M3GAN: Worth Watching?

M3GAN is a new PG-13 movie that follows a young girl, Cady. After a fatal car accident, Cady is the only survivor. With the death of her parents, Cady moves in with her aunt, Gemma. Gemma is a genius artificial intelligence creator who works for a company specializing in high-tech toys. Cady’s aunt lacks familial awareness– due to her overwhelming passion for her craft– and so she decides to build an artificial best friend for Cady: M3GAN. M3GAN is a life-like mechanical doll that quickly becomes Cady’s best friend. Cady’s emotional attachment to M3GAN turns into a life-or-death situation when the doll begins to develop a rebellious mind of her own.

The plot and ideas behind M3GAN were creative but unfortunately, they were not fulfilled on-screen. The narrative of an AI doll developing a violent mind of her own, hunting down anyone who hurts her best friend, is a compelling idea for a movie. The robotics and attention to detail in the film were stellar, but the storyline itself fell short. Overall, there were not enough thrilling moments to override the unwarranted amount of unrelated oddity. The storyline was not focused, excessively straying away from the main protagonists. Furthermore, there was not enough of an introduction to the movie to precede the action. Some scenes seemed too overwhelming; everything happening all at once at some points and then at others, there was no substance to advance the plot. Moreover, the relationship between the characters was not explored thoroughly, so the movie lacked depth. 

While the concept was interesting, the movie did not meet expectations. If you enjoy a robot take-over action movie, skip this one. The movie follows a popular trope that many other productions cover better than this new, lacking film.