M3GAN—A Potential Wake-Up Call to the Dangers of AI

Mariam Elayan and Stephanie Ocelotl

The newly released film M3GAN has been gaining a significant amount of popularity due to its unintentional comedic factor, despite the horror/sci-fi genre it falls into. To see what the hype was about for ourselves, we decided to go watch it. 

The movie opens with two parents and their daughter, Cady, driving during an intense snowstorm. As they are driving, a truck appears and hits the car. This crash results in the fatalities of the two parents, while Cady is put in the hospital. Due to the death of her parents, Cady is put under the supervision of her aunt.

Her aunt works for a company that manufactures toys for children. Since her aunt has never taken care of a child before, it is a very new experience for her. She does not realize she needs to put more care and attention into their relationship, especially since she is busy with work. She decides to come up with a solution for Cady by creating an Artificial Intelligence doll by the name of M3GAN. This is where the story takes a drastic turn.

Cady becomes very attached to M3GAN and vice versa. M3GAN takes her duties as Cady’s protector very seriously, quickly becoming too serious. For example, when a boy was taunting Cady, M3GAN became overprotective and took it upon herself to harm and inevitably murder the boy.

M3GAN continues with suspicious activity and to make matters worse, the company wants to begin mass-producing the doll. Their goal is to create a toy that will rake in an immense amount of money. Eventually, M3GAN’s dangerous behavior becomes evident, as she begins to spiral and commit an increased amount of murders. She even attempts to kill Cady’s aunt, however, they were able to put a stop to M3GAN before this could happen.

Although the movie came across as silly during certain parts, the majority was entertaining. Of course, that does not mean it was quality production by any means. Altogether the movie was an unoriginal idea with a predictable ending. Movies regarding Artificial Intelligence have been done several times and they all essentially have the same plot. However, the length of the movie was satisfactory and it did not feel too long or too short.

Many movies, specifically nowadays, tend to drag on for an unnecessary amount of time. Since this movie was an adequate amount of time, it was able to be filled with entertaining scenes and it was fairly fast-paced. Even though it was no Oscar-worthy film, it didn’t mean it wasn’t fun to watch. 

Additionally, M3GAN could be looked at from different perspectives. Granted, it is the typical movie about Artificial Intelligence where practically everything ends up going wrong. However, is it a wake-up call to the world society is creating? Rather than spending time with Cady, her aunt created a toy that would practically fill all of her duties as a guardian.

Parents have become neglectful due to the forthcoming invention of electronics, as they hand their children an iPad whenever they do not feel like dealing with them. With the progression of Artificial Intelligence technology, this neglect will only increase. This could be an issue that M3GAN is trying to portray.

On an overall movie scale, we would rate M3GAN ⅖ stars. We would recommend it to those who are looking to watch something new and entertaining. Besides, what’s the harm in broadening your watchlist?