M3GAN – Movie Reviews by Ry!

M3GAN – Dolls, Love and Blood: A Child’s Companion

Movies can be an enlightenment of indifference.  From action to suspense, you have an idea of what the journey entails.  Sometimes, when you sit down to watch a movie, the unexpected occurs.  When the path takes a different turn, it can be for the worse … but also turn into a delightful memory.  In this review, I look at the latest film from Blumhouse.  A studio known for pushing the horror genre, they continue it with this cathartic display of creativity.  With an intriguing premise that becomes something more, M3GAN is a twisting tale of a doll just wanting to have … slasher fun. 

As tragedy strikes, an aunt and her niece’s life change forever.  Trying to connect through a robotic companion that slowly evolves, Gemma (Allison Williams) and Cady (Violet McGraw) must decide what is important to their lives.  As stated in the intro, Blumhouse is a studio known for pushing the boundaries of the horror genre.  With this latest entry, they take a simple premise (AI evolution) to create a film that is cleverly intuitive to the genre.  In the first act, we are thrust into the story with the tragedy of Cady losing her parents in a car accident.  After some plot driven scenes, Gemma gains guardianship over her niece.  Everything moves quickly, developing the connection through characterized moments and relationship conflict.  As Gemma tries to find a balance between her career and new parental responsibilities, Cady is also struggling to adjust to her new life.  The fragility is strongly infused with humanistic elements, creating an endearing motif that levels out the reasons for Gemma creating the companion robot: M3GAN.  Once this AI robot is introduced, we head into the second act that shifts the familial drama into a pseudo commentary on technology, parenting and emotional connections.  These elements are placed against M3GAN’s ominous behavior, thrusting the audience into situations of tension with comedic dialogue.  This intuitive spin on horror pushes beyond the typical scare tactics, allowing the filmmakers to build scenes through witty dialogue and imaginative awareness.  This exalts the experience, creating an instinctive look at ‘what is’ M3GAN and her purpose against the backdrop of Gemma and Cady’s relationship. 

As M3GAN begins to exude her own personality, this creates a wedge between Gemma and Cady.  With some intense emotional drama, this heightens the commentary between technology vs. parenting.  After some plot drive choices, we head into a third act that infuses the comedy and commentary to create horrific moments with a twist.  Facing the truth of the moment, Gemma and Cady face M3GAN in an over-the-top climax and ambiguous epilogue.   M3GAN is a journey that becomes something more than just another killer robot.  With a strong cast and endearing story, there is a lot of fun to be had.  If you are a fan of Blumhouse or different spins on horror, this is one for you.  I say it is worth seeing at the theaters. 

Full Score – 3.5 out of 5 (Matinee)