What better way to unwind from the holiday season than a movie about a murderous robotic doll? I have been looking forward to this movie but was it worth it?
Gemma (Allison Williams) develops robotic toys for children. When her sister and brother-in-law are killed in a car accident, her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), comes to live with her. Seeing that Cady is having difficulty transitioning to life without her parents, Gemma gives her the robotic friend prototype she is working on, codenamed M3gan. M3gan is perfect - she listens, she teaches, she protects. But maybe she is a little too perfect.
While M3gan isn’t the perfect movie, it is a lot of fun. On the positive side, M3gan isn’t the scary Chucky-style doll killer we are used to. Instead of a serial killer doll, we are faced with an AI who is fulfilling their duties to the extreme. This isn’t anything new. We see it in movies like Wall-E or Alien. In M3gan’s case, her duty was to protect Cady’s emotional and physical well-being. When those things are threatened, M3gan removes them. As a result, we actually cheer on M3gan’s murderous tendencies for the most part.
Thankfully, I don’t think there are too many negatives to the movie. Lydia (Amy Usherwood), the therapist that comes in to evaluate Cady, is awful. There is a scene where Lydia wants to watch Gemma play with Cady but then she contradicts everything she says. Lydia says to let Cady lead the play session (basically telling Gemma to not tell Cady how to play with a toy) then she, herself, tells Cady how to play. I understand why Lydia has to exist in the movie. I think it would have been better if she wasn’t so intolerable the first time we meet her. It makes all of the other interactions with her cringey.
I also wish that Gemma’s co-workers, Tess (Jen Van Epps) and Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez), were used a bit better. We only ever see them in the robotic lab. Considering that M3gan is now out in the world, they could have made the trip to Gemma’s house to give feedback on how they think M3gan is progressing. As it is, they have to make calls on M3gan’s behavior solely based on what Gemma tells them. They get biased information instead of getting the information for themselves.
With all of that in mind, I still highly enjoyed M3gan. It was a great story about attachments children make and the role parents play in their lives. I will probably watch it again when it comes to a streaming service.