Gerard Johnstone’s M3GAN is built on a concept that was a chestnut 40 years ago: seemingly benign artificial intelligence turning on its human creators. With a creepy, malicious android little girl as the film’s lead, Johnstone serves up a mélange of Child’s Play, Frankenstein, and Westworld. By playfully reworking the old robots-in-revolt shtick, the horror specialists at Blumhouse Productions have made this slick, inexpensive, pulp entertainment enjoyable.
Robotics specialist Gemma (Allison Williams) takes in her recently orphaned niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), while, simultaneously, her job security as a toy designer hinges on her next computerized novelty being a hit. Gemma supersedes her boss David’s (Ronny Chieng) orders and dives headfirst into finishing her latest invention, M3GAN (Model 3 Generative Android), a robotic humanoid playmate for kids. Using Cady as a test subject, Gemma watches her neice bond with M3GAN, and the very protective robot quickly reveals it’s far more advanced than even Gemma realized. Faster than you can say “HAL 9000,” things begin to go horribly awry.
M3GAN’s script doesn’t bear close scrutiny, but no one expects it to. It’s firmly committed to delivering comic scares involving the half-saccharine, half-creepy M3GAN, and they’re much funnier than they are creepy. The film’s PG-13 rating works in its favor, since Johnstone and his screenwriters cleave more toward black comedy than gore. Their middlebrow jabs at overreliance on technology and corporate sleaziness are generally well-aimed, beginning with a hellishly accurate toy commercial parody announcing the annoying Furbee-like Purrfect Petz that Gemma’s company produces.
One excellent creative choice is Gemma’s characterization. Indifferent to her traumatized niece’s emotional needs, she cold-bloodedly uses the child as a pawn to further her career. But Williams doesn’t telegraph evil to the audience: Her manner is eerily normal and polite as she goes about her inhuman business. The two key kid actors, McGraw and Amie Donald as M3GAN (voiced by Jenna Davis), do an admirable job of selling their characters’ respective humanity and inhumanity. Chieng’s performance as David is middling, mainly because his role is written as a caricatured big-business jerk. Likewise, many of the supporting characters are well-worn stereotypes.
The special effects and makeup are good overall, and appear to have been done with puppetry more often than CGI. The musical choices are above average throughout, and peak sharply with the inventive use of British composer Basil Kirchin’s “Silicon Chip.” But the film’s last act is mostly a dud. Plot points established early on go unresolved—possibly groundwork for a sequel—and Gemma has a contrived and out-of-character change of heart. Sequences that show promise seem to fade out as quickly as they began, their potential cut short.
If you approach M3GAN without high expectations, it might pleasantly surprise you. Johnstone and company knew exactly what they were making: dumb, fun horror that demands to be seen with a big, rowdy audience. Don’t stream it—viewers’ lively reactions are a key part of the movie’s appeal. Made for around $12 million, it delivers exponentially more entertainment than some of the $200 million spectacles from the last few years. M3GAN is like a Wendy’s cheeseburger: You either like it or you don’t, and nobody is going to mistake it for filet mignon.
M3GAN
PG-13, 102 minutes
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema,
Regal Stonefield & IMAX,
Violet Crown Cinema
