Westside Messenger - January 15th, 2023

PAGE 12 - WESTSIDE MESSENGER - January 15, 2023
In Entertainment
“M3GAN” is a fun and thrilling film
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Amused. Intrigued. Repulsed. Those are
the best words to describe the range of
emotions that were taking over my mind
when a low budget science fiction thriller
called “M3GAN” came to my attention.
Like most of the general public, my first
encounter with this oddity of a film came
via a genius social media campaign by
famed horror studio Blumhouse
Entertainment to drum up interest in their
property that was soon to be released. In
this short teaser trailer that was unleashed
onto the masses several months ago, it
showcased the titular character dancing
around in a manner that would make all
inflatable tube men curl up in a ball of
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everlasting shame. Bizarre as it was to
watch an individual gyrate as if they had
no bones in their body, it was made all the
more baffling and entertaining because the
person in question was a blank-faced AI
doll with ice-blue eyes that was designed to
look as if she were a demented child.
Although the teaser trailer that was
dropped sparked some outrage from certain
corners of the Internet, it largely set
off a whirlwind of memes from content creators
who were inspired to superimpose
those now iconic moves into classic music
videos and beloved pop songs throughout
the ages.
Fun as this was to witness, Blumhouse
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ramped up the marketing for this film by
establishing social media pages for
M3GAN where she quickly began to pick
fights with other cinematic murder dolls
like Chucky and Annabelle. And as if that
were not enough, the studio then hired
actors and models to dress like the character
while attending sporting events, giving
vacant and bone-chilling stares into the
lens of the camera whenever it panned onto
their doll-like faces.
Although there was a genuinely brilliant
marketing campaign behind this upand-coming
film — if you have not seen the
clip of the film’s human stars conducting
interviews at a morning show with dozens
of M3GAN clones catching from a window
in the public square, please do — one could
not help but get the sense that the overall
product would never be able to live up to
the hype that was generated pre-theatrical
release. After all, films rarely can live up to
that amount of buzz and it also had another
knock against it because it was set to be
released in January.
The first month of the year is notorious
because it has long been seen as the time of
year when studios release their complete
duds: It didn’t get the reputation as being
the “graveyard for films” for nothing. But
this particular studio has changed that
narrative a bit by offering good, if not
decent, horror and thriller films for several
years now during the winter doldrums.
Their latest film is not just decent, it’s pretty
great, actually.
“M3GAN” is the sort of film that people
will brush off as being too dumb. And it is,
truly, but it’s the best kind of dumb film
because it is so entertaining. Despite having
roots in the horror genre — its writing
team of Akela Cooper and James Wan set
the standard with “Malignant” — it’s not all
that violent despite the plot that revolves
around a killer AI child toy. Instead, the
film leans more on the satirical side of the
dangers of technology, the woes of parenting,
and how we busy ourselves with distractions
to mask our pain and emotions.
It’s whip-smart and fun and just so amusingly
and unapologetically crazy.
At the center of the film are two
humans, a child named Cady (Violet
McGraw) and her aunt Gemma (Allison
Williams). Because of Gemma’s heavy
work-load as a robotistic at a multi-billion
dollar toy company, the two rarely have
time to see each other but her aunt can
always be counted on to provide the latest
gadgets to her 8-year-old niece. While traveling
to a ski resort with her parents, Cady
and her family are involved in a tragic car
accident, leaving Gemma as her primary
guardian.
It is clear from the get-go that Gemma is
in no way, shape or form ready to care for a
child. Although she can provide for Cady
financially, she is admittedly in over her
head from the moment Cady walks into her
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Dedra Cordle
tech-filled home. “I
can’t even take care
of my plants,” she
admits to a coworker.
Given the jarring
requirements of parenthood,
Gemma
sinks all of her energy into building an AI
named M3GAN, or a model 3 generative
android, to provide companionship for her
grieving niece. At first, M3GAN (voiced by
Jenna Davis and physically portrayed by
Amie Donald) lives up to her billing as “a
child’s greatest companion and a parent’s
greatest ally” but she soon begins to take
her responsibilities to protect Cady from
any physical or emotional harm a bit too
literally.
One of the things that make this film
work as well as it does is the audience can
see from the very beginning that M3GAN
is up to no good but the adults who are creating
this AI companion do not. It’s actually
quite funny to watch how long it takes
Gemma, a brilliant engineer, to glom onto
the fact that M3GAN has a mind of her
own, and a malevolent one at that. But
whereas this is funny within the realm of
this film, it also offers a bit of pointed commentary
at tech CEOs and start-up companies
who are creating things to “make life
more convenient” while also putting other
people at risk through their creations.
Although the film does make those
observations from time to time, it is not too
tied up in those elements. Screenwriter
Akela Cooper and collaborating partner
James Wan put enough thought into the
world that they have built to make it make
sense, but they don’t overplay their hand
and get too bogged down in the tech stuff
and how they could be both the savior for
and the downfall of our society. Instead,
the focus is more on being fun, making people
laugh, and allowing the audience to
have a great time with a cinematic murder
doll that reads stories, sings lullabies, and
rips the ears off of naughty boys who can’t
keep their hands to themselves.
Genuine horror hounds may be a bit disappointed
by the lack of scares within (I
heard of a rumored R-rated director’s cut
floating around) but there is a great balance
with the rest of the thrills to make
this movie live up to its pre-release hype of
being amusing, intriguing, and occasionally
repulsive.
Grade: B+
Dedra Cordle is a Messenger staff writer
and columnist.