M3GAN slayed, but “M3GAN” didn’t

When I first saw that one of the producers for “M3GAN” is esteemed horror master James Wan, I was stoked to buy movie tickets. It wasn’t the horror movie I wanted, but the one I needed. 

“M3GAN” tells the story of a little girl named Cady who recently lost her parents in an automobile accident. To fill her recently empty void, Cady’s aunt Gemma builds an artificial intelligence robot named M3GAN, aka Model 3 Generative Android. M3GAN is designed to pair with any child who might need a friend. Gemma’s life revolves around her work as a roboticist, and she doesn’t have time to take care of Cady, so M3GAN does it for her. Chaos breaks free when M3GAN would do anything to protect Cady and doesn’t hesitate to hurt others. 

With little to no frightening scenes, M3GAN didn’t deliver the fear I expected. It gave me many laughs, though. From the random dancing and singing to the mediocre acting, I cringed more than I would like to admit.  

From the very first scene, I knew what I was getting myself into. The cinematography gave me a headache and was so unlike any other horror/thriller I have ever seen. Usually, horror movies have varying scene lengths, and this didn’t happen in “M3GAN.” I think the camera movement was bland and left so much more to be desired. Maybe this was intentional and meant to be more of a satire horror. 

That being said, “M3GAN” is extremely entertaining. There were multiple times in the film when I turned to my friend and broke out in laughter. This movie is the epitome of teenage humor. When M3GAN sang “Titanium” by Sia as a lullaby to Cady, I couldn’t help but giggle at the ridiculousness of it. If you’ve watched the movie’s trailer, you might be familiar with M3GAN’s iconic dance. The feeling of seeing that dance in the theater is one I will never forget.  

The question stuck in my head is, “Would I see this again?” Is it worth 12 dollars a ticket and almost two hours of my time? The short answer is sure. As a movie fanatic, maybe even a cinephile myself, I would never give this film more than three stars. But as a high schooler and pop culture lover, I would watch this movie repeatedly. 

“M3GAN” earned an impressive 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and an audience score of 3.4 out of 5 stars. I gave this movie a 2.5 star rating on Letterboxd, a movie rating app I use. It definitely could have been made better, but “M3GAN” was an incredible watch, and such a fun cinema experience.