Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis, Jen Van Epps, Ronny Chieng
Intro:
… it’s actually a pretty bloody enjoyable film and quite a bit smarter than you might expect.
Traditionally speaking, January is the month where dodgy films go to die. Post Christmas and New Year’s excesses, movie studios tend to unload their biggest stinkers on a hungover and bleary audience who might just be distracted enough not to notice how bad their latest cinematic offering is. And, from the outset, it looked like M3GAN would comfortably fit in with that trend. However, it seems that producers Jason Blum and James Wan have subverted expectations, because while M3GAN certainly has its robotic feet in B-grade territory, it’s actually a pretty bloody enjoyable film and quite a bit smarter than you might expect.
M3GAN is the story of Cady (Violet McGraw), a child whose parents are killed in a tragic car accident. Poor Cady is then forced to move in with her career driven, roboticist aunt Gemma (Allison Williams), who is ill equipped to suddenly have to deal with the responsibilities of parenthood. Gemma is also working on a Model 3 Generative Android aka M3GAN (Amie Donald/Jenna Davis), a childlike robot with an adaptive learning AI. Before you can say “uncanny valley”, M3GAN and Cady have become the best of friends, with the synthetic chum willing to do anything to protect her young charge.
And we mean anything.
M3GAN has a number of things working in its favour. There’s the timing, of course, with the zeitgeist currently kvetching (probably justifiably) about the rise of AI art replacing human creativity. There’s the creepily well-designed doll itself, that looks a bit like Chucky’s granddaughter by way of Skynet. There’s the solid cast, with young Violet McGraw (Doctor Sleep) delivering an excellent performance and Allison Williams doing fine work as well; not to mention a memorable turn from Ronny Chieng as Gemma’s narcissistic boss David. Plus, the entire film is buoyed by a subversive sense of humour – thanks to a script from James Wan and Akela Cooper – that has echoes of Paul Verhoeven’s Robocop and Starship Troopers. M3GAN knows it’s a bit goofy and leans into it with admirable pluck.
While it’s unlikely to change the manner in which you view the technological future of humankind, M3GAN is nonetheless a fun, campy horror flick with an engaging cast, a timely premise and a memorable villain. And the fact that it will almost certainly lead to a continuing franchise… actually feels like a good idea this time around. It’s a dodgy movie season miracle, everyone.
