M3GAN: Robot Doll Horror-Comedy Explores the Downside of A.I. (Hint: There's Rampant Death)
By Thom Ernst
Rating: C+
According to comedian Lewis Black, there is an intersection in New York City with a Starbucks on every corner. He wonders about the logic behind the decision to build the fourth Starbucks. Had the developer stood on an empty lot, staring at three Starbucks on adjacent corners, and said, "You know what they need here? Another Starbucks."
Black's story aptly sums up my feelings about director Gerard Johnstone's farcical horror film, M3GAN; it's more of the same, only on a different corner. But I'm careful. The last time I used an anecdote to set up my reasons for dismissing a movie with killer animatronics, I was taken to task. I fear it is about to happen again.
M3GAN is a life-like robot doll, intended to be the only toy a child will ever need. It's a nice theory that every parent knows can never hold up to its promise. M3GAN is impressive, but not a toy has been invented that a kid hasn't grown tired of.
And that's on top of ignoring the warnings expressed in the writings of Isaac Asimov or in the voice work of Brad Dourif. Even the Banana Splits, the kid-friendly answer to The Monkees, ended up short-wiring and going on a killing spree.
It's expected that M3GAN, a precocious creation with the ability to learn, should turn on its creators. It's a decent reminder to be grateful that G.I. Joes never advanced much beyond having moveable limbs.
Gemma (Allison Williams, who was Rose Armitage, Chris Washington's 'woke' girlfriend in Jordan Peele's Get Out!) is a brilliant roboticist who enables a M3GAN prototype to interact with Cady (Violet McGraw), her recently orphaned niece.
The experiment is successful when M3GAN displays an advanced understanding of childhood grief and trauma, impressing the frustrated CEO of a toy manufacturer (Ronny Chieng) and a roomful of doubtful investors.
Champions of the film—and there are many—point to the director's sardonic take on the threatening advance of artificial intelligence. And indeed, there is something quite funny (and creepy) in M3GAN's habit of interrupting and correcting Gemma when attempting to parent the young Cady.
To be sure, M3GAN the doll is an eye-catching novelty. Despite a poker-faced expression, this curiosity still manages to convey an unnerving impression of calculated judgment. It doesn't take long for M3GAN to graduate from creepy to dangerous. Still, in the line of deadly robot movies, M3GAN's kills seem relatively tame, as though conscientious of keeping the film within its P.G.-rated framework.
Johnstone knows his way around dark comedy, and camouflages much of the film's humour in whimsical, sometimes uneasy, encounters between M3GAN and Cady. But in directing the film's most comedic characters — an overtly judgmental childcare worker, a nosy neighbour (Lori Dungey) with an unruly dog, and a schoolyard bully—he sets a tone that feels incompatible with the rest of the characters.
It hardly matters whether I'm on board or not (and I'm not). Johnstone's intent is best realized in the film's most meta moment when a gum-smacking detective grunts, "I'm not sure if I should be laughing at this."
And that's the line that made me laugh the loudest.
M3GAN. Directed by Gerard Johnstone. Starring Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, and Ronny Chieng. Now playing in selected theatres.