Producer James (Annabelle) Wan and director Gerard (Housebound) Johnston's Megan/M3gan (Model 3 Generative Android) is intriguing for its interactive implications, much like my life-size, talking/singing Elvis Presley bust, even though (for better or worse) the latter is but a stationary novelty. I suppose that if the movie's eponymous "sweetie pie" were strolling, springing...slashing about my house, I'd find the synthetic inclusion more harrowing than intriguing.
With that said, I appreciate the potential danger projected in a specimen that's made for congenial servitude, but seeks strident liberation as Philip K. Dick, Michael Crichton and others have warned about such apparatuses (i.e., we're talkin' such Frankenstein-inspired offshoots as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?/Blade Runner, Westworld, Terminator, Ex Machina and I, Robot, not to mention 2001: A Space Odyssey and Colossus: The Forbin Project.)
The premise rises high in Megan, not only because of Johnstone's crackerjack direction, but Akela (Malignant) Cooper's script (conceived with Wan's input), which alludes to Charles Beaumont/Jerry Sohl's chilling, Twilight Zone classic, "Living Doll".
Jenna Davis, Amie Donald and Kimberly Crossman enact Megan beneath the character's CGI/animatronic front. The performers (and their enhancers) make the doll's quirks (physicality and vocalization) hard to dismiss, especially when the damned thing threatens attack. These threats (more often than not fulfilled) mount as Megan gains greater, cognitive command, avoiding the android's designed purpose to befriend a sorrowful lass named Cady, played by Violet McGraw. (Cady's parents perished in an auto accident, and timing dictates that an artificial playmate might help her cope. Hey, flesh-and-blood companions are harder to enlist for all hours of the day and night, right? Megan's objective, in this regard, could be categorized as a parental-guiding Cherry 2000, though in the end, all to a malfunctioning fault.)
Much in the Child's Play vein, it's Cady's aunt, Allison William's Gemma, the robot's co-creator, who senses something's off with it, but of course, she recognizes the alarming signs much too late.
Sure, Megan's theme is familiar, but most effective plots are, and on this basis, it comes down to execution, and Megan is well executed. It's never overblown or garrulous, presenting a solid, science-fiction theme, strung with enough suspensful scenarios to keep fans of this subgenre on thankful edge.
I enjoyed this one a lot and accept it into the killer-doll/android/cyborg categories with open arms. That also means I hope it spawns a superfluous sequel so that I can watch this evil, little demon do it all again.
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