-law are killed in a car accident, and Gemma is made the caregiver of their daughter Cara (Violet McGraw). With Gemma lost at how to raise a child, she decides to utilize the advanced A.I. she has been developing to create the Mark 3 Generative Android, aka M3GAN (played physically by Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis), which acts as a self-learning caregiver for Cara. However, it turns out that M3GAN’s protection of Cara includes eliminating whoever is perceived as a threat.
M3GAN Synopsis
M3GAN is a darkly humourous sci-fi horror film directed by Gerard Johnstone (Housebound) and written by Akela Cooper (Malignant), based on a story by Cooper and James Wan. The film starts with a mock commercial for the Firby-like Purrpetual Pets toy line, designed by robotics engineer Gemma, played by Alison Williams (HBO’s Girls, Get Out). However, she has higher aspirations for robotics. Gemma goes behind the back of her boss David (Ronny Chieng), to create M3GAN, whose advanced A.I. allows her to self-learn. However, Gemma’s niece grows too dependent on M3GAN, with the android having a violent streak regarding protecting the child.
My Thoughts on M3GAN
Probably the most prominent comparison to M3GAN is the Child’s Play franchise since the titular character is essentially a sassy teenage version of Chucky. The character’s sassy humour causes M3GAN to stand out, with the film already having a viral moment of the android breaking into dance. There are even a few moments of M3GAN breaking out into song, including a very on-the-nose rendition of the 2011 dance hit “Titanium” by David Guetta featuring Sia.
Probably the only thing keeping M3GAN from being the same level of fun as 2021’s Malignant is the decision to edit the film down to a PG-13 rating. While some of the violence makes it on screen, a very nasty ear-ripping comes to mind, it is evident that M3GAN was initially meant to be a gorier film, but the most violent bits are not depicted off-camera. At least the film builds to a satisfying climax, which seems like it was taken straight out of The Terminator.
Ultimately, M3GAN is not as awesome as it could have been, but it is still an entertaining, darkly humourous horror film.
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