M3GAN — A Katy Perry Singing AI Doll Shocks Audiences
Spoiler-Free Review of a Movie Balancing Scary & Satire.
There’s a horror movie that you have to see, and before you scurry away after hearing horror, let me first tell you about it. It’s called M3Gan. An orphaned girl moves in with her Aunt, an engineer at a toy company. To help her niece grieve, she invents a life-sized AI robot doll which, as you can guess, soon goes awry.
At its core, this is a satirical horror movie. And the whole thing is a rollercoaster. In some moments the movie draws you close to the horror in a very real way. Suddenly, it surprises you with random acts of humor, such as a rendition of Katy Perry’s Firework. It’s a dynamic that creates a pleasing ebb and flows to the story. And it’s certainly a unique experience, which makes it stand apart from other contemporary movies. Fundamentally, what makes this movie work is that it’s balanced in humor and scary. Tilted too much to one side, it would land itself in ‘Scary Movie’ or ‘Conjuring’ territory. But what makes this movie impressive is that it seemed to find the equilibrium between the two.
The movie conducts this almost ballerina dance, shifting subtly between the two elements. Ensuring that the audience doesn’t feel like the roller coaster is hitting a hard G-force turn at any one moment. Doing this sort of rocks you gently between satire and scary. Creating a memorable experience and moments that shock.
Underlying this shifting balance is a foundation that gives the story some structure. The characters, and their backstories, create a logical path that leaves you buying into the legitimacy of the story. At face value, that might seem stupid, given the premise, but it makes sense when you’re in this movie. Somehow this movie manages to convince you to buy in if you give it an honest nudge.
One reason I really enjoyed this movie was the theater experience. I haven’t had this much fun in a theater maybe ever. People were laughing all together then silent and hiding in their jackets during intense moments. When the niece slapped her aunt, one guy even yelled “you better hit her back.” The whole theater started laughing.
Right now M3GAN is only in theaters, but it’s for rent on Amazon Prime and Apple. Eventually, it most likely will find its way to Peacock. Universal Pictures is the distributor so logically it makes sense they already have it locked down. Typically, films have a 90-day theatrical window, meaning this should end up on Peacock sometime in March 2023.
This is a solid enjoyable movie-watching experience with some great acting backing it up. And I think if you give it an honest nudge, you’ll enjoy it too. M3GAN came to life with an 8.3/10 on my scale.
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