Since its release in early January, M3GAN gained traction and a huge fanbase. I watched the movie in the IPIC Theaters, and I have to say…the movie exceeded my expectations in a good way. (There are small spoilers ahead, but nothing that will spoil the ending!).
Here’s a quick summary: A girl named Cady loses her parents and ends up in her Aunt Gemma’s house. To help Cady get over her grief, Gemma builds a teen-looking robot M3gan that can take care of Cady. Everything seems to be going well until a series of murders occur around Cady and Gemma and suspicions arise about M3gan’s morals…
I watched the trailer before watching the movie, but the movie’s better than I anticipated. The trailer failed to capture all the emotions and tension between Gemma and M3gan that builds up throughout the movie. So I encourage you not to get swayed by the trailer when deciding to watch the movie or not!
One thing that surprised me about the movie was how funny it was. The theater was constantly filled with laughter, and I don’t remember screaming a single time. Director Gerard Johnstone mastered the art of sarcasm with exaggerated stereotypes (e.g. M3gan being a sassy, “mean-girl” robot) and meme-able scenes. For example, when M3gan randomly started dancing during a murder scene, everyone in the theater just started laughing because of how ridiculous it was.
The movie wasn’t just funny — it was also emotional. The performances from both Violet McGraw (Cady) and Allison Williams (Gemma) were great; I could feel Cady’s grief of losing her parents through the screen and understand Gemma’s difficult decisions as the new guardian. Toward the end of the movie, I was swallowing my tears as Gemma started to realize that no technology can replace parenting. This is something that I think many parents can relate to, especially now as more and more screen time is replacing family time.
Even though I emphasize that the movie was not actually “scary,” it had some jump scares and grotesque scenes. Sure, it took a long time (around half of the movie) until anything scary happened, but M3gan’s voice and stare were creepy throughout the entire movie and some violent scenes still make me shiver. But it didn’t give me the constant chills and heart race that other horror movies usually give me. It was a movie that let me forget about the scary parts with humor and watch the rest lightheartedly.
Overall, M3gan was a unique and refreshing horror-comedy movie. It will be one of the movies I will keep re-watching for entertainment. The movie may be disappointing if you’re looking for a “scary” movie, but I definitely recommend M3gan to you if you are a sucker for dark humor, moving storylines and creepy jump-scares.