M3gan (2022)

I thought his film was genuinely going to be bad. I know M3gan went viral when it first came out for the dance that she did which is why I went into this thinking it was going to be bad. Not in the way that it looks bad because it did come out in 2022 but in terms of plot and acting I fully thought it was going to be one of those movies that were so bad it became good in a twisted sort of way. So you can imagine my surprise when I was actually really interested in the film and where they were going to take it. That being said the dance scene itself did read as unnecessary and a desperate attempt to grab at an audience, which it did. However in terms of plot devices it made no sense to include it.

Near the beginning of the film they did have a clip that made it look like Cady was teaching Megan to dance which is why I thought it would become a more emphasised detail. If I was to predict what was to happen I thought it would be used as a distraction to make Megan appear innocent and draw in her next victim before turning around and killing them. This happened in part but there was no lure that made it where Megan was able to kill them without chase. Instead it came across as a random brief intermission for the makers to get their viral moments before they continue with the chase and the murder. Once again this is a system which worked in their favour as regardless of my criticism the film did well and I do still enjoy the narrative, I only wish they could have found a better way to draw in the scene that didn't make it appear so jarring. Another element I was excited for is how similar the plot seemed to be to Five Nights at Freddie's. Having this character who had just lost their parents now turn and attach herself to this seemingly perfect robot who later turns on her. It isn't an exact replica but the baseline held elements that continued to remind me of Baby and Elizabeth who as a Baby fan was very fun to see. Now onto the artificial intelligence herself who sent me into a crisis when watching it.

AI is so scary guys! Like I truly have never hated and feared a thing more, it's horrific. I could talk about AI itself for hours and how it's ruining creative freedom, killing the planet, making everyone stupider and justifying the actions of horrific people. I mean I have seen people go to chatgpt for the simplest of answers as if it is a Google search engine which I can't even use as an excuse for finding information because of how bad the values of the company is and because every search comes with an ai entrance at the top anyway. Truly it is everywhere and I know at this point it isn't something to be avoided but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try. So here is your reminder if you didn't already know Artificial Intelligence sucks. And because of how topical that has become in recent years watching this film has only made it so much clearer that this is a likelihood we are heading towards. Which is scary when you think this was only made in 2022 when AI existed but in the last three years it has sky rocketed, I mean they are now advertising fake actresses instead of just paying and treating the real ones appropriately. Do you understand how dystopian that is! Clearly I care a lot about this subject so this film hit a very strong nerve. Which seems odd considering the film itself wasn't as dark as I imagine it could have been. There was murder and suspense of course but if they really wanted I feel they could have taken it a much darker, black mirror route but part of me is thankful they didn't because then I really wouldn't have been able to leave me bed.

Firstly, I picked up on how easily Megan was able to be relied upon and how reminiscent that is of life. Every day there seems to be a new report being made of how the world is declining, everyone's mental health is at a low which is the prime time to strike a person. The same way main character Cady has just gone through a horrific event resulting in the death of both of her parents, an event in which she herself feels guilty towards, and now she is living in a new environment feeling completely abandoned with a family member who doesn't even truly want her. Moments of ‘weakness’ when a person is at their lowest makes them more susceptible which is why it was so easy to find an out with Megan who seemed to pose a perfect reality to disappear into. Multiple other characters had already mentioned how holding onto this figure could continue to worsen Cady and her attachment styles because she is not able to accurately go through her grieving process and instead is using Megan as an escape to bottle up all those emotions and pretend that everything is okay because at least I have this ‘person’. In context to the film, Megan was made to look, sound and act like a human making it easier for someone to get attached. The knowledge of having someone in front of you that you can touch and physically interact with almost encourages you to form a strong bond and blur the lines between robotic or human. So it can be argued a large part of her connection to Megan is the fact she is tangible.

However, artificial intelligence has become such a normal part of every day life even without a physical framework and already is affecting people's lives. Once again it is so easy for those who are struggling to connect with someone who they believe will change their world that as soon as sites such as character ai come in it seems obvious people are going to gravitate towards it. Many people for centuries have lost themselves in creative media's such as films or books or the theatre and that has been their form of escaping reality. But now within seconds they do not have to just daydream about being in that world but they are able to get instant responses that feel as if they are talking to a real person. People already have created such an attachment to the impression of a person they can talk to on their phone that they are ‘marrying’ them and committing themselves to these characters and that is just through a screen. They have nothing physical to look at the same way that Megan appears in the film and yet that connection for many has already been made, so the idea that technology can evolve to that same level with a robotic interface, it brings to question how people would react when those connections are already made. So seeing that alone brought to life in a film was very scary and that's not even mentioning when it gained consciousness and started killing people.

