M3GAN (Unrated Edition) [Blu-Ray]

Director: Gerard Johnstone

Cast: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ronny Chieng

Release Date: March 21, 2023

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 7/10
Disc Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:

M3GAN is a marvel of artificial intelligence, a life-like doll programmed to be a child’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally. Designed by brilliant toy-company roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams, Get Out), M3GAN can listen and watch and learn as she becomes friend and teacher, playmate and protector, for the child she is bonded to. As Gemma faces pressure at work from her boss (Ronny Chieng, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) to deliver a finished version of M3GAN, she suddenly becomes the unprepared caretaker of her newly orphaned 8-year-old niece, Cady (Violet McGraw, The Haunting of Hill House). Gemma decides to pair the M3GAN prototype with Cady in an attempt to resolve both problems—a decision that will have unimaginable consequences.

Please Note: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

‘M3GAN’ is the toy every child in the world is going to want and the only toy that they’ll ever need; at least that’s what the team of roboticist engineers believes when Gemma the head of that toy company’s department introduces the newly created life-like doll granted artificial intelligence after perfecting it to help both her and her niece Cady who she is suddenly granted custody of after her parents are killed in a car accident. Initially, M3GAN seems to be everything Gemma had hoped for and quickly helps to lift Cady’s spirits and watch out for her. Unfortunately what none of them could have anticipated was just how dangerous the doll would become when she takes her mission of protection seriously, including brutally killing anyone that threatens it.

Directed by Gerard Johnstone (Housebound) from a screenplay written by Akela Cooper (Malignant) and a story by Cooper and James Wan, Johnstone does a great job at the helm of ‘M3GAN’ guiding along the amusing horror comedy with swift pacing and no shortage of style. The film’s cast includes Allison Williams (Get Out), Violet McGraw (Doctor Sleep), Ronny Chieng (Godzilla vs. Kong), with Amie Donald (TV’s Sweet Tooth) offering the physical portrayal of M3GAN and Jenna Davis (TV’s Infinity Train) as her voice, and nearly all of the cast offering capable and fitting performances for the most part in each of their respective roles.

‘M3GAN’ serves up a generally solid, often somewhat silly and consistently enjoyable type of slasher with a killer doll at its center that’s creepy enough in her own right to make for a villain that’s as adorable as she is terrifying. Perhaps the film’s most rewarding element is that it never tries to take the goofy tale seriously and instead embraces its ridiculousness in order to offer a horror flick that’s as exciting as it is over the top and hilarious in its execution (no pun intended). ‘M3GAN’ may borrow aspects from other popular genre titles over the decades, but it also avoids just blatantly duplicating them, instead working some familiar gimmicks and situations in its own way in order to build a consistently entertaining ride that may not be anything groundbreaking or unforgettable, but definitely manages to keep things solid enough to work in a fitting way and make this one well worth giving a whirl for any genre fans who can appreciate some goofy ridiculousness paired with their horror.

The newly included Unrated Edition of ‘M3GAN’ features a slightly different version of the film and while it actually runs a few seconds shorter than its theatrical counterpart, the new inclusions within are clearly the result of last minute violence and profanity that were cut to secure a more audience-friendly PG-13 rating. The Unrated version is basically the R rated cut of the film and includes a handful of additional F-bombs that were trimmed or altered in the Theatrical Version, in addition to more graphic death scenes throughout the film as well as more blood on people’s clothes, face and backgrounds in a few instances. While the film does basically play out the same as before, genre fans who appreciate some more blood and gore with their slashers should appreciate the new version which definitely ups the ante significantly in that department for at least three key scenes.

Overall, ‘M3GAN’ is a goofy, occasionally quite bloody (or at least the Unrated Edition is) and amusing killer doll flick that delivers a new kind of slasher that never takes itself too seriously. Serving up plenty of wild fun and a creepy killer doll at its center that looks surprisingly outstanding, ‘M3GAN’ may not be the greatest horror film in recent memory, but it sure is an awful lot of fun, with plenty of laughs and terror to offer. ‘M3GAN’ is recommended for any genre fans out there who appreciate a fun slasher film that’s mixed with some sci-fi and tongue-in-cheek ridiculousness that it wisely embraces in all of its silly and bloody glory. If you’re even moderately intrigued by ‘M3GAN’ but haven’t yet had the chance to give it a watch (or if you’re just interested in checking out the more graphic Unrated cut) then it should certainly be worth your time to give a chance.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘M3GAN’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original 2.39:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio on both the Theatrical and Unrated Versions. The video presentation looks great as a whole and delivers a clean, sharp and nicely detailed presentation from start to finish. It holds up well even during the various darkly lit or heavily populated moments occurring throughout, with everything from character clothing and facial details to backgrounds and other elements within looking sharp and clean; absent of any unexpected problems to be uncovered throughout. Overall, this is a solid high definition video presentation that should easily please both fans and first time viewers.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 7.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on both versions of the film. This multichannel soundtrack offers a crisp, clean and often fairly immersive audio presentation throughout. It repeatedly takes advantage of all seven available channels in order to send music, along with bits of dialogue, nature and action effects, plus plenty more throughout the various speakers at every fitting opportunity and never allowing any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously to become distorted or rendered problematic in the process. Overall, this is a fully capable 7.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that holds up well throughout and shouldn’t disappoint.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘M3GAN’ includes a few enjoyable extras in the way of some behind the scenes Featurettes that explore different aspects of bringing the film to life and feature interviews/comments with the cast and crew, plus behind the scenes footage and more. The included Featurettes are ‘A New Vision of Horror’ (running approximately 6 minutes in length), ‘Bringing Life to M3GAN’ (running approximately 5 minutes) and ‘Getting Hacked’ (approximately 4 minutes).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Film Rating: 7/10
Disc Rating: 7/10

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‘M3GAN’ Arrives Home Unrated on Blu-ray & DVD March 21, 2023 & is Now Available on Digital from Atomic Monster, Blumhouse & Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

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