My Review of M3gan (2023)

 

Written by Akela Cooper And James Wan

Directed by Gerard Johnstone

M3gan (to Cady): "I know, it's insane, right?"

Well, it's January and already the horror for 2023 got off to a rather campy start with this impossible to ignore film. Seriously, you'd almost have an easier time ignoring a certain James Cameron sequel than this overnight sensation. One movie in and it looks like our titular character might be here to stay. So what is this one all about?

This movie started off with a young girl named Cady (Violet McGraw) losing her parents in a tragic road accident and being sent to live with her aunt Gemma (Allison Williams). Gemma's not really a maternal type and was more fixated on creating a new toy instead of adding improvements to the one that her boss, David (Ronny Chieng) insisted on. Think knock off Furbies as the thing that David would've preferred Gemma had put her energy into.

The toy instead that Gemma was more interested in getting off the ground was Model 3 Generative Android or M3gan (Amie Donald/Jenna Davis) for short. Also while the initial tests with her co-workers Tess (Jen Van Eps) and Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) weren't exactly promising, it was Cady's influence that ultimately brought M3gan to life and along with that, a lot of problems to boot.

Of course things with M3gan start off well for both Gemma and Cady. For the latter, to meant avoiding emotional responsibility for her niece to begin with as well as a potential career boost but for Cady, her connection to M3gan was a means of avoiding her own grief for her parents loss and having a true friend. However because this wasn't a particular long film, it also didn't take both Gemma and Cady too long to realise that there were certain drawbacks with depending on M3gan.

The notable one being that like any other inanimate object that comes to life and especially in this genre, M3gan had something of a homicidal streak to her. Not soon after bonding with Cady, M3gan took her programming that one step further and began to kill for Cady too. This meant a class bully, nosy neighbour and the latter's dog all became victims of M3gan. I really do hate when horror movies kill animals by the way.

As for Cady and Gemma, their complicated living relationship got really examined through the machinations of M3gan and both of them realised just how much of a danger that the latter well and truly posed to them. Of course it did a lot of crazy stuff to happen around them before they both got on the same page about M3gan.

Fortunately between the two of them finally connecting with one another and the use of another family member, Bruce, M3gan's reign of terror came to something of a temporary pause. This movie belonging to the genre that it belonged to though. Well, let's just say this wont be the last we see of M3gan. It's gonna take a lot more than Gemma and Cady to keep her down.

- There are only five kills by M3gan in this movie. The remaining two included David and his put down assistant Kurt (Stephane Garneu-Monte).

- Originally this film was meant to be R-Rated but they realise it could work as a PG-13 horror and it does.

- Standout music: M3gan singing the David Guetta/Sia hit Titanium of course. Toy Soldiers also got used rather well here too.

- Chronology: It's set in the first half of 2022 in Washington. A sequel titled M3gan 2.0 will be released from January 17th 2025.

M3gan has somewhat set a very strong bar for this year's horror entries. It took a well known trope, added a technological flavour to it as well as exploring a fractured family dynamic and the obvious dangers of allowing technology to parent children. Oh and some rather inventive and the type of dancing that's been meme'd to death. Overall, a very enjoyable movie

Rating: 8 out of 10