M3GAN Features A Needle Drop You Need To Hear To Believe
This piece contains spoilers for "M3GAN."
There are more than a few bizarre, yet extremely amusing parts about "M3GAN." The strange toys created by Funki, the exaggerated responses characters give to situations, and the idea that people wouldn't be freaked out by a self-sufficient A.I. doll are just some of the elements that make the film work. Whether or not you believe its brutality was cut short by its PG-13 rating, you can't deny that "M3GAN" is an effectively wild film destined for cult infamy.
However, even for a movie with as many strange elements as this one, there is perhaps one moment that stands upon them all. The funny thing is that moment isn't even one of the meme-worthy scenes shown in promotional material and commercials — it is truly something you will have never seen coming, and that is what makes it so special.
To catch you up to speed, here is where we find ourselves as viewers. The increasingly more self-aware M3GAN (Jenna Davis, Amie Donald) was taken to an outdoor school's prospective students' day, where her cover as a regular doll ended up getting blown. By that, we of course mean that she tore off the ear of a bully and pushed him down a cliff and into oncoming traffic. When the already-shaken Cady (Violet McGraw) confides in her that night, M3GAN proves her commitment to protecting her ... by serenading her with a rendition of David Guetta and Sia's "Titanium" as if it were a lullaby.
Eeeeyeah. It's as simultaneously unsettling and incredible as it sounds.
Shoot me down, but I won't fall
As soon as M3GAN started singing, I started laughing. Pretty much everyone else in my theater felt the same way, as it got some of the heartiest laughs out of the entire film among my audience. We were all caught off-guard by it, as there was absolutely nothing to indicate that it was going to happen. "Titanium" is about being strong in the face of adversity, and M3GAN did perform a lovely song about friendship in an earlier scene, but given the fact that we all saw M3GAN murder a kid as a macabre form of protection just a few scenes prior ... I'm not sure if we could have seen this "Titanium" solo coming even if we tried.
Ultimately, that unpredictability is the best aspect of "M3GAN." The plot in its simplest terms is a bit cookie-cutter — a new toy is introduced at an important moment in a child's life, the toy turns out to be evil, then the toy is defeated. However, almost everything surrounding this basic storyline feels like the last thing you'd expect to happen. It knows when it wants to be wacky, but has enough self-restraint to prevent it from going off the rails. That initial shock of hearing M3GAN sing "Titanium" is the best possible example of this controlled chaos, and I think it's fair to say that the film was made infinitely better for it.
"M3GAN" is singing and slashing into your heart in theaters now.