M3GAN

As a film version of an episode of Black Mirror, M3GAN certainly looked very promising on paper, yet I wasn't too thrilled with the final product. Not even excited! Not even scared! And that's quite a shame in something that's supposed to be a horror movie. The character deaths are almost out of focus, which also took away from some of the tension – not that I needed hectoliters of blood, but in this case, it's almost like no one even died. What stuck in my head the most was the doll's dance and the forest run, otherwise it was boring to the point of misery. (2024-09-13)

This year's first mainstream horror genre film is just your average high tech affair. Although M3gan has received good reviews overseas (Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB are both overwhelmingly praiseworthy), die-hard horror fans are certainly not overflowing with enthusiasm. M3gan is a modern variation on Chucky for Gen Z, so to speak, highlighting the dangers of modern technology and how treacherous it can be. Unfortunately the film is hurt by the PG-13 rating and it's all too family friendly and safe. It rambles on for over an hour and getting to know the characters isn't much fun, in short it's more of a drama about a little girl's relationship with a doll that classically starts to turn into a killer monster. It's a shame the premise didn't live up to its potential, it aimed for big things, butthe few murders probably wouldn't have been much even with an R-rating (we might have got 2-3 small gore scenes), which, compared to the new Evil Dead  is a mockery. The atmosphere doesn't work very well and the scares aren't there either, so it plays more on a disturbing note, but I wasn't too impressed with that either. Some even claim it's a comedy, but you must have a very obscure sense of humour. The finale at least saved it from being average for me. The battle in the house is very well filmed. M3GAN is properly creepy there for the first time in the film (her moves are admittedly copied from demons in traditional exorcism genre movies, but it looks even cooler in a robotic way) and her final appearance is also decent, It’s not worth going to the cinema, it's watchable, but the movie would be more fitting on VOD. 55% (2023-01-14)

Horror for the TikTok generation. It mostly blew me away at the end because it's basically a rip-off of Aliens, where instead of a space monster there's a futuristic doll, the adult heroine learns to be a mother, and the little girl is the ultimate badass. It’s also a critique of the marketing frenzy that drives technology against humanity using emotional coercion. I had fun, but I find it ironic that it's the kind of consumerist and faddish product taking advantage of modern trends that it actually warns against (2023-01-13)

M3GAN was pretty underwhelming. It didn’t bring anything new to the table, especially if you’ve already seen Chucky, Terminator, or RoboCop. Calling it a horror movie feels like a stretch, though I’ll admit, if I stumbled upon those two girls unexpectedly, I’d probably jump. The android is actually less creepy than her human counterpart, Cady. Violet McGraw has a face with serious horror potential — maybe one day she’ll land a role that fully taps into that and turns her into the stuff of nightmares. I couldn’t really wrap my head around Gerard Johnstone’s choice to make M3GAN do those odd, “cool” moves — twice. In the end, the movie was neither scary, original, nor particularly fun... It was just kind of "meh." / Lesson learned: Terminator may be an ’84 classic, but it’s clear people still haven’t grasped its core message. (2024-08-22)

Chucky wouldn’t stand a chance against this girl. The little Terminatorette could shut him down with just a stare. But she’s more powerful than scary. And though M3GAN is classified as a horror movie, it’s not frightening. Nor does it build suspense or offer up a single scare. In terms of the dialogue and logic, however, it’s not ridiculous. And it’s technically well made. M3GAN is actually pretty, something like a criminally insane Barbie made by Tesla. Fans of robots will be pleased. (2023-04-03)