Sheereen Chandani

M3gan is a well made movie with a unique storyline, excellent special effects and talented actors! I found the movie to be entertaining, and I think it could have been even better if they had Gemma modifying her prototype with improvisations and constant improvements. She didn't strike me as an eccentric creator, as seen in the movie ex Machina or Replicas where humans are on a quest to continuously learn about their creations, alter their programming through re writing codes, and most importantly, thinking like a Robot. As interesting as the movie turned out to be, it was also disappointing because everyone seemed to be freaked out by an android's existence, did not find it necessary to have a rational conversation with a being with consciousness and were mostly only motivated by what M3gan's existence had to do with the future of their company's revenues, the contribution these AI dolls would make to the lives of their purchasers, and behavioral analysis by experts. The movie would have been believable if they had the panel of creators and leaders brainstorming on solutions to fix a glitch in their "independent thinkers" and perhaps intercepting the spontaneous learning through their own codes/teachings. The scientists exhibited emotional states of fear, fascination, curiosity and excitement but did not reflect on the necessity of sitting down with a child/AI doll that was just released into the world to interact with and guide human companions. They could have easily taught her the concept of self preservation, necessity of abiding by certain laws to live in a community where murder is unacceptable, and explained the repurcussions of her being decommissioned, or even turning into metal scrap in a junkyard to be replaced by a better version. The neighbor Lady with an aggressive dog was also an unbelievable character because she could have fixed the hole in her fence, kept her buddy indoors to keep her best friend safe, and out of harms way. Any dog owner would understand the risks of keeping an aggressive dog outdoors where they resource gaurd and could be targeted by anyone who thinks they are a threat. M3gan was shown to be empathetic and protective of Cady, but lacked the intelligence to empathize with the aggressive dog who was a reflection of her innate characteristics of being a gaurdian. It is unrealistic to have so many loopholes in an otherwise intellectual movie with the smartest scientists on this planet celebrating their complex creations in awe!! The ending was hilarious too since the Robot turned out to be more trusting of her friend Cady and misread her readings, potential environmental threats and over estimated her own capabilities. It made no sense that Gemma didn't pretend to have a peace treaty with her own creation, didn't try to befriend her and perhaps rewrite some gaps in her programming where she would be safe as well. The lesson learnt here is that if you teach Robots about the concept of self preservation, survival, dependence( not just independence), and consideration of their own safety, the probability of violence or malfunction is minimized. This movie is a comic tragedy!!