Titanium

Meet the latest horror/gay icon (Spoilers)

Gemma (Allison Williams) is a roboticist working at Funki designing toys. When her sister and brother-in-law die in a car accident, Gemma takes guardianship of her young niece Cady (Violet McGraw). Since Gemma, in her own words, doesn’t “even take care of her own plants,” she ends up turning to one of her creations to help raise Cady. A life-sized doll named M3GAN (Amie Donald, Jenna Davis).

Does M3GAN end up going haywire and killing a bunch of people in the name of protecting Cady? You know it. Yeah, Gemma sucks at being a mom and her job. M3GAN herself even criticizes Gemma for giving her programming she didn’t fully understand and leaving M3GAN to figure everything out on her own. Of course, are you really a movie scientist if your creation doesn’t turn on you?

Besides having genuinely scary sequences, there are really funny moments as well. For instance, the film’s opening is a commercial for Funki’s latest best-selling product. A Furby-esque toy called PurrPetual Petz. It’s better than a real pet because “they’ll live longer than you,” and you can feed it until they poop. A joke that mocks commercialism and has toilet humor. That’s perfect for everyone.

However, M3GAN’s not all campy horror and laugh-out-loud comedy. It does contain a serious message about not just sticking your child in front of a device indefinitely. Unlike her sister, Gemma lets Cady play on an iPad for as long as she likes while she gets some work done. And that’s even before she invents M3GAN, who, as Gemma’s co-worker points out, doesn’t so much assist parents as replace them.

The film’s plot reminds me of the short story The Veldt by Ray Bradbury. For those who didn’t have to read that in middle school, it’s about a family living in this robotic smart house, which the children come to consider both mother and father. And that was years before the invention of Apple and when you only had three tv channels. Coupled with everything that’s come true in Fahrenheit 451, does anyone else think Bradbury must have been some kind of prophet?

Another serious message within the film is also about dealing with your emotions. After Gemma decides to shut M3GAN down after the latter goes berserk, Cady’s reaction is one-part temper tantrum, one-part addict in need of a fix. When Cady calms down enough to point out that she doesn’t feel like this when she’s with M3GAN, Gemma tells her that’s because M3GAN’s a distraction, not a long-term solution.

The M3GAN makeup in this movie is also phenomenal. To the point I was a little surprised to learn there was an actual person under there. Of course, part of that is also down to Donald’s performance, whose robotic movements were stellar. Davis’ vocal performance was likewise phenomenal. The way she delivered every one of her lines was perfect, like when M3GAN starts singing.

The plot of M3GAN plays out exactly how you think it’s going to, but that doesn’t matter. What it lacks in originality, it makes up for in its great performances and humor, rightly knowing not to take itself too seriously. All in all, M3GAN is a fun movie that I recommend watching if you’re into this kind of thing. I’m also looking forward to what they come up with for the sequel (NSFW).