Nothing about the premise, either on paper or in the trailers, appealed to me, but I'm a dedicated horror fan and figured I would kill a week night on a low grade b-movie so I could chuckle about it later. I was pleasantly surprised.
Yes, this film is about a demented toy and AI gone wrong, both topics which have been tread and retread since the 80's, but rarely has it been this fun.
What I didn't expect was how this film managed to deal with complex topics, like AI sentience, death, human relations and tech addiction, all while wielding these topics whimsically at times, hilariously at others and sprinkling in a few nearly tear-jerking scenes. Williams gives a solid leading performance as a smartphone generation silicone valley inventor trying to revolutionize the world, or at least further the technology, without enough life experience and wisdom to foresee the consequences.
There are soooooo many metaphors layered throughout this film, which are by no means something you are required to "get" in order to enjoy it, but for those who do, it is a surprisingly poignant little suspense flick.
A tech absorbed millennial career girl has parenting unexpectedly thrust upon her by way of a tragedy. She's brilliant, ambitious, but not particularly familial or even socially adept, as she's better with computers than humans. Her crowning achievement, an AI toy, has the potential to be better at parenting and, well, better at everything a child needs, than she does-a trait which, at first, seems like a blessing. As time passes, she must grapple with whether it's healthy for her new ward Cady (Violet McGraw) to be more attached to a device than to other children her age, even if the device is giving her factual, helpful information.
As M3GAN learns and progresses, you will easily see how this plot will unfold, but although the overarching story is obvious, and intentionally so, the predictability doesn't diminish the thrill of the ride. If anything, it seems to acknowledge that we as the audience will see things coming, which still managing to slap us in the face with how our modern habits have bequeathed so much of nurture and learning on our devices rather than other humans.
Well executed, witty, and timely in many ways, M3GAN is one of those unexpectedly interesting theatre finds that you may find more interesting in practice than theory. It's more than a glossy Child's Play update or a dumbed down Ex-Machina, it's a light-hearted (can I say that about a horror?) and sometimes profound investigation of our relationship with machines, and the pitfalls of confusing our "network connection" with our connection to our community.
Yes, this film is about a demented toy and AI gone wrong, both topics which have been tread and retread since the 80's, but rarely has it been this fun.
What I didn't expect was how this film managed to deal with complex topics, like AI sentience, death, human relations and tech addiction, all while wielding these topics whimsically at times, hilariously at others and sprinkling in a few nearly tear-jerking scenes. Williams gives a solid leading performance as a smartphone generation silicone valley inventor trying to revolutionize the world, or at least further the technology, without enough life experience and wisdom to foresee the consequences.
There are soooooo many metaphors layered throughout this film, which are by no means something you are required to "get" in order to enjoy it, but for those who do, it is a surprisingly poignant little suspense flick.
A tech absorbed millennial career girl has parenting unexpectedly thrust upon her by way of a tragedy. She's brilliant, ambitious, but not particularly familial or even socially adept, as she's better with computers than humans. Her crowning achievement, an AI toy, has the potential to be better at parenting and, well, better at everything a child needs, than she does-a trait which, at first, seems like a blessing. As time passes, she must grapple with whether it's healthy for her new ward Cady (Violet McGraw) to be more attached to a device than to other children her age, even if the device is giving her factual, helpful information.
As M3GAN learns and progresses, you will easily see how this plot will unfold, but although the overarching story is obvious, and intentionally so, the predictability doesn't diminish the thrill of the ride. If anything, it seems to acknowledge that we as the audience will see things coming, which still managing to slap us in the face with how our modern habits have bequeathed so much of nurture and learning on our devices rather than other humans.
Well executed, witty, and timely in many ways, M3GAN is one of those unexpectedly interesting theatre finds that you may find more interesting in practice than theory. It's more than a glossy Child's Play update or a dumbed down Ex-Machina, it's a light-hearted (can I say that about a horror?) and sometimes profound investigation of our relationship with machines, and the pitfalls of confusing our "network connection" with our connection to our community.