 Throughout the years, there has been no shortage of "killer doll" stories. It's probably safe to say that most people in the world know of at least one, whether it be movies like 'Child's Play', books like RL Stine's 'Night of the Living Dummy' or even made for TV movies like 'Trilogy of Terror', whose final short about a terrifying doll traumatized children everywhere at the time. But with so many examples out there (far more than what's been listed), why does 'M3GAN' feel so... right?
First and foremost, the story comes to us from the one and only James Wan, who just plain understands what "creepy" means. Further titles of his, be it screenplay or story include some of the 'Saw', the 'Conjuring' movies and, perhaps to a lesser extent, 'Insidious 2' and 'Dead Silence'. The screenplay writer Akela Cooper and Director Gerard Johnstone are a bit less familiar, but certainly, show promise for future films. Together, they provide the perfect atmosphere for something like this. At times, it can be pleasant and happy, and at others, it can be really quite creepy. On top of it all, however, lies a sense of humour, and some aspects of the film not taking itself too seriously. A girl named Cady (Violet McGraw) experiences childhood trauma when her parents are killed in a car crash. She is sent to live with her Aunt Gemma (Allison Williams), who works for a robotic toy company called "Funki". In this fictional world, these guys would have cranked out Furbies, and the film parodies the concept of the "must-have" toy immediately. Anyway, Gemma's latest project is M3GAN (standing for Model 3 Generative ANdroid) A test of it, however, fails, and she's ordered to drop the project by her boss, David (Ronny Chieng). Meanwhile, Gemma's new relationship with Cady is a little rocky back home. That is until Cady discovers a mocap robot named Bruce, and upon interacting with it, expresses a wish that she could have a toy like that. This prompts Gemma to bring a completed M3GAN (Amie Donald's mocap/Jenna Davis' voice) home behind her boss's back. However, M3GAN is excelling at everything she should be doing properly - not the least of which includes becoming a companion for Cady. Her caretaking responsibilities and ability to learn and divulge knowledge are nothing short of extraordinary. David soon becomes convinced that the project should go forward, but it's what people aren't seeing firsthand that becomes the problem. M3GAN is learning very quickly, generally using the internet to her advantage, but she also has a protocol to protect and care for Cady. This leads to some rather overprotective methods on her part, and soon enough, she becomes more than she can handle as she slowly becomes more and more independent. So going back to what I asked before, about this feeling "right", another way to put it would be to say that this is what the 'Child's Play' reboot should have been. I think 'Child's Play' had the right idea, but the execution took itself too seriously, AND, still... why does that teenager want that Chucky doll? The concept, however, revolved around the ever-popular cautionary tale of technology going awry and becoming self-aware, which could ultimately lead to some kind of catastrophe. But I couldn't help but think of the 'Child's Play' reboot the whole time watching this, and how it could have been so much better. For me, this was a movie that got the concept a little more down. It should be said that this also isn't just another movie about a killer doll combined with the aforementioned cautionary tale. This one sort of turns things around by having Cady be more and more reliant on M3GAN, taking her to be very real. It makes sense to make such a connection at such a tender age if your parents were in a fatal accident. At times, you're not sure who's scarier - Cady or M3GAN. I liked how Cady never quite got how M3GAN could be any sort of threat, whereas, in most "killer doll" movies, the kid (or whoever is involved) does eventually figure it out and become scared. Cady's actually a little more unsure of her new guardian, Gemma than she is of her new best friend. I think Gemma is also a well-written character, as she shows two very human sides to herself. She tries to be kind and sweet to Cady and gives her what she needs. But she also needs Cady to help show what M3GAN she can do. She's a good balance of the guardian who walks the fine line between career and parenthood. There are times you don't really like her, but you still get the impression that she's trying - she just doesn't really know what she's doing. With characters a little more fleshed out, the film not taking things too seriously, and even giving us some pretty cool kill scenes, I get the feeling that M3GAN could become a new face for horror. 4/5  Throughout the history of film, there have been numerous "waiting periods" for things we knew were bound to eventually happen. 'Freddy vs Jason' was a huge kerfuffle in the making, 'Ghostbusters 3' took forever to get going, and of course, 'Avatar' was planning a slew of sequels to its original story. I won't go into boring details about what happened, but as we all know, the wait has been since the original 'Avatar', 2009. A lot of this had to do with the technology, which I'll get to later, but the big question is, was it worth the wait?
