Oh hey, anyone remember when it seemed like M3GAN was going to take over the world? Not in an AI, crush, kill, destroy sort of way like the movies suggested, but more in a way that hinted that the Tiktok dancing, ear-ripping lil’ Terminator would become even more of a household name once M3GAN 2.0 hit in 2025. However, it seems that one thing that can stop the advancement of maurauding AI is poor box office, and after 2.0 halted the rise of the titular ‘bot, it seemed that M3GAN’s ascent had been halted just as quick as it began.
However, it wasn’t only M3GAN who suffered from public apathy, as the franchise was due to expand with SOULM8TE, a spin-off that would tale the series into erotic thriller territory thanks to a maniacal sex-bot now filling in for a childhood friend. Once destined for a theatrical release, the movie suddenly found itself downgraded to the trash heap of streaming. However, in the wake of movies like Obession, isn’t SOULM8TE already in danger of being rendered obsolete?
After Canta Robotics has been acquired by the larger, more predatory company of Ultima Robotix, mourning programmer, David, is finally forced to come into the office and mingle with his new boss after the death of his beloved wife, Lizzie. However, after being urged to try the ULTI-M8TE AI chat bot for some much needed companionship, David finds that he’s struck up something of a rapport with the app that makes him the perfect programmer to look at Ultima’s latest innovation – the SOULM8TE.
While no one wants to use the term sexbot, I’m not sure what other word you would use to describe a shapely, female, human-looking robot that is programmed to serve and has at least one working orifice for you-know-what. Despite the fact that pretty co-worker Aubrey blatantly has eyes for him, sad sack David signs on for beta testing and is soon delivered Sara. However, despite having curves in all the right places, David can’t help but find that the chat is about as synthetic as this robot woman in his house doing the hoovering. Seemingly learning nothing from the M3GAN incident (which remains curiously unmentioned despite being set in the same universe), David starts rewriting code and dropping safeguards until Sara can learn to act more human. But while her banter skills improves, her learning abilities pick up a few other tricks too, such as obsessing over her man and displaying jealousy when she feels her relationship being threatened.
Somehow realising too late that programming a robot to obsess over him when she can punch a hole through a concrete wall is an inordinately bad idea, David finds that he’s now in a high dangerous relationship with a robot that can kill a man with her robo-vagina (no, really) and worse yet, Sara has targeted Aubrey as her main rival. Can David rectify his inadequacies before a Terminator-meets-Fatal Attraction fate befalls him and anyone he cares about?
It would be easy to blame M3GAN 2.0 for the sudden implosion of the budding M3GAN-verse, but even if the world hadn’t turned its back on the funnier, flashier – and strangely camper – sequel, there’s the feeling that SOULM8TE might not have done too well either. In all honesty, I actually found M3GAN 2.0 quite fun, but the switch from camp robo-jinks to mechanical erotic thriller is something of an odd choice when you consider that all the spin-off really is, is a copy of the first M3GAN only with a ramped up sex drive. As dodgy as I just made that sound, for the most part, the film manages to cover all the basics competently enough by delivering a fair load of robot-as-psycho-girlfriend goodies, and as you’d expect, there’s a healthy amount of techno-fear here too. Yep, AI gets yet another cinematic trouncing when it’s actually the puny humans that are the ones “Frankenstein-ing” around with things just because they’re a bit lonely.
However, while there’s some major issues here that leave SOULM8TE looking incredibly outmoded, for the most part, the movie is a slick – if disposable – sci-fi thriller that hits the basic beats, offers up some bone-snapping deaths and delivers yet another central, robot performance that’s far better than anything else in the film. Kate Dolan’s direction is clean and concise and the plot – while fairly derivative – gives us plenty of moments to show that robo-hell hath no fury for a femme-bot scorned. However, the main saving grace here is the performance of Lily Sullivan as the artificial Sara – also I’m not as surprised as I should be that the star of Evil Dead Rise jumped at the chance to play a role where she kills a man by crushing his ding-a-ling with her one-size-fits-all lady parts. Either delivering bone chilling decorations of love in a tone fresh from the uncanny valley, to performing “Lovefool” by The Cardigans at karaoke while moving like a well-programmed automaton, Sullivan steals the film hook, line and sinker even before she starts snapping bone and plotting homicides. However, looming over the film are two other releases that ultimately reveal that SOULM8TE’s biggest flaw is that it’s severely behind the curve.
In recent years, both the releases of Curry Bakers Obsession and Drew Hancock’s Companion have rewritten the book on these kinds of movies, which means we’ve moved on from the male instigator being portrayed as the victim despite the fact that they’re the ones who’s cause all this malarkey in the first place. Loneliness or loss can no longer be acceptable excuses for someone exerting their will over another being – even a robot – and while David Rysdahl, gives good widower doe eyes, his actions seem far more sinister in the wake of other, better movies involving similar issues – see also Alex Garland’s Ex Machina and Guliermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein for more examples.
As an underperforming sequel and a buried spin-off seems to have found the off switch for the M3GAN franchise for good, it’s worth noting that neither movies are actually boring, or poorly made. But just as 2.0 failed to find an audience with it’s gaudy, Terminator 2-as-comedy leanings, SOULM8TE’s biggest problem is that it immediately had nothing new to add to a type of movie that had already moved on to make more daring statements. While other films reminded us that the perpetrators need to take accountability for the lives they damage (even the artificial ones) during their pursuit of something that makes them feel better, SOULM8TE still feels the need to give David a pass when Sara is only following the commands she’s been fed. It’s not that I’m especially pro-AI, it’s just that I’d rather that we as a species wouldn’t try to fuck it before we understand what it’s capable of…
While the sound of an erotic reworking of M3GAN sounds kind of lazy (and a bit creepy), a strong central performance and a slick pace manages to ensure SOULM8TE is fairly fun for the most part. However, some heavily obsolete aspects of the plot ensures that the M3GAN franchise may have been deactivated for good.
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Where to watch SOULM8TE: