M3GAN Review: Critics Call Blumhouse's Killer Doll Flick a Fun Start to the Year, Say It 'Lives Up' to the Pre-Release Hype

Looks like M3GAN does deliver on its hype as critics seem to be really fond of this killer doll flick. With a pre-release marketing that was quite impressive and a trailer that certainly did spawn a lot of memes, it looks like the film is living up to the promise as many critics are saying that Gerard Johnstone's horror film is a great start to the year. With the film set to hit the theatres soon, lets take a look at what the critics are saying. M3GAN Review: Blumhouse's Horror Film is An Instant 'Cult Classic' Say Early Reactions, Call it a 'Killer Good Time'.

Watch the Trailer:

IGN: M3GAN lives up to its memeable pre-release hype for mostly better and sporadically worse. Gerard Johnstone was the correct director choice, and Akela Cooper attempts deeper storytelling explorations centered around contemporary technological distractions — but you're watching for M3GAN. That's why she dazzles as the titular tyrant ready to rumble in the name of hardcoded primary user love, even at a detriment to the scenes where she's relegated obsolete. Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, and other performers are granted their momentary standouts (Williams anchors scene after scene), only to concede spotlights because M3GAN is the reason for the horror season this winter. A genre star is born from motherboards and violence in a movie that begs to be a tad leaner yet delivers clip-worthy "horrortainment" nonetheless.

The Guardian: Derivative though M3gan undoubtedly is – with creepy fake toy TV ads that are a ripoff-homage to Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop, and a freakout finale that references James Cameron’s android meisterwerk – there are some adroit satirical touches about dolls as toxic aspirational templates, dolls as parodies of intimacy and sensitivity and tech itself as sinister child-pacification, with kids given iPads the way Victorian children were given alcoholic gripe water. It is funny when M3gan sings Titanium to Cady as a lullaby, but is then capable of switching to snarling rage, and Chieng is good value. A entertainingly nasty film for the new year.

Rolling Stone: You can see her thinking, which is the truly horrifying thing. Because what could she possibly be thinking about, except violence? The movie almost stumbles when it remembers that M3GAN basically already knows everything and can do anything, because the real joy is in watching her figure things out. Well — the joy, and the terror. When the movie closes in on her eyes and allows us to feel like she’s processing everything, taking it all in, and weighing the threats, it’s really onto something. Because that’s the M3GAN worth being afraid of. Not the M3GAN with a knife. But the M3GAN with a mind.

The Wrap: “M3GAN” is incredibly funny, sometimes sneakily so. There’s a line about “kicking Hasbro in the dick” which has to be an inside joke coming from Blumhouse, the studio that gave us ill-fated/underrated “Jem and the Holograms.” But it’s all so intelligently crafted and thoughtful that “M3GAN” can’t be written off as a lark. Johnstone’s film captures the same alchemical blend of heart, humor and havoc you find only rarely, in crossover classics like “Gremlins,” and it yields more entertainment than most would-be blockbusters.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 05, 2023 10:40 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).