James Wan, the filmmaker behind the Saw, Insidious and The Conjuring
franchises, and Blumhouse, the producer of the Halloween films, The Black
Phone and The Invisible Man adds another possible franchise to his already
impressive list of films. M3GAN, short for Model 3 Generative Android, is a
highly enjoyable, if not entirely original entry in the dolls want to kill
you genre. M3EGAN could so easily have swapped places with the likes of
Chucky and Annabelle.
M3GAN is the creation of Gemma (Allison Williams) a tech savvy toy maker
who is looking for the next bestselling toy. When her sister and husband
die in a car accident Gemma becomes the guardian of their 8-year-old niece,
Cady (Violet McGraw). Struggling to bond with the youngster, who at times
comes across as more evil than M3GAN herself, she gives Gemma her latest
creation, M3GAN, to keep her company.
Programmed to protect Gemma, M3GAN starts to take things to extremes as she
goes all psycho doll on anyone who annoys Gemma. She particularly doesn’t
like dogs and obnoxious teens.
If you’re looking for your typical slasher film then you’re going to be
slightly disappointed as director Gerard Johnstone’s film is as much about
the loneliness of a young girl than it is about a murderous doll. The
slasher part doesn’t really kick in until the final third when M£GAN goes
full Chucky.
It might be no more than a glorified B-movie but in a cinematic world where
every other film seem to have stories that are as gloomy as a wet day M3GAN
is rare dose of sunshine and a lot of fun at that.
