M3gan

8/10

In this new horror comedy, toy designer Gemma (played by Girls and Look Out's Allison Williams) invents M3gan (voiced by Jenna Davis and performed by Amie Donald) a robotic doll equipped with advanced AI. Gemma's niece Cady (Violet McGraw), who just lost her parents, becomes the test user for M3gan.

Yeah, both the whole evil robot and whole evil doll thing have been done to death. Doesn't help that there are also the natural comparisons to the Child's Play reboot a few years back. Yet, M3gan does a surprisingly good job of being entertaining and fresher than you think. It's not like this doesn't follow the very basic framework of the AI slowly goes bad story, but script is more robust than you'd think, featuring some effective plot points. The movie looks at  a career-focused woman who suddenly has the responsibility of raising a kid and struggles with the task. It's also a look at people's reliance on using technology to raise their kids that's smarter than you'd think. 

What really makes the this work is M3gan herself. You don't see a lot of big talkative/personality-heavy horror movie killers, probably because it's easier to make a silent or hide-in-the-shadows villain scary. M3gan is a villain that stays in your memory thanks to her personality. She's also a lot more understandable and relatable than your usual killer AI. She's definitely the most persuasive. I found myself agreeing with her point of view on several points. 

Physically, she also leaves an impression. Unlike Annabelle or reboot Chucky, she looks like an actual doll that kids would want. Yet, she still manages to be disconcerting due to her uncanny valley face and inhuman body movements and innovative kills. (I'd actually advise you avoid the trailers if you haven't seen them yet since most of the really good parts are spoiled.)  

As a comedy, this works well enough. Not the funniest film of the year, but it has it's moments. This is more lighthearted than the average horror film and it's nice to see an entry like this or Happy Deathday just having fun.   

A couple caveats: M3gan's supposed to be smart, but I found the timing and planning of her kills feel sloppy. Although, the majority of this is strong, the very conclusion feels cookie cutter.

Allison Williams does a pretty good job of playing a programmer who's more interested in what they can do rather than what they should, but also manages to bring a human element. (This is her third horror movie. After Girls, could anyone guess this is where here career would head? Or playing Peter Pan for that matter, but that feels like less of a jump.) Davis does a phenomenal job voicing M3gan. On the comedy side, The Daily Show's Ronny Chieng gives a reliable job as the ridiculous CEO of the toy company that makes her. 

Highly recommended, this is one of those popcorn/let's-have-fun movies and it really works. Plus, it looks like M3gan may be one of the top new horror monsters of the decade.