M3GAN: Gemma Is Not A Parent, But Neither Is M3GAN
I watched M3gan three times in three months. In theaters, the unrated version on Peacock, and during my flight back to the US from Rome. I noticed new things about Gemma and her reasoning for making M3gan each time I watched it.
gemma and Nicole
Universal Pictures
Gemma is only interested in her work and not being a parent; this is made clear when she was forced to adopt her niece after her sister and her husband died in a car accident. She loves tech and has it everywhere. She uses an Alexa-like AI, has a peloton-like workout bike, and is always on her phone.
When her sister Nicole dies, she does not mourn. She agrees to become Cady’s caregiver and continues her life like nothing has happened. Her sister did not seem to share the same positive views on tech, which is ironic since tech played a role in the death of her and her husband.
Her sister seemed to act like she was better than Gemma because she was married with a child and could afford ski resort vacations. Meanwhile, Gemma is single, works for a toy company, and sends toys to her niece.
Before her death, Nicole made fun of Gemma’s job and the toy she gifted Cady. Nicole makes her distance from tech apparent and wants to limit Cady’d exposure to it by homeschooling her and having screen time limits.
Gemma doesn’t even know what screen time means and offers to read Cady a book she downloaded to her phone.
M3GAN replaces human interaction
Universal Pictures
M3GAN is the product of Gemma’s love for tech and low-key loathing of parenting. M3gan can be the parent she is just not cut out to be.
She lets Cady use her iPad with no time limits, she doesn’t cook, and she also does not homeschool her and recommends a camp before, I’m assuming, enrolling into public school.
She was more of a sibling than a parent to Cady. They share an interest in tech, the only thing they truly bonded over.
Once M3gan develops a mind and personality of her own, Gemma realizes why she made M3gan. She is doing the parenting Gemma doesn’t want to do, and she failed to help Cady properly mourn the loss of her parents.
Life Is Imitating Art
Universal Pictures
Gemma thought she was creating something that would be a friend to Cady and help her through the most challenging time in her life. She thought that this ‘robot’ could help kids. But this creation was replicating and replacing a human, something we see more and more of in real life.
We can learn from this film. AI initially looks friendly, fascinating, and helpful, but it can develop into something dangerous when used to replace human interaction.
Kind of crazy that the year is halfway over, and this film feels like it can happen in real life any day now. Many people thought this when the film was released in January, but now it feels more real than ever.