Mad At The Movie

A doll is a girl’s best friend, isn’t she?

To be honest, I did not have the highest hopes for M3GAN but I also did not think it would be bad, either. I forewent watching the trailer going in as I hate spoilers and I feel like trailers give away way too much.

M3GAN is a gripping tale about what happens when a woman who doesn’t have kids is thrusted into motherhood. How can she be what a little girl needs when all she knows are robots and A.Is? Career driven Gemma, and newly orphaned Cady are both in unfamiliar territory. Cady, from a loving, warm home with toys galore is forced into this new, cold and callous environment in the middle of her grief. Gemma, in her attempts to have the best of both worlds; completing her life’s goal and raising her niece, creates the “perfect” companion, M3GAN. What could possibly go wrong?

As any lovely horror movie would have it, if a movie starts with what appears to be a nice, loving family, that means someone or everyone is going to end up dead very soon. It is no different for M3GAN. To be completely transparent, I watched this movie back in January when it first came out so my review and emotions are a bit hazy, forgive me. I can remember thinking what a horrible situation it is for them both to be in, imagine losing your parents and living with an aunt you barely know. Not to mention the aunt is not good with children, at all, it was more than a little awkward. The scene where Cady is practically starving all day really had me questioning how she did not remember the child not once. I get it, change of your routine but still, tie a string around your finger or something.

Let’s ignore all the previous movies that have told us why A.Is are a bad idea and focus on why it would not be a good idea to make A.I (M3gan) and an emotionally unstable child, pair up. Looking past her being something that can speak, children normally get extremely attached to their toys anyway. I was obsessed with all my Barbie dolls, if they could speak, you wouldn’t be able to separate us. Good old Aunty Gemma, gives her grieving niece an A.I powered doll that has not even gone through the testing stages as yet. Gemma, are you serious? Not only that, but the dolls primary role is to love and protect Cady, something the psychologist in the movie also points out as a bad idea.

As the movie goes on we can definitely see the changes in M3GAN especially after being attacked by the dog next door. I think in that moment she had her Ultron awakening.

What is more frightening than a murderous robot chasing you through the woods? I really like this scene, one of my favourites, especially when M3GAN got on all fours, chills. I also thought the mom was very careless, you need to do a better job at raising your child. If he wasn’t a bully he wouldn’t have become roadkill. Yes, the crime has to match the punishment and death was a bit much but the judge was a robot so we can’t judge her by human moral standing.

I also held that opinion when I just saw it but had to quickly admit she was a bit crazy as the later scenes rolled on. She was just on a killing spree. Which we did expect to happen but holy! When Cady saw her in truest form I was a bit nervous for her [Cady]. It is one thing when someone is hiding their true nature but once it’s been revealed, you will understand how much darkness they were truly hiding. M3GAN no longer needed to pretend to be good and hide her crimes, she just needs to get rid of Gemma to get Cady. Which turns into a pretty nice fighting scene.

All in all M3GAN wasn’t a bad movie, they had a lot of deep themes even though these themes are not the focus of the movie. Death, grief and familial conflict. The main theme Man vs Machine, made it have a more science fiction than horror/thriller feel. I probably won’t be watching it again any time soon until the sequel is out.

Thanks for reading, Mad was just at the movie, I wasn’t angry at the movie… for this one. See you next time to find out if/why I’m Mad At The Movie.