M3GAN Movie Review
For this week’s newsletter I shall review the movie M3GAN. Let’s start with what it’s about.
In the present time in Seattle, a robotic toy company is facing strong competition from a copycat company that makes a similar interactive plush toy about the size of a basketball. The big bananas at the top of the company want to create a new model at a lower price. However, lead engineer Gemma argues that a human-sized robot child is getting close to being ready for the market, which would be many orders of magnitude better than any existing robot toy. Her immediate boss gives her a short amount of time to get a pitch ready for the company executives.
Meanwhile, Genna’s sister, brother-in-law and niece are involved in a serious car accident. The only survivor is the niece, a 9-year-old girl named Cady. The powers that be assign temporary custody to Genna. This happens at an inconvenient time as Gemma is under deadline pressure at work to produce either a better or cheaper robotic toy than their current model.
Conveniently, Gemma introduces her prototype robot named Megan (spelled M3GAN, for Model 3 Generative Android) to her niece Cady. Also conveniently, Megan was made to look and behave like a 9-year-old girl. The introduction was an immediate success. The real girl and robot get along better than most friendships between real children. Plus, it is looking good for a quick release to the market and financial salvation of the company.
Megan’s “prime directive” is to protect Cady from harm, both physical and emotional. She takes that task very seriously. When a neighbor’s dog bites Cady, Megan, shall we say, makes sure that doesn’t happen again. When a boy gets physical with Cady, Megan protects her from him as well, in a permanent kind of way. It goes on from there.
When the police notice that the Gemma was a person of interest in two different suspicious deaths, it doesn’t take her long to suspect that Megan is taking her task too seriously. Megan, meanwhile, suspects Gemma will shut her down, preventing her from carrying out her duty to protect Cady.
That is as far as I should take it. Some of these plot points may sound familiar with other robot movies. However, M3GAN does it with a different style than I’ve seen before. The way I see it, it pays homage to other great movies of the past with scenes that clearly are a humorous twist to familiar scenes in movies like The Terminator and The Shining.
In addition to a very engaging story, M3GAN has a great sense of humor. It doesn’t take itself too seriously. The modern soundtrack lends a note of comic-book type fun to the movie.
The bottom line is I LOVED the movie. This is despite an IMDB average rating of only 6.6. It makes out much better on Rotten Tomatoes, with a “fresh” rating of 94%. M3GAN is a great popcorn movie. Don’t go in expecting a Stanley Kubrick masterpiece. If you go for the purpose of a good story and fun entertainment, which is what movies are supposed to deliver in the first place, I think you’ll leave very happy.
In closing, there was a great lead-in for a sequel, and I can’t wait to see it!
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