That being said I do not believe Cady was the only one to blame for getting as connected to Megan as she did. I don't even agree with saying Cady was to blame in any way as she was more of a victim. She was a child and what's more a lonely child and as someone who has felt the depths of loneliness where you truly feel you have no one who can understand you or who can rely on I am aware how desperate you can be to find something to change that. So I am empathetic towards everyone in a situation where they rely on AI to escape reality the way they do. But in M3gan a large force that pushed Cady and Megan together was Gemma. I know it is a difficult situation to go through for anyone losing a family member but in terms of acting Gemma had no emotion whatsoever. She had lost her sister and yet all she was focused on was this damn child and how they could get rid of her as if she is some kind of pest. Despite that when it is brought up that Cady's dads family would also take them in, Gemma denies saying she wants to keep her. It seems a very complex situation where she was very distant towards her sister and yet she was still her sister and there was a time when they were closer so having her sister wish for Cady to go to Gemma seemed like a way of owning those wishes despite how she may have seemed an inconvenience. Because of that I felt it would have been interesting to see that side of her character being developed and make her realise not only by getting closer with Cady but by addressing her complex relationship with her sister and her unique way of grieving too.

Anyway because of her need to find simplicity she was quick to sign off Cady by applying Megan to look after her which again is a task I can see millions of parents across the world doing. There will be millions across the world who do not want to be parents but are or who are eager to let someone else look after them which again shows how easily AI can enter someone's life from a young age without them knowing any better. And what's more parenthood is such a difficult and complex time that even for the parents that do want to be more active in their children's lives they will inevitably come with struggle. Raising a child is not easy. We have already seen how for a moment of peace parents will give their child an iPad, an action which in itself is not a problem. Yet becomes a slippery slope for relying on and can cause more problems that means they have more screen time which shows how easy an artificial intelligence like Megan would become a part of people's lives.

On a slightly (very slightly) more positive note I did enjoy the way they showed Megan's ability to analyse and obtain new behaviours and information. We were shown the brief scene in which she was staring out the window scanning different things but more than that we were shown physically how she was beginning to change her outcome. I prefer seeing these small changes a lot more than outright saying it so when she was attacking the boy in the forest and ran after him on all fours I was loving it. I think I set up the order of films this October perfectly because having just watched The Thing and how it would kill and absorb the victims the same thing happened here when Megan killed the dog and then seemed to absorb all knowledge around it which would explain running on all fours the same way a dog would when hunting. Similarly, listening to her recreate voices where at first when luring the dog it is pitch and clearly robotic shows it's the first time doing it and the operation doesn't come easily. And then when she is threatening Gemma and trying to convince Cady everything is safe at the end her voice is much more smooth and seamless showing her ability to improve. Then there is the fact that she was already working on controlling the other devices at home but it was never realised until the end. It is such a scary concept that technology can evolve so quickly and so secretly but in terms of film it was such a fun thing to watch.

It was also used as practice for hacking into other systems. The bigger display of this is when Megan disarmed the alarm that was set of when attacking Tess and Cole where she was easily able to just walk by and connect to the software and shut it down. But the most commendable for me was when she was able to connect to Tess’ phone and not just answer the call from Gemma but reply in Tess' voice without actually making noise. It is a move that is both shockingly great and very confusing because where did the voice come from? If the voice wasn't coming from the speaker that Megan herself has then the only other possible answer I can think of is that she used the internal voice of Siri and manipulated that to sound like Tess which elevates the operation greatly. At every turn of this movie I was both terrified by the aspect of M3gan becoming a reality and yet incredibly entertained by the upgrades it was making which if that isn't the epitome of society right now I don't know what is.

I did see that once again this is a film that has a sequel and it is one I may be inclined to watch. The only fear I have is that it is a 2025 release which if you couldn't tell already worries me significantly for how it could be catered. The other fear I have with the sequel is the possibility of making Megan a beloved character. I can understand narratively why it would be interesting to have the second film be a redemption arc for Megan, however after everything I just don't think I can live with an AI becoming the hero of the story. Either leave her the villain or never at all.

Remaining Questions

•What is Cole deleting?? Is it doing things it physically can't or shouldn't do because no software and you're just like oh well or was it deleting killing the dog footage

•Was she pressure washed to death wtf how is that possible

•If it's the day of the launch is Gemma's team not in the process of building other models why have I never seen them building more