Out of all the great films I have seen over the last 20 months. Out of all the things I could write about I decided to pen a new era in my blog on a current (at the time) in theaters pg-13 film about a yandere android. Wait can I apply weeb talk to western films? Aye, whatever we are here now.
Android fiction as far as film goes has some real bangers, Terminator comes to mind, and ExMachina really shook the movie world but yet we are obsessed with this idea of creating a program embedded with a physical body to somehow make our miserable lives better.
M3GAN Is the latest, most cringy of this world, and taking some friends to go see it, I decided to write about it. Think of a troubled grieving nine-year-old who just lost her parents. Then give her a very fucking creepy robot that will do anything in her all extensive ability to make sure this mental and emotional mess of a nine year is ‘happy’.
Initially, as I was sitting in the theater watching this it never made me feel anything, she wasn’t anything interesting. It was a weirdo programmer making a weirdo robot making buddies with a nine-year-old who is beyond vulnerable.
Then it suddenly made sense to me. M3GAN wasn’t supposed to fill the hole that ExMachina did with a complex identity. It was supposed to be this awkward modern PG-13 mess. As I reflect on the film the more I think the pole has shifted from scary android horror to what nine-year-olds deal with post the worst thing that can happen.
Cady lost her parents, she found herself with an aunt who is a millennial techie and suddenly the whole idea of generation switched. We see gen z (alpha? I don’t know I guess I am a boomer at this point) sitting at the table lost and troubled. All the while the person who is supposed to support them is too caught up in their phone. This is just the first of the overarching disconnect the movie creates. Social disconnection is a tightrope current parents deal with daily. Rather it is limiting screen time or encouraging outdoor behavior, Gemma, however, goes the opposite way.
Completely engrossed in her work and unable to remotely deal with her own emotions. She is the lead developer at a toy company and has been working on the ultimate toy. By that, I mean a toy that completely replaces parents from having to deal with their snotty kids ever. It kinda reminds me of a line in Frank Oceans’s Super Rich Kids. ‘The maids come around too much Parents ain’t around enough’ it’s like that but without the pesky maid fees.
For 10 grand any parent can nab their own M3GAN and can sleep at night knowing they never have to tell their kids to wash their hands again. Then the toy starts analyzing grief and the concept of death, you can guess where this is going.
Wait I am getting ahead of myself. The role M3GAN is supposed to fill was originally along the lines of a general friend, and confidant. A neat thing that is always analyzing itself, the world around it, and its partner that it is programmed to protect. Naturally, this becomes complicated as she becomes more aware of the world, and understands Cady’s pain concerning losing her parents and generally adolescents.
Like most sci-fi thrillers that follow this formula, M3GAN quickly comes to understand that she alone can protect Cady and that it is her sole purpose to take care of this girl no matter what. This hyper-logical apathy leads her to a homicidal tendency, one dead bully and neighbor later Genna is forced to accept the monster she had created.
The thing I don’t get about these films is why they always make these androids out of the most durable material. You give something ever-expanding thought, reason, and the ability to learn combat skills and the best idea is to make it out of titanium?
Anyways embracing her homicidal tendency M3GAN Genna and Cady are left with the choice, confront their grief and understand the added social damage M3GAN has brought into their life or become lobotomized by a pen-wielding 4-foot tall android.
M3GAN is a truly underwhelming film in a lot of ways. A strange comedy-thriller full of awkward jokes, strange dances, and god-awful auto-tuned singing. But that doesn’t mean it was a complete wash. I think it does an interesting job of looking at the social constructs of current mid-20-30 adults and the struggle with parenting in the world of technology. It applies a system where parents can detach from the fundamental job of parenting and show just how appealing that idea might actually be. All while (clumsy I admit) showing how much harm such a system can bring, painting a picture of toxic codependency among something that isn’t even human at all (cause codependency among humans is super healthy)
Otaku Post is broadening its content yet again adding movies out of all things. I’m not sure how elaborate or common these will become mostly because film is something I’ve always tiptoed around. But as I find myself pondering on movies and shows I’ve watched I feel it a waste not to write about them. Until next time, thanks for the read!
Otaku Post 