The Mosley Review: M3GAN
Yeah, its about that time for a horror thriller to explore another side of the "killer doll" genre. Anybody else remember way back in the early 2000's when the biggest kids’s toy was the Baby Alive dolls? Back in the day, when I worked my first job in retail, I remember how creepy those toys were to stock or even walk past. After the store closed at night, we would clean up the aisles and put things back on the shelves. I always hated fixing up the baby toy aisle because of how I always felt those babies were looking at me. The main lights in the store were off and we had the "closed" lights on and everytime I walked down that aisle, one of those things would start to talk. I always wondered what if the day came that there would be an advanced version of those things. Well, here we are with the more grown up version that reminded me of those toys and the toys from Small Soldiers. To say the film was unsettling and creepy is easy, but what makes it great is the subtle visuals and expressions made by the character of M3GAN herself. The film also delves into the psychological nature of childhood trauma and attachments which I loved, but I felt it got wrapped up a little too easily. In all horror thrillers there are some dumb decisions that are made and this film really has some characters that lack some basic logic.
Allison Williams was good in the film as the emotionally disconnected roboticist Gemma. I liked her constantly calculating mind, but she is probably the dumbest smart person in the film. She created M3GAN and did so with such speed, that even Dr. Ian Malcolm would've asked her to stop and think if she should've. There are times where Allison comes off a little bland and didn't have any empathy which may be by design for her character, but I think more should've been done. Ronny Chieng was excellent and overly mean as Gemma's douche bag boss David Lin. He embodied that ambitious and impatient type of boss who treats his assistant like trash. Violet McGraw was fantastic as Cady and I loved the amount of grief and trauma building within her. You see her go through a whole spectrum of emotions after the intense opening moments of the film and she delivers a great example of a child dealing with depression and so much more. That all gets amplified once she meets the titular character and man was she impressive. Amie Donald provided the physical performance and Jenna Davis provided the voice of M3GAN and the two of them brought the character to life perfectly. The character alone was absolutely fascinating as she learned so fast that humans can be great and also horrible. Amie's physical performance was amazing as she moved so distinctively as a robot and so violently once M3GAN becomes "aware". Jenna's vocal performance was outstanding and made you actually empathize a bit with the character. She doesn't really know what it is to be "alive" and to know when to stop. She has her base programming to protect Cady, but there is something else so primal and eerie behind her silicone eyes. I loved M3GAN and I think she was one of the most intoxicating characters on screen.
The score by Anthony Willis was good and added to the tension and creep factor. One of the major standouts in the film is the amazing amount articulation the face of M3GAN goes through. The makeup and animatronic team behind the film have nailed the subtle expressions and reactions that M3GAN has when encountering a problem or even scanning a human's facial expression. She was so life like that it was ridiculously scary at times. For years Child's Play was the king of the killer doll genre, but I think M3GAN could possibly be on her way to challenge the thrown. Let me know what you thought of the film or my review in comments below. Thanks for reading!
