Film Review : "M3gan"

 

Is this a well done and often entertaining movie? Yes. Is it a horror movie? No. it has more in common with "Short Circuit" and "Ex Machina" than any of Chucky's films aside from the 2019 reboot. In fact, that movie highlights a crucial element in regard to why this is not a horror movie. After I watched the reboot with my daughter, I asked her if she could tell the difference between horror and sci-fi when you weighed the reboot against the original. She was only 9 at the time but said.

"Demon possessed dolls are horror and robots gone wrong are science fiction."  

After the buzz surrounding this movie was claiming the antagonist was a gay / feminist icon, it made me a little apprehensive, since I do not like my escapism drenched in agenda. However, it's the press that is misleading. as it has nothing to do with at all, aside from the robo-girl hunting down a bully, that is a boy who she claims will grow into a toxic man. But that one scene was easy to take in stride, rather than this being a movie that shoves that kind of message down your throat. Which leads me to believe that narrative the press was a marketing move after the fact. Is the M3gan character as interesting or well developed as Chucky? No. The dance it does a couple times in the movie is pretty silly, and the fact they parody Furbies is amusing as well.  

This is an easy watch, though not a movie I would really re-watch, as most of the jokes are one and done, it is not scary though there is a rather grim message this movie carries, which some of the post release propaganda seems to be a distraction from. This movie asks nothing about gender roles, but about the addiction to technology we are allowing children to develop. It is a commentary on parents who allow device to be the babysitter because they themselves are not present. But when you are glued to the screen trying to invest in who you are that is something we do not want to talk about, which is why the message is more important, as science fiction shows us both sides to the promise of the future. Most people who got caught up in AI art to make selves look like an over sexed version of this film's antagonist, do not what to think about the dire warning this movie gives. Also Just how said is it that people would want a killer robot to be the poster child for their cause? Unless their cause is about killing themselves and others while becoming a slave to technology then maybe it's a dance worth Tiktoking to. But when you strip away the bullshit and watch this movie for what it is, it proves to work more often than it doesn't, not a great film but a fun one.