M3GAN movie review - Aussieboyreviews
WILL YOUNG HORROR FANS ENJOY THE SPOOKY CHUCKY-LIKE FUN M3GAN OFFERS?
This is just a satisfying popcorn movie that’s probably a little spookier than the recent, more comic Child’s Play movies. But M3gan offers just as much entertainment, delight and spookiness for young teens.
Storyline
A robotics engineer working for a toy company builds a life-like doll named M3GAN that she gives to her niece grieving over the recent loss of her parents. But when M3GAN begins to take on a life of her own, the consequences are deadly.
Movie Images
Movie details
Director: Gerard Johnstone
Cast: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ronny Chieng, Jenna Davis, Amie Donald
Writer: Akela Cooper
Release Date (Australia): 12 January 2023
Runtime: 102 minutes/1h 42m
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Language: English
CONTENT GUIDE (warning: May contain spoilers)
The film contains themes of death, grief and sustained sense of threat and menace inflicted by a robotic humanoid doll. The film also features several implied killings.
The film features scenes of moderate horror violence with accompanying blood detail, including the use of weapons, a robotic humanoid doll ripping a boy’s ears off, implied implement, and two mutilated corpses lying in an elevator.
The film contains a singular use of the word “f**k” and multiple uses of words such as “s**t”, “bitch” and “d**k”.
None.
None.
The film includes a mild sexual reference in which a man asks another man if he’s “pornhub-ing in the office again”.
mpaa rating
PG-13 (for violent content and terror, some strong language and a suggestive reference)
Aussie boy's thoughts
If seeing old classics and overused concepts being used again isn’t your thing, this is not the popcorn movie for you. But these new-and-improved AI doll horror-comedies like M3GAN and the 2019 reboot of Child’s Play are tons of fun for young teens and Gen Z audiences. Still though, this film still manages to be spooky and load up on a sense of dread whilst having a good time with itself. It’s fun and self-aware, but it also tries to take a look into some themes like how young people connect with technology, and how it may seem fairly smooth when or until it deepens to an unhealthy extent, which sometimes works but then it just doesn’t.
You could basically call M3GAN the female version of the Child’s Play movie franchise, which it wouldn’t be surprising if this movie were the kick-off of a new Generation Z franchise. Instead of a charming, lonely boy receiving a psychotic good-guy doll as a gift, the film centres on a woman unprepared to become the legal guardian of her niece when her parents die in a car accident. In order to help her cope, she decides to give the child the prototype of an advanced doll called M3GAN, which nobody will be able to remember what those letters stand for.
First thing you need to know is that you can’t go into the film expecting a heavy horror that just managed to slip by with the mild maturity ratings. M3GAN is a horror-COMEDY, not just labelled with the horror genre by itself, and it’s not overly violent, crude or packed with strong swearing. There is still a bit of blood in there, but it’s nowhere near the same level as the 2019 Child’s Play. Adults and older teenage audiences may find the tame nature of this movie disappointing, but there’s still so much more to enjoy.
From the get-go with a child’s toy commercial played as the opening sequence, the film lets you know you’re just gonna have fun. There’s sequences featuring M3GAN dancing in hallways or crawling quickly like a spider that are delightful to watch, the cast’s performances are pretty solid, especially from the child, and it’s not too long which makes it quite a relaxing viewing. In terms of flaws however, the message that the film is trying to communicate about our relationship with technology only makes it half way up the ladder, but kind of falls short in the end. Some viewers will also find themselves disengaged by the third act, and it might just be the popcorn holding them through. Overall, M3GAN is definitely a fun time, if not mostly forgettable.
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