M3GAN

2022   Universal Pictures

Rated:  PG-13

Length:  1 hr  42min

Horror ~ Sci-Fi ~ Thriller

Directed by:  Gerard Johnstone

Starring:  Allison Williams,  Violet McGraw, Ronny Chieng, Jenna Davis and

Amie Donald.

“Model 3 Generative Android……….M3gan for short.

Allison Williams stars as Gemma, a Robotics Engineer working at The Funki Seattle Toy Company making high tech toys for kids. Instead of working on the next upgrade to the best selling Toy for the company, Gemma has been working on a child-size Robot toy for children. When her boss David (Ronny Chieng) stops by inquiring about the new upgrade she confesses to the new robot she’s been working on and gives him a demonstration. But the robot short circuits and David threatens her with termination unless she produces the upgrade in a week.

And to top that off….Gemma gets a call that her sister and brother-in-law were just killed in a vehicle crash with a snow plow truck. Gemma goes to get her nine year old niece Cady (Violet McGraw) since Gemma is now her guardian. After talking with Cady she realizes that Cady needs a companion and that the robot she was working on could have a different use than she thought. Gemma goes to her lab and reconstructs the robot with AI learning capabilities and creates it to look like a young girl. M3gan quickly surpasses Gemma’s expectations and she realizes that this could revolutionize the toy industry.

As Gemma sets up demonstrations to show her boss David and higher up executives, M3gan and Cady bond in unforeseen ways. M3gan quickly starts adapting to Cady and learning everything there is to know about Cady. M3gan also starts to rewrite her code to enable her to fully be Cady’s caretaker, to the point of protecting Cady at any cost. It is a thrilling horrific journey watching M3gan grow into Cady’s unrelenting protector. The part of M3gan was a combined effort.  Amie Donald was the physical actor who played M3gan, Jenna Davis supplied M3gan’s voice and the rest was a combination of an animatronic doll and visual effects.

I had seen this when it first came out and I loved it. A friend asked me why in the heck I would have watched it, “Didn’t it freak you out?”.  No, I thought it was great. I’ve always been a horror fan. I loved the Chucky movies, reminds me of Bride of Chucky….now there’ some scary kid’s dolls! So there’s a little of Chucky and The Bride in this, the whole A.I. Robot thing seems to be taking off, and this preceded Subservience which reminded me of an adult version of M3gan. Like it or not the A.I. Robots are coming and it won’t be long before we will have M3gans and Alices in our lives for real.

There is a sequel in the works with a release date of June 27, 2025. M3gan 2.0, with all the actors reprising their roles. There is also a spin-off movie in development titled SOULM8TE slated for release on January 2, 2026. Here’s the synopsis:

A man acquires an Artificially Intelligent android to cope with the loss of his recently deceased wife. In an attempt to create a truly sentient partner, he inadvertently turns a harmless lovebot into a deadly soulmate.

It Thrilled me, I even jumped a few times, and I loved it!

I am a M3GAN fan!

MORE! WE WANT MORE!

Two Thumbs Up!