It goes without saying that I had no anticipation for this movie and was highly unlikely to even give it a watch. After seeing the shocking amount of praise for M3GAN by critics and audiences alike, my interest was piqued, although Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t mean all that much anymore. Going in with no expectations helped a lot, as I felt that M3GAN did surprisingly a lot right for a January horror film, although it doesn’t rise to its ultimate potential. What really works here is the idea that an AI doll can be sold for 10k and practically be the only toy a kid needs for their childhood. The movie does a good job at showing how children can grow personal attachments towards these technologically advanced “toys” thus having them substitute the role of parenting. It’s not far off from where we are heading in the real world and I like that the film touches on how young people get detached from genuine human connection through technology like phone devices or cool new toys, like M3GAN. The M3GAN doll itself proves to be a deeply unsettling villain, encapsulating every sort of “conspiracy theorist’s” view of what would happen if we were to mass produce an artificial intelligence robot to carry out parental/caregiver service duties. The final 30 minutes are a ton of fun as the film goes full slasher movie mode with a few truly hilarious confrontations with M3GAN wreaking havoc. Where the movie falters a bit is in its first and some of second act, with the tone being far too serious for the film’s bonkers premise. The acting is pretty solid from Allison Williams and Violet McGraw, but unfortunately I feel as if the set up dragged on for too long and leaned too much into the dramatic aspects when those plot points could’ve been dealt with by the 20 minute mark. The film would have benefited from a far more campy tone, embracing the absurdity of a 4 foot AI kids toy brutally murdering anyone who seems to pose a threat to its owner. Also, while I understand the business side of making this movie PG-13 for theatrical release, an R rating with more kills, gore, and campiness would have really given the film itself that much needed distinct flavor to it. I had a mildly entertaining time with the movie on the whole, more so with its second half, and I don’t want my grade to give off the impression that this is a negative review when it’s more along the lines of a mixed bag. I have been hearing that M3GAN will be receiving an R rated cut for Blu-ray, and I’ll definitely be interested to see that version because as I stated before, more kills, gore, and camp would push this above the average slasher doll horror flick. Overall, I would recommend this strictly to those who are already big into the slasher genre, as M3GAN is certainly way better than it should’ve been given the release date, but not as good as it could’ve been had it played up the ridiculousness of its premise. 6/10 (C+)
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