My first admittance here is that I didn't bother to re-watch the original before heading into this. I also hadn't watched it in a number of years, but nevertheless felt I didn't really need to. I still think that (as there's a quick but solid recap here), but I kind of wish I did, if only to get a bit more out of this. Kind of like marathoning all of the 'Spider-Man' films before 'No Way Home', or the way one will listen to a band's albums just before seeing them in concert; it just amps you up a bit more for what you're about to see. Not to mention, of course, there were probably a few details here and there that I didn't remember that lent themselves to this. But I digress. Taking place fourteen years after the original film (so, I guess, essentially in real-time), Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) has since become chief of the Omaticaya Clan and has a family with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana); our love interest from the last film. Among them, sons Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) and Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), daughter, Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) and adopted daughter, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), who was born from Grace Augustine's (also Weaver, from the last film) immobile Avatar. Yeah, that bit was a little confusing to me too, but maybe I just don't get how it all works (another reason to have checked out the first film first). Anyway, together, they live as one big happy family until the humans drive them out of their home once again (quicker than three hours, this time). The children also hang out with a human boy, going by the name of Spider (Jack Champion), who happens to be the Pandora-born son of Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). The film works around his death (spoiler alert) by way of Na'vi Avatars that contain the memories of deceased human soldiers, allowing them to live on as Avatars (aka the blue guys). Quaritch leads the rest of the RDA (Resources and Development Administration) back to Pandora to begin colonization, and once again becomes the film's big baddie - but with a bit of an upgrade. And with the tech given in the 'Avatar' movies, it all feels pretty plausible, at least if you can buy into the fantasy world that resides in these movies. LONG story shorter Jake and his family head for safety, retreating to the Metkayina - a race not unlike themselves, but have adapted to the water. Here, the family is to learn the "Way of Water" if they are to live among their people. In the meantime, Lo'ak develops a quick love interest in Tsireya (Bailey Bass), daughter of Chief Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his wife, Ronal (Kate Winslet). But perhaps more importantly, we see Kiri (remembering she has human DNA) sort of becoming one with nature, and essentially mastering everything she's taught while everyone else has a bit of trouble. There's a lot going on here, but eventually, Quaritch does begin the hunt for Jake Sully, and will go to some extremes to find him. 'Avatar' was an interesting film when it came out. I personally loved it, and don't deny going to experience it no less than three times with that new 3D tech (which has since become pretty standard). But even I couldn't deny that story-wise, that film had been done many times before. For me, it was much more about the experience at the time. And I have to give this sequel some kudos for new tech that hasn't been used until now - blending real underwater filming with performance capture. To the film's credit, the underwater scenes DO look rather amazing. I think I also enjoyed the overall story here more than last time. This felt a little less familiar. But Cameron definitely pulls from his previous works like 'Titanic' and 'The Abyss'. Unfortunately for me, this just plain feels late. It's hard to criticize it for that, as it's my understanding that Cameron wanted the right technology for filming it. And I will say that at least visually speaking, the film was probably worth the wait. But there's that part of me that, even without this fancy new tech, thinks there would have been a much more positive response if Cameron gave us something else a bit sooner. At the same time though, I can't really deny that that's what's so good about Cameron - he's like a king of using new filming technology, and it's worked out for him pretty well so far. Anyway, it's a well-filmed movie, and I really enjoyed it. But I can't say I have the hype to go see it a bunch more times like the last one. This is a hard one to hype up for people, and I think a lot of people are gonna come away from this feeling similar. 4/5 |
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