Mild Menace
PRAISE: I have to applaud Blumhouse Studios for breathing new life into the Angry Android/Doll genre.
In M3GAN Gemma becomes the unexpected caretaker of her 8-year-old niece, she decides to give the girl an M3GAN prototype a marvel of artificial intelligence, a lifelike doll a decision that leads to unimaginable consequences.
Part of the fun of this movie is how charming and fun M3GAN is at the outset. The film is also very creative and effective bringing back memories of automated toys of the past. I actually understood the plight of Gemma (Allison Williams) as she suddenly becomes the guardian of her niece Cady (Violet Mcgraw) she is a person that has been flying solo her whole life......but she does make terrible decisions. As M3GAN becomes more self aware the movie really gets going and I didn't know what she was going to say or do as she has sworn to protect Cady. Watching the movie I definitely couldn't help but think about movies like Deadly Friend and Chucky and TV shows like Small Wonder and The Bionic Woman. Cady was almost surprisingly more of a menace than M3GAN!! Hats off to all of the actresses who brought M3GAN to life.
PROBLEMS: When a certain "character" is introduced it opened a predictable door. M3GAN's programming is explained a few times but I still felt there was a huge leap to her becoming homicidal. If they had written in just one thing it would have been more believable. It was beyond obvious where the film was edited to keep its PG-13 rating with quick cut aways from gore and edited murders.
Scale of 1 to 10 a 7½
