M3GAN ★★★
Gerard Johnstone
Starring Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Jenna Davis, Amie Donald, Ronny Chieng
How far would you allow AI into your family life? M3gan is here to explore that question for you with a three foot high, quick-to-learn doll, who is tasked with befriending a grieving young girl, Cady (Violet McGraw), who lost her parents in a car accident.
The doll was invented by the young girl’s Aunt Gemma (Allison Williams) and her friends, a team of toy developers who are determined to develop the next big thing. As you can imagine, M3gan starts out a sweet, albeit still creepy doll who helps Cady with everything from drawing to washing her hands. M3gan listens, learns and understands what Cady is going through, her one goal to protect Cady at all costs.
Who would believe it then, that eventually things start to go awry. Instead of installing a factory reset feature like any company who isn’t in a horror movie would do, the whole cast are at M3gan’s mercy as she gets too clever for her own good and turns on everyone who isn’t Cady.
For the most part, the chaos that ensues is a whole lot of fun. The premise taps in to our generational fear of robots taking over. Although there is a slight contemporary edge of emotional learning, it still feels similar to movies gone by where a Terminator like robot turns on all human kind but is still at the mercy of its own wiring. This movie shines most when we’re on M3gan’s side, dancing down the corridor to terminate another victim; she’s a character you want to see more of even if she is murdering everyone.
Behind the fun and mayhem though is a slightly lacklustre script. The cheese is oozing out of this one from the start. With an over aggressive boss of the toy corporation and genre devices being used in plain site, we are distracted from the contemporary feel and reminded that we are watching a ridiculous genre horror.
That being said, audiences will have a great time with this one. It’s an entertaining ride and while you may not let emotional learning AI into your household any time soon, you’ll want to see more M3gan as soon as the credits roll.
M3GAN available in cinemas now