Director: Gerard Johnstone
Distributor: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 102 minutes
M3GAN (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Horror movies revolving around possessed entities such as Annabelle or Child’s Play have always been interesting. The murderous Chucky doll has gained such a following since 1988 that it is still spawning new content every few years. We have to admit that there’s something scary about being hunted by an object we assume to be lifeless. Now, M3GAN somewhat follows this trend, albeit with some modern technology thrown in the mix. In M3GAN, it’s all about a doll powered by AI that will be doing the murdering. As a whole, were intrigued and we were happy to see that the movie didn’t end up being a Chucky rip-off.
In M3GAN we see the tragic death of Cady’s (Violet McGraw) parents. Due to this, she is under the custody of her aunt Gemma (Allison Williams), who works for a renowned toy company. She specializes in making interactive toys, but she is somewhat of a recluse in her personal life. Taking care of Cady is something she is not readily equipped to do, and thus she decides to pursue a secret project of hers that involves very complex AI. With this AI she creates M3GAN (Jenna Davis) an interactive doll that can basically take care of children. What at first seems like a good idea soon turns into something dark and macabre as M3GAN is taking her prime objective of protecting Cady to the next level.
As a whole, the movie’s flow and pacing aren’t too bad, except for the fact that this movie also follows the trend of having not that much action during the first half. You’ll get a short story build-up, albeit without any real details concerning Cady’s parents, and Gemma is not really fleshed out as a character either. We do understand for a generic horror flick this does not matter that much, but actually giving a reason to care about certain characters would do wonders for the overall experience. That being said, the movie contains a few gruesome graphic scenes which were well-crafted. The team used a mix of CGI and practical effects to create a few memorable deaths that are often a key element of horror films such as this.
There’s one aspect of the movie that drags the quality of the experience down and that’s the acting performances. We have to give credit where credit is due, as Allison Williams and Jenna Davis/Amie Donald still perform their roles reasonably well. We do have to mention that Violet McGraw still does an okay job, but we’ll chalk up the somewhat stiff performance here to her young age and her shorter acting portfolio. All the other supporting roles were absolutely horrendous at times. We feel as if the characters were supposed to serve as a sort of comic relief but they ended up feeling one-dimensional and just downright dumb. This was the case for basically all supporting roles.
The Blu-ray version of the movie comes with a few special features. These extras all revolve around the creative process behind the film, including one starring Amie Donald and how she brought the iconic murderous android to life (physically). As a whole, you’re getting decent value for your money here, but compared to a lot of other Universal Pictures Home Entertainment releases this one does not have that much bonus content on the disc.
Conclusion
M3GAN was an entertaining experience that proved to be more than just a simple Chucky clone. The movie did have all the right elements to be great, but it sadly was bogged down by some pacing issues and overall horrible acting performances. If you’re a fan of movies with a murderous doll chasing unsuspecting people, then you’ll probably quite enjoy this one.
M3GAN (Blu-ray) - Movie Review,
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