M3GAN (2022)

[dwmarch]

I'm surprised we don't have a thread for this movie yet, it's getting good reviews as of this moment.

Trailer:

I'm pretty sure this movie is still in theaters although I watched it at home.

I'm not a horror fan per se but this movie kept it mild for being in the horror genre. More Terminator than Chucky. The trailer telegraphs one particular kill that you would think is going to be really nasty (involving a power washer) but it was fairly discreet in the movie.

There is some substantial subject matter in the movie about grief and loss. The young girl who loses her parents doesn't know how to deal with the loss and ends up becoming best friends with this android who was programmed with everything except empathy. When M3GAN starts researching death on her own and the characters quickly tech-splain to her that she should not worry about it you know they done messed up. As with most movie AI that spends a day on the internet unsupervised, we go from there straight to murder time fun time.

Most of the characters in this movie are not at all sympathetic so it's not terribly sad when M3GAN catches up to them. Being the Terminator fan that I am, I was mostly rooting for her. I appreciate how they gave her some limitations. She's not Terminator-strong for example because she's small so she's limited by physics. She buries something five feet deep because she's only four feet tall.

Some of the setups are super obvious. The big, tough looking early model robot of course comes into play at the end. But they did whiff on a couple of obvious references. They had a fastball over the plate opportunity for "get away from her, you bitch" and although it would have been clunky there was a moment where I said out loud "come with me if you want to live".

One aspect that didn't work for me was M3GAN talking about how she used to be such good friends with Gemma. Okay, I know they had the whole Primary User aspect but Gemma was added as a second Primary early on and M3GAN spent most of the movie talking at her rather than to her. M3GAN is a super social engineer but never really tried with Gemma so the "betrayal" felt a little out of left field.

 

[MissAlmond]

12 hours ago, dwmarch said:

When M3GAN starts researching death on her own and the characters quickly tech-splain to her that she should not worry about it you know they done messed up

When will they learn not to trifle with dolls or doll adjacents? Talky Tina taught them nothing.

Edited January 25, 2023 by MissAlmond

[paulvdb]

When Gemma told M3GAN that her primary mission was to protect Cady you could see it coming that people (and the neighbor's dog) were going to die.

[Chaos Theory]

Saw this in the theaters and was too surprised that it didn’t have its own thread.  It was one of those movies that is more or less exactly what you think it’s going to be but it also has a little added Depth when asking the question that in the age of increasing smart technology “who is raising our children?”      Also the grief and loss aspect was really well done.

Yes this was a largely paint by numbers the robot/doll you bring home for your kid is going to kill you story but that isn’t a bad thing when well done.  This was largely a well told story even with the obvious plot points.   I was entertained throughout. 

[xls]

She looks so much like someone -an actress or something -but I can't put my finger on it. was she modeled after a real person?

[RealHousewife]

2 hours ago, xls said:

She looks so much like someone -an actress or something -but I can't put my finger on it. was she modeled after a real person?

Meghan McCain? lol She has the doll as her Twitter profile picture. 

Edited January 27, 2023 by RealHousewife

[BetterButter]

 

[kiddo82]

As long as the trend of using numbers as letters continues, I hope Honest Trailers continues to trend of saying it phonetically.  "M-Three-Gan" had me laughing out loud.  And then they doubled down by calling the inevitable sequel "M-Four-Gan."  It doesn't take a whole lot to amuse me. 

Edited February 5, 2023 by kiddo82

[Ms Blue Jay]

I liked it.  It was fun.  I hated the way it started off, so miserable and full of cliches. But once M3GAN came on the scene things got good.

[Spartan Girl]

On 1/25/2023 at 7:26 AM, MissAlmond said:

When will they learn not to trifle with dolls or doll adjacents? Talky Tina taught them nothing.

Seriously. The adults in this movie were dumber than the ones in Chucky, and that says A LOT.

Oh Allison Williams. I’m sure you’re a perfectly nice person in real life, but you get stuck playing all these bitches. It took Gemma longer than it should have to realize she was neglecting poor Cady. Really, that whole commercial in the beginning set the whole tone for that storyline: little girl grieving her dead dog, so the adults get her a robot pet that will never die just so they won’t have to deal with her being sad. 

M3GAN was creepy long before she went evil, but that’s because her big eyes and made up face made her look like a pervert’s version of a sex doll—I’m sorry, that’s the first thing that came to my mind.

As far as killer toys go, I’m still #TeamChucky. Maybe they could get her to cameo on on the series, that would actually be hilarious.

[methodwriter85]

On 1/26/2023 at 7:08 PM, xls said:

She looks so much like someone -an actress or something -but I can't put my finger on it. was she modeled after a real person?

A lot people have said she looks like the Olsen twins:

Here's an interview with the child actress who did the body work as M3GAN. (Someone else did the voice.)

 

[snickers]

I just saw this in the theater (still playing near me)

this was good fun, so much of a Chucky crossed with the Terminator 😄

I saw there's going to be a sequel, can't wait! though for being so smart and roboticist you would think Gemma would have figured out M3gan uploaded into her Alexa like device.....

[Notwisconsin]

I have nothing against this film. It was a good solid PG-13 horror flick.

It might be a good idea to look where they stole from. Season three of Westworld or Her, might be good things to compare this too, as they're both to some extent on the same subject.

Tom Swift and his Electric Grandmother-type things go all the way back. They might get more philosphical in the sequel, or do something like a malevolent version of HER, where all the AI electronics turn against the protagonist.

[BetterButter]

M3gan’s unrated cut is coming to Peacock

[Nordly Beaumont]

On 1/26/2023 at 6:08 PM, xls said:

She looks so much like someone -an actress or something -but I can't put my finger on it. was she modeled after a real person?

I see Aubrey Plaza. 

[Brn2bwild]

To me, the doll was so much creepier before she turned homicidal.  That chirpy, fake-sounding voice coming from that dead face, offering the perfect words for every situation.  Gemma should be grateful M3gan blew up as quickly as she did because having that doll as Cady's long-term emotional crutch could have left her far more damaged than she ended up being. 

ETA: I saw the unrated cut.  A little bloodier and a lot more swearing.  Compared to some series (see The Last of Us, Stranger Things), it was fairly tame.

Edited March 4, 2023 by Brn2bwild

[nomodrama]

I ended up watching this on a plane and it was so bad. 

Allison Williams is such a terrible actress. She was easily the worst part of the whole film and was out shown by the girl playing Cady. 

If I was a board member during that presentation with M3GAN I would have been like NOPE, nope to the singing, nope to the creepy looking face on that doll, nope to all of it. 

[Madding crowd]

M3GAN looked like an Olsen twin to me. I don’t understand why they made her so big. The big doll had big hands to do crafts but most kids would like something small enough to cuddle, sleep with and carry around.

I did get a laugh at the commercial for the robot pet that will live longer than you will!

[methodwriter85]

On 4/20/2023 at 3:21 PM, Madding crowd said:

M3GAN looked like an Olsen twin to me. I don’t understand why they made her so big. The big doll had big hands to do crafts but most kids would like something small enough to cuddle, sleep with and carry around.

For the shots where Megan moves, she was by an actual little girl, although they covered the face with CGI or masks. They also used animatronic puppets, but of course those had to match the size of the girl doing the physical movement.

 

[Madding crowd]

Yes, I know it made sense for the movie but it didn’t make sense as a product. Most little girls would like a doll they could carry around, push in a stroller and take to grandmas. The other products shown were small pretend pet toys. 

[Cementhead]

Just caught this on Amazon Prime on the weekend.  It was okay.  Mostly predictable and forgettable, aside from the important message it was sending to parents that will just largely just go over most of their heads, no doubt.  The young actress playing Cady acted circles around Allison Williams and I've thought that M3GAN looks like Shauna Rae from TLC's I am Shauna Rae since this movie first hit the scene. 

[methodwriter85]

7 hours ago, Cementhead said:

The young actress playing Cady acted circles around Allison Williams

Violet MacGraw was on The Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House as a young Victoria Pedretti and did an awesome job. She's really good.

[Cementhead]

7 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

Violet MacGraw was on The Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House as a young Victoria Pedretti and did an awesome job. She's really good.

One of my very favourite series I have ever watched and I didn't even realize that, thank you!  Yes, what a talent.

[Bastet]

I'm as happy to make fun of Florida as the next person, but "they live in Florida, they're kind of weird" does not cut it as an explanation for why someone who doesn't want to raise a kid agrees to do so instead of sending her to the grandparents who want her.

I didn't like anyone in this movie except for the dog.  I know we weren't supposed to like most of them, but presumably they wanted us to like Cady.  Nope.  Feel sorry for her, of course, but I didn't like her.

So between that and how predictable it was, I found this just okay.

[oliviabenson]

I loved it! I finally saw it today and was thoroughly entertained! 
 

5/5 stars.