Image courtesy of IMDb
Hello, everyone. Though Malignant may have been my first review in general for 2023, this one is my first review for a major theatrical release in 2023 (the first, in fact).
Before I get started, allow me to provide some backstory.
Though James Wan did not direct this one, he did produce it, and both movies at least share the same writer in Akela Cooper.
Even with those two names right there, this had several things going against it. Red Flag #1: It was released in January, which is usually considered the dumping ground for movies. Red Flag #2: It was released the first week of January. Red Flag #3: It was a horror movie, and horror movies released in January (especially the first week) always turn out so well.
Two other things also didn’t help: It was PG-13, and the first trailer didn’t do much for me (there’s something regarding the second trailer, but I’ll get to that when I close the review out).
All of those factors gave it an uphill battle with me, but I was still willing to give it a chance.
Then I started hearing high praise for this, and I became a bit more interested, and thinking, “Could this be? A January horror movie that’s actually really good?”.
To say it’s rare for that to happen is an understatement, folks. It is extremely rare for a horror movie or thriller released in January (or movies in general released in January) to be at least decent, let alone really good. However, in recent years, there have been some exceptions, like Underwater and more recently one that I will be covering later.
So… is this as good as I was led to believe? Let’s find out as I present my review of M3GAN*.
The film follows Gemma, a roboticist at a toy company. She’s trying to balance work and family upon taking in her niece Cady, who had just lost her parents in a car crash.
Her latest project, the Model 3 Generative Android (M3GAN for short), is a life-sized doll controlled by AI and designed to assist parents in taking care of their children while also serving as the child’s best friend.
One day, Gemma introduces Cady to M3GAN, and everything seems to be working out well. Gemma can get more work done to satisfy her boss, Cady has a friend, and the company is confident they have a product that their rivals would have a difficult time trying to replicate.
However, it isn't long before everything starts going haywire.
What Worked: For a movie that's very self-aware (no pun intended) that its premise is silly, it balances the campy tone and the serious elements quite well. The fact that it embraced it was ultimately the best direction to take it in, particularly for those who were skeptical going in like myself. It surprised me that it even had that, because the first trailer did a pretty good job at hiding that. It made it look silly, and it seemed like it would be unintentionally hilarious. Little did we know they were aware of that, and the tongue-in-cheek approach was actually what we would be seeing.
I thought that was a very clever idea, but the most brilliant idea was something you come to realize over the course of the movie. It’s a satire of how a business or industry can value profit over product, and how even with one mistake, it can blow up in their face. I felt it worked even more not just because of Akela Cooper’s script, but also because of Gerard Johnstone’s direction.
Even with the campy tone, the cast still play it straight for the most part.
Gemma is played by Allison Williams, who first ventured into horror with Get Out. She’s certainly more relatable than her character in that movie, Rose. With Gemma, her main character trait (workaholic but still loving aunt) is something any family member can connect with.
Cady is played by Violet McGraw, who for such a young age, conveys the attachment to her new friend very well, which any family member can also relate to. People have become so reliant on technology today, particularly children, and they think it can solve every problem, when in reality, it can’t.
With this performance, I believe this could give Violet and her older sister Madeleine (who stole the show in The Black Phone last year) even bigger work. For child actors especially, that’s very impressive.
The biggest noteworthy supporting performance is Ronnie Chieng as Gemma’s boss, David. He embodies that “greedy CEO” type of character just the right amount without going too overboard with it. He gets some funny moments, but he still takes his job seriously (perhaps a bit too much, as those types of characters tend to do).
Although Gemma’s colleagues do seem like they know the type of movie they’re in, the one that comes the closest to representing the campy tone is M3GAN herself.
M3GAN is actually played by two people: Amie Donald, who does the physical performance, and Jenna Davis, who provides the voice. The two performances blend together to where it felt like it was still one person doing both, especially when she starts acting independently. Of the two, the former was the one that surprised me the most. You’d think someone her age would not be able to pull off some of the elaborate movements M3GAN does at times, but when you take her dancing background into consideration, you then realize she does have the physicality needed to do them.
With the latter’s performance, that’s where the character leans the closest towards being over the top. Jenna Davis sounded like she was having a lot of fun doing it, but going into it, I had some concern that she’d be showing it too much. Thankfully, she doesn’t. It was just enough to get it across, and it felt like she was the most expressive when it was the most fitting.
There was one thing about her performance, though, that genuinely shocked me. In fact, it surprised me so much to where I would love to go into it. At the same time, I don’t feel like I can because if I did, some might consider it a spoiler (even though it’s not a major one), and I try my best not to do that.
The best way I can put it is this: Leave it to Akela Cooper to do a crazy third act (and not just because of the kills).
Now for what is perhaps the biggest concern some may have, and that is the fact that this is PG-13 rather than R. The question is: Did it work out?
For me, it ultimately did. Yes, it’s jarring that after how something like Malignant did not hold back, this kind of does. However, in cases like this, implication that something crazy just happened is enough, and even they realized that**. That doesn’t mean it’s less shocking for the audience, because there are setup moments that are shown, even if the kills themselves are not. The most unsettling one for me was one that occurs halfway into the movie, and when you see it, you’ll know.
What Didn’t Work: Though the horror and comedy are balanced very well overall, there were a couple moments where it felt like they were leaning too much into the comedic side of it, and it’s very easy to tell. Since it goes back to that balance almost immediately, though, they weren’t so bad they took me out of the movie, because as a result, it brought me back into it.
Overall: M3GAN is one of the most surprising horror movies I have seen in a long time, and the fact that it’s a horror comedy was a welcome addition to that surprise, especially for a January release. With January itself showing some improvement in recent years, this is further evidence that people are actually putting more effort into what gets released there.
By horror comedy standards, it’s not trying to raise a bar set by others, most notably The Cabin in the Woods and of course Scream. It’s not even trying to be them, either, and I like that. I appreciate that it knows what it is, it embraces it, and yet it still feels like its own thing.
It may not have the same level of shock as Malignant, but I wasn’t expecting this to top that. It’ll take more time for something to come along that’s on that level (although last year, Barbarian came close for me) or even manages to surpass it.
With great performances that counter the tone in a surprisingly well done way, a sense of self-awareness that actually makes sense within the context of the plot, and very effective kills even for a PG-13 horror movie, it also serves as a cautionary tale of how you shouldn’t get too attached to technology, because it can’t do everything, as much as we’d like for it to.
One more thing before I close this out (which I was alluding to earlier): If you are going to see this, DO NOT watch the second trailer, as it gives away quite a bit, a fair amount of which is from the third act. You can watch the first trailer if you want, but only that before you go in.
With that out of the way…
Next time, we go from the first horror movie of the year to the first action movie of the year.
*The 3 is silent, which is another way of saying that you pronounce it the same as if it were an E, for those who have not seen any promotional material.
**Plus, it came out that the original cut was far more violent, and now people seem to be enjoying what they get so much that they actually want to see it. I would welcome that myself, even if I have a feeling that it’ll be on the Blu-Ray when it comes out.