'M3GAN' and AI Shenanigans
Exploration of the fun yet thought-provoking motion-picture
With so few American-made film offerings worth watching these days, I want to clue you in on one I think you might enjoy.
As anyone who has been a subscriber of The Stone Age for longer than a minute already knows, I despise Hollywood. I refuse to go to the movie-plexes (do they still even call them that?), do not pay for any streaming services, and aside from the occasional reruns of NCIS, Deep Space Nine (the ‘good’ Star Trek), and Last Man Standing, I largely avoid television as well.
With that noted, I have admittedly developed a soft-spot (well, a softer-spot, anyhow) for offerings from BlumHouse Productions [BH]. This moderated-affection for the company began with the bitingly satirical film The Hunt, a story which skewered (and hacked and stabbed and shot-to-hell) Trump-hatred and ‘wokeness’ as few have.
So - while I know they are still Hollywood, and thus oft lean heavily into Globalist ideology - I am willing to give BH the benefit of the doubt from time to time, at least when my curiosity is piqued.
As such, I was more than willing to grab a tasty beverage, pop some corn, and take in their 2023 film, M3GAN, for a myriad of reasons. They include…
-- The subject matter (Artificial Intelligence [AI]) is a micro-obsession of mine, as regular readers have undoubtedly ascertained
-- I enjoy cheesy sci-fi / horror flicks (two of my favorite comfort-food movies include the original Sharknado! and the Tiffany / Debbie Gibson B-fest Mega Python Vs. Gatoroid)
-- Since I recently received a free month of Prime Video and the film was being offered... why not?
My assessment? M3GAN is good. I mean really, really good.
The plot is relatively boilerplate for a film in this genre, but still engaging; here is a brief, spoiler-free review I worked up…
Due to a horrific accident, nine-year-old Cady is forced to live with her aunt, Gemma, who works in the development of highly-advanced, higher-tech toys. She is initially ill-equipped to deal with a grieving child, so she activates her pet-project to help her with Cady.
That project, M3GAN (Model 3 Generative Android), ‘bonds’ with Cady, as it is designed to do. Connections are created and shenanigans ensue, followed by mayhem and much unpleasantness for those in M3GAN’s violent path.
All in all, I found it to be a really enjoyable film. The benefits and dangers of self-evolving AI is of primary focus, along with how our relationships with such potential entities could unfold. Humanity and our interpersonal relationships are addressed as well, with a deft hand which does not feel preachy or manufactured.
The underlying theme on the periphery throughout the film was the irresponsible hubris we possess when approaching AI. While one could simply write off M3GAN’s actions throughout the film as evil, psychotic, or merely tech-gone-rogue, in truth it performed exactly as it was programmed to perform.
This naturally begs the question: Was it the creation that went wrong, or the creator of it? Gemma’s careless arrogance and naïve short-sightedness during that creative process was bereft of sagacity; she could not - would not - see all the potential outcomes of what she was attempting, thus… shenanigans and mayhem.
M3GAN serves as not-too-subtle reminder that we genuinely lack the wisdom to create such powerful creations, yes, but there is also an unexpected sidebar to that: It engendered a degree of sympathy for the title character. After all, from M3GAN’s perspective it did absolutely nothing wrong; again, it was just carrying out its programming.
This adds another question into the mix: When something behaves as it was created - or ‘raised’ - to behave, is it not more difficult for a fair-minded person to get upset at it… or, in this case, ‘her?’ After all, it’s a fool’s errand to get personally angry at a wasp when one stings you; it is just doing what wasps do.
Challenging questions, indeed.
[There is undoubtedly a lesson about human proclivities somewhere in here as well, but for the sake of brevity that is better left for a future article.]
As to the film’s artistic aspects? Storytelling was tight, pace was brisk, and special-effects were serviceable, with the acting (especially Allison Williams, who adroitly portrayed Gemma) being seamless. The balance between tension and humor is well maintained, and (at a PG-13 rating) the gore is largely kept off-camera, allowing your imagination to fill in the bloodier blanks.
M3GAN provides old-style entertainment while still provoking one to think about the world we are creating, remaining blessedly-free of the political bias so frequently baked into modern flicks. This is a rare combination to find in a Hollywood film these days, and I was pleasantly surprised that BH pulled it off to this degree.
If you have a couple of hours to kill and want to engage with a thought-provoking vehicle which is also fun? I give M3GAN my full recommendation - I hope you enjoy it.
Kick social-media censorship to the curb! Like & subscribe, that we are never dependent upon Big-Tech & its oppressive algorithms.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I absolutely adore this movie and you summed it up perfectly. The actress who plays Gemma also does great in "Get Out."