M3GAN (A-minus) - Sometimes a movie comes along whose plot or trailer might make you roll your eyes, but which captures the zeitgeist and finds just the right wavelength or carry you through its improbable premise. It's tough not to love this horror story about a robot girl who starts to outfox her creators. "Frankenstein" just never gets old.
Allison Williams, with that flat affect of hers, is kind of perfect as Gemma, the scientist who suddenly takes custody of her tween niece after Gemma's sister and brother-in-law die in a car crash. Little Cady (Violet McGraw) inspires Gemma to graduate from making robot pets to reviving her idea for a robot girl. Thus we get M3GAN, a creepy humanoid who "pairs" with Cady and instantly becomes her best friend, confidant and tutor, all in one.
The problem is that Gemma hasn't really fully beta-tested M3GAN (it's an acronym), so it's not hard to see this all falling apart quickly. M3GAN is synced with Cady, which means she not only lends a sympathetic ear to her charge but also is imbued with the killer instinct of a feral mother in the wild. Because she is programmed to protect Cady, M3GAN will stop at nothing to protect this broken little girl. You can get a sense of her ferocity in the trailer.
But the movie -- directed by journeyman Gerard Johnstone and written by TV veteran Akela Cooper and story specialist James Wan -- meticulously builds its story piece by piece. M3GAN often sits in the background, as obedient as a choir girl. She reads to Cady and is much more effective at grief counseling than the child's therapist is. But, gradually, the bot's "personality" starts to emerge. Her eyes deepen and narrow with the seeming flip of a switch. The first time she talks back to Gemma -- like a typical kid but with obvious menace -- it's subtly chilling.
The movie has a coy sense of humor. M3GAN gets dressed up for an outing in a prim winter coat and gloves. She recruits the home computer system (a Siri clone) into her schemes. Her spaghetti-armed dance moves are instant memes. Gemma's co-workers provide a Greek chorus of skeptics back in the lab, which is under pressure to produce the next big toy, under the thumb of an obnoxious tech bro who is too greedy to let the A.I. program take its natural course. A side story of an office assistant who might be stealing company secrets weaves in perfectly during the film's climax.
Meantime, the suspense feels earned throughout; this is not a lazy or cheap horror story. Johnstone keeps you alert, and the storyline carries the viewer along through every turn of the tightly compacted narrative. There's not a wasted moment, and the inevitable violent climax is satisfying. The film winks and nods at other films -- either overtly or covertly -- ranging from the Chucky films to "Terminator" to "Fatal Attraction." But in the end, it is its own satisfying night at the movies.
BONUS TRACK
Maybe the producers could not afford the rights to the full, original version of David Gueta and Sia's "Titanium," but we get a sample of the song, and it would have been perfect over the final credits.
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