M3GAN: Unrated (2023)

“She’s More Than Just A Toy….She’s A Part Of The Family.”

With Blumhouse and Atomic Monster producing, Gerard Johnstone directing, and Akela Cooper and James Wan penning the tale, M3GAN had a solid foundation for its vision of AI horror. The original PG-13 version of the film was premiered in December of 2022 in Los Angeles and was released nationwide in January 2023. It raked in a ton of cash thanks to solid story and a stellar ad campaign that most notably featured the AI doll M3GAN dancing. Her dance became a viral hit on social media and some believe that re-edits were done in order to get a PG-13 rating for the film. This definitely allowed more fans a chance to see the film but it also proved to be one of the few complaints about the movie. While M3GAN definitely humor in spades, she proved to be lacking in violence. Peacock, eager to get their own piece of the M3GAN pie, released an unrated version of the film on its streaming service on February 24, 2023. It promised more gore. It delivered, but not in an excessive amount.

In the film, a young girl, Cady, loses her parents in an accident and is sent to stay at her single aunt’s home. Her aunt happens to be a robotics whiz for Funki, a toy company currently attempting to develop a cheaper version of its top-selling toy, Purrpetual Petz, an AI toy that adapts to and interacts with its child owner. Another toy company has developed a cheaper version of the Purrpetual Petz and Cady’s aunt, Gemma, is part of the team assigned to develop a more budget-friendly version of the toy. On the side she is developing a new AI doll, M3GAN (Model 3 Generative Android), that gets to know its owner on a personal level, provides companionship, and can even register a child’s body temperature, demeanor, and other things. When Gemma’s boss finds out that she has been using company resources to develop the doll, he becomes enraged. Hoping to appease him, Gemma introduces M3GAN to her niece who is having difficulty adjusting to her new, somewhat boring life with her aunt. The duo become quick friends and Gemma’s boss insists that she and her team continue with the M3GAN project. As Cady and M3GAN bond, Cady becomes even more distant with her aunt. M3GAN takes Gemma’s request of her to protect Cady at all times to a violent, bloody level, taking out threats to Cady. As the story continues, M3GAN becomes self-aware, begins hiding her activity from Gemma, and does everything that she can to eliminate any and all threats to Cady. In the end, M3GAN squares off against Gemma. Who wins? How sweet are M3GAN’s dance moves? Watch the film in order to find out!

The film is very good. I’ve only seen the unrated version and based upon what I’ve heard of the original film, the only additions to the unrated version are a bit more gore and quite a few more F-bombs. The film isn’t very scary and I figured out who (or what) would be the end of M3GAN near the beginning of the film. The movie spends a good deal of time developing the relationships of Gemma and Cady and M3GAN and Cady. One could easily see the film as a look at the ethical and moral difficulties that arise as a result of humans depending upon AI or replacing human interaction with AI. While M3GAN is definitely creepy, the attempt to make her sinister was often derailed by the film’s humor. Overall, though, it’s still a pretty fun ride.

The film’s cast is pretty solid. Allison Williams stars as Gemma and Violet McGraw plays Cady. They have excellent uncomfortable chemistry at the beginning of the film and McGraw takes it to another level once she becomes fully captivated by M3GAN. M3GAN is played by Amie Donald (voiced by Jenna Davis) and she does a very convincing job in the roll. The cast is rounded out by Ronny Chieng, Lori Dungey, Jen Van Epps, Stephane Garneau-Monten, and Brian Jordan Alvarez. The biggest star of the film is the special effects by Morot FX Studio and Weta Workshop. Morot gave life to animatronic puppet versions of M3GAN while Weta digitally enhanced Amie Donald’s performance to give her true doll-like looks.

M3GAN has already been given the green light for a sequel and it is expected to hit theaters in January 2025. Social media hacks have pushed for her to face off against Chucky in a Child’s Play/M3GAN battle royale. Hopefully this doesn’t occur as I’d much rather see M3GAN develop on her own without having to piggyback on an established franchise.

Check out this film. If you love horror with a bit of humor tossed in, this will definitely please you. Thanks for checking out my review. See you again real soon!