One of my favourite “scary” movies of 2023, M3GAN was released in the first week of January to critical acclaim and strong box office, developing quite a bit of a fanbase. Even just from a commentary on how AI and programming is starting to change the world, the makers of M3GAN have a lot of fun with the horror and genre elements by creating our child character to be the new best friend of a young girl, all brought to her by her mom who is the creator. I loved how the movie balances this with a nice level of comedy and satire while also being a pretty timely social commentary.
M3GAN is a lot of fun throughout; more PG-13 and safer than an R rated movie from Blumhouse, the relatively low budget genre flick is more funny than scary, and the key element of the movie is that everyone is in on the joke but also play it very straight at the same time.
About the Blu Ray:
Hey Universal, where’s the 4k disc? M3GAN would be a great candidate to get the HDR, Dolby Vision treatment as it is currently available on Apple, Google and even now streaming on Amazon Prime in 4k. It’s a low budget movie of course but the look and design is a lot of fun. Even without the lack of a 4k disc, it’s a solid looking Blu Ray. Shot digitally, I loved the level of colours and the sharp detail on both indoor and outdoor sequences. The DTS Master Audio track is pretty strong at times especially when music is involved and be sure to turn up the Silicon Chip track at the end nice and loud.
Both theatrical and unrated versions are included here which is more of a marketing trick to just sell more copies of the movie; I usually just try to stick to the theatrical version as that is what I originally saw and don’t want to take away from that; I also admire movies that don’t stray all the way into United States R-rated territory! Even so that’s here, along with some light featurettes with the usual interviews. A DVD is also included which is great as I needed another coaster for my coffee table. And like with most Universal releases this year a Digital Copy is no longer being included, and if it was it would have redeemed to 4k.
Overall this movie is terrific fun and even good for those who resist “scary” movies. There are some frightening moments but I was laughing in pure entertainment more than anything else. For those on the physical media front, let’s hope that Universal does another release in 4k or hands it off to another 4k distributor down the line. I really think it would sell, but what we have here on Blu Ray is a lot of fun.
M3GAN is now available on Blu Ray. Our thanks to Universal for sending along a copy for review.