M3GAN
The Frankenstein myth meets Pinocchio in a clever, entertaining cautionary tale set in the world of interactive toys.
Down the rabbit hole: M3GAN reads to her charge, Violet McGraw
Photo Credit: Geoffrey Short, Courtesy of Universal Pictures
M3GAN is a bitch. She may look like butter wouldn’t melt, but she has only her self-interest at heart and will play anybody’s game to ensure her survival. The world has moved on since Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (in 1818) and the monsters in the cupboard have become exponentially more sophisticated. M3GAN – pronounced ‘Megan’ – has been designed as a toy, with machine learning built into her software so that she can interact more convincingly with her owner – or young human companion. Megan’s first human companion is Cady (Violet McGraw), the sole survivor of a car accident that has just killed her parents. So when Cady pitches up at the door of her Aunt Gemma (Allison Williams), she finds herself stranded in a sterile environment ill-equipped to cater to her requirements. When the traumatised child asks her aunt for a bedtime story, Gemma has to downland an app on her phone to find the requisite words. Worse still, Gemma is working against the clock to complete a pioneering project in robotics that is the culmination of years of research and heavy financial investment. The last thing Gemma needs is a mentally unstable nine-year-old distraction. But there is a twist: Gemma is working for Funki, a Seattle manufacturer of computerised toys and Gemma has been handed an ideal guinea pig for her era-defining prototype. Gemma may not have any toys in her house, but M3GAN could be the only plaything that Cady needs…
Being a Blumhouse production, Gerard Johnstone’s M3GAN doesn’t stray far from the company’s template. That is, the film never feels more than a fine-tuned genre entity, albeit with sharper ideas and a strong central performance from Allison Williams (who has been strangely absent from the multiplex since her break-out turn in Get Out), as well as a smart turn from the pretty little robot. And if we pretend that such cinematic forays into the world of artificial intelligence as Steven Spielberg’s A.I. and Alex Garland’s Ex Machina hadn’t been produced, M3GAN works well enough on its own terms. Like Annabelle – also produced by James Wan – Megan displays a creepy, glassy-eyed stare of unknowable intent. And then she becomes highly protective of Cady, willing to override her initially coded instructions to shield the little girl from harm. And in the world of Blumhouse and James Wan, harm lingers round every corner, ready to be summarily dealt with by this brave little Barbie.
Where M3GAN succeeds where others have failed is with its own sense of fun. For once, the supernatural is packed away and a terrifyingly brave new world is paraded in front of us with all of its dubious moral implications. As the film well knows, today’s children are increasingly deprived of the childhood due to them, with smart, clever toys replacing the demands of parental care. And Megan is the personification of the entire modern toy cupboard, one single doll – at the asking price of $10,000 – who can converse, play games, protect, entertain and record special memories, in effect replacing the need for a mother or father. And when Mommy’s not looking, Megan can step in and wreak her own brand of playground justice – to the guilty delight of an audience gagged by the restraints of health and safety red tape. Furthermore, to the credit of Akela Cooper’s script, Allison Williams’ roboticist is not dumbed down, albeit a few steps behind the processing power of her own invention. The doll’s safety protocols may have been duly incorporated, but are not failproof to the objectives of an emerging intelligence. It’s a warning of the escalating domain of A.I., but is enormous fun with it.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ronny Chieng, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Stephane Garneau-Monten, Lori Dungey, Amy Usherwood, Jack Cassidy, Michael Saccente, Renee Lyons, and the voice of Jenna Davis (as M3GAN).
Dir Gerard Johnstone, Pro Jason Blum and James Wan, Ex Pro Allison Williams, Screenplay Akela Cooper, Ph Peter McCaffrey, Pro Des Kim Sinclair, Ed Jeff McEvoy, Music Anthony Willis, Costumes Daniel Cruden, Sound P.K. Hooker.
Blumhouse Productions/Atomic Monster Productions/Divide/Conquer-Universal Pictures.
101 mins. USA. 2023. US Rel: 6 January 2023. UK Rel: 13 January 2023. Cert. 15.
