M3GAN – Review

If 2022 could be known as the year of the male puppet, with two different versions of the fairy tale classic PINOCCHIO, then 2023 is shaping up to be the year of the female doll. A few weeks ago the internet nearly broke with the first teaser for BARBIE, which looks to be a candy-colored comedy. Oh, but that’s still months and months away, isn’t there any new toy-themed flicks out right now? Oh yes, there is, and she’s a terror. And though she looks like the kid cousin of Mattel’s queen she’s closer in spirit to Chuckie. Well, she’s lifesize and like last year’s movie subject, she’s “got no strings” on her. And unlike “Talking Tina” from TV’s Twilight Zone, she doesn’t just whisper threats. The “follow-through” is one of the upgrades on the interactive, and homicidal, doll called M3GAN.

To throw us a bit off-kilter, the story starts with a commercial for another toy. A talking fuzzy troll-like, puppy-sized toy has the kids flipping out, and their parents doling out the dollars. One of the toy’s fans is ten-year-old Cady (Violet McGraw) who is driving her parents crazy with its constant chatter. Mom’s regretting that her sister who helped invent the toy gave them such a good deal on it. But that’s the least of her worries as hubby can’t seem to navigate a curvy mountain road during a snowstorm. Which leads to a horrific tragedy. Meanwhile, the sister earlier mentioned, tech inventor Gemma (Allison Williams), is prepping her newest invention to show the toy company’s prickly prez, David (Ronny Chieng). It’s a life-size (for a preteen) human-looking doll dubbed M3gan ( Model 3 Generative Android). The unveiling is a disaster, so she’s tasked with making the current furry toy cheaper to produce until…she gets a fateful call. Gemma’s now the guardian of Cady who survived the crash that claimed both her parents. Unfortunately, the two just aren’t “bonding” until Cady sparks up when Gemma shows her an old robot she keeps in the garage. Cue the light bulb above Gemma’s head. In secret, after hours at her work lab, she and her team complete the repairs on M3gan. Soon Cady is introduced to the “project” and the toy “bonds” with the child in order to fulfill its main function: protect Cady. All’s going well until several odd disappearances and accidents begin popping up in the area. Could M3gan’s advanced programming include murder?

Williams shines in a modern female spin on the Dr. Frankenstein persona. Her Gemma has the best of intentions which indeed “pave the road to Hell”. Facing pressure at work, she’s thrust into parenthood and is terribly ill-prepared. The toy’s a quick fix, but it also bonds her to the new daughter in unexpected ways, developing real empathy. With this role following her great turn in GET OUT, Williams could be part of a new era of “scream queens”. She’s got a good rapport with McGraw, who ably handles Cady’s emotional shifts, going from a grief “numbness” to her euphoria over her new pal to an obsessive mania when Cady tries to become the defender of the bot. Chieng scores some solid laughs as the profit-minded big boss with a really short fuse and little time for considering the consequences of what he’s sending out into the world. And praise must be given to the people that bring the title character to life. Annie Donald gives M3gan an interesting style of movement, opting for brisk fluid moves with any mechanical stiffness, even making her rampages into aggressive dance steps and motions. Jenna Davis supplies her calm, sing-song-type voice which helps makes M3gan’s “descent’ more disturbing as she tosses off an oddly cheerful threat. And all this works due to the tech artists who give real expression to the vinyl-like doll’s head with those expanded glowing eyes.

Director Gerald Johnstone smoothly steers the story through bits of satire and into moments of real suspense. And much of the comedic beats from screenwriters Akela Cooper and James Wan do land, especially in their swipes at marketing with TV ads that seem right from SNL. Unfortunately, many of the characters feel a bit cliche such as a nasty neighbor who feels out of place on Gemma’s upscale block (she’s a modern Mrs. Kravitz from TV’s “Bewitched” with a vicious pet and a “Karen attitude”), and a school bully straight outta’ “juvie”. The sequence with the latter had real terror potential, but the filmmakers seemed to back off in order to hang on to the “PG-13” rating (it’s rumored that several reshoots were needed to keep the flick away from an “R”). This may be a problem for the hordes of horror fanatics who also may be put off by the “slow burn” of the set-up. Several awkward family dynamics are presented before the doll goes “wonky”. Luckily some interesting ideas involving connected tech liven up the action-packed finale. It all makes for a fairly good modern cautionary fable about keeping off “the screens’ and making human connections rather than bonding with algorithms. By that fiery finale, most viewers will be happy that they didn’t look under the tree a couple of weeks ago to see those yellow glowing orbs from the face of M3gan.

3 Out of 4

M3GAN is now playing in theatres everywhere