I have only watched clips of M3GAN but the plot is quite familar to me. It is the story of a robot going aganist its servitude and becoming self-aware and how conflict begins here. However, M3GAN has something unique which is it is the encapsulation of a style or sensiblity. It is known as Cyberprep. While there is a clothing style known as Cyberprep, I am talking about a subgenre of Cyberpunk here. To some, Cyberprep is Captialism’s attempt to subvert the Cyberpunk genre, which seeks to create a digital space that is more about cooperatives and the sharing of information for the furthering of human knowledge instead of refining consumerism in global capitalism in our culture. Cyberprep is some sense is the sanitization of cyberpunk and acknowledgment of regression in styles.
Some people in the more left-wing circles have been trying to make M3GAN into a icon of identity politics, the truth is simplier. M3GAN is a movie about transition of styles in America.
Previously, such movies had distinct style which harkened back to two styles I will describe here. While there are offshoots and every movie is different, there are two types in my opinion.
1. Cyberpunk Classic(Japan)
This is the Cyberpunk which everyone knows. It is the one with the Neon lights and the Japanese characters. This is what people think of when they think about Cyberpunk. In the 1980s, it was at its height in media. It is generally an extension of the rebel culture of the 1960s. It is about embracing one’s individuality online. It had an eye on the up-and-coming growing Japan. The Asian country, already with rich tradition of automata in its ancient times during the Heian and Tokugawa eras, was becoming a focal point of what people though the future was going to be. Japanese society, which conformity but also innovation, allowed for a consistency in style. Rural Japan and Urban Japan had their differences, but they tended to be on the same wavelength culturally. In America, the gap is larger between the city and country. While the radio would start the process of closing such gaps, it remains wider than in places such as in Japan.
2. 1990s Internet Chic
This is a refinement of Cyberpunk and the sensibility is more corporate. The internet in its beginning was a computer system known as Aparnet. It was more for scientific purposes and the military, a result of the need to share knowledge during the Cold War. The internet would then go into a transition phase into becoming more commercial as time went on.
By the beginning of the World Wide Web, Hypertext Markup Language(HTML) had become standard and was remaking the nature of internet networks.
With the rise of websites, the internet merged with Cyberpunk but it was no longer about the clunky hardware. While CRT computers were reigning on the throne, the nature of connectivity was no longer about putting on bulky VR headsets. It was now something was contained within a cyberspace. This cyberspace was not navigated with hardware but was hitching a ride on copper wires that were venerable veterans in telecommunications.
M3GAN represents an updating of the 2nd style here.
Generally speaking, M3GAN and its themes are focused on the upper middle-class experience. While some people may say that the robot is not realistic, I think that it makes a lot of sense here. M3GAN is a product of a brilliant if awkward mind. Gemma is genius but held back by the Capitalist system. M3GAN is a representative of Cyberprep.
M3GAN clothing is a throwback to the 1980s Corporate woman, who would often wear clothes in that style. Indeed, such a robot has a fashion sense which is more sophisticated than most Americans now. I would even say that she is reminiscent of a small girl in the body of an upper middle-class woman in 1940s America.
M3GAN is representative of a capitalist system which is starting to fortify in its enclaves. There is no interest in helping the average person even understand what they are getting into. Cyberprep is the Cyberpunk without the edge. The elite of today in places such as Seattle is not interested in guiding mankind towards greatness; it is more about their own people.
M3GAN is really about the palace battles in the corporate halls. To the people farming shimp on the Bayou, M3GAN seems like something out of a Middle Eastern Fantasy story with flying carpets.
M3GAN is true Cyberprep cinema
My Game Reviews 