Two words I would use to describe new horror comedy movie “M3GAN” are predictable and boring. What could have been an enjoyable horror movie that served as a warning into our obsession with technology, spiraled into a two hour long snooze fest, where I could have predicted everything that happened without even watching it. 

After an accident that leaves a young girl orphaned, 9-year-old Cady, played by Violet McGraw, goes to live with her aunt who works at a tech company. Her aunt, Gemma, played by Allison Williams, is unprepared for parenthood, and both Gemma and Cady struggle to adapt to the new lifestyle they’ve been thrown into. 

In an effort to provide Cady comfort in her new environment, Gemma builds a high-tech robot doll to act as a friend for Cady. At first the robot seems to lift the child’s spirits, but eventually an unhealthy attachment forms between them, and the doll becomes increasingly aggressive with a mind of her own.

Now I knew what I was getting into before I saw “M3GAN.” I had seen the previews multiple times before, specifically the scene of M3GAN throwing down some dance moves in a hallway, and the last thing I was expecting was a cinematic masterpiece. But I was still looking forward to watching a somewhat entertaining horror movie, cinematic masterpiece or not.

 Unfortunately my already low expectations were far too high, because “M3GAN” still managed to fall significantly short. Insufferably annoying characters with little to no development, subpar acting and a plot that could have written itself, “M3GAN” was another doll come to life movie with the same formula. Doll comes to life. Doll is evil. Doll kills. Doll gets taken down. 

Despite the plot resemblance to “R.L Stine’s the Haunting Hour” and every other piece of fiction about dolls ever created, the attention to detail of the doll itself is something that was done extremely well. Sinister and uncanny, almost the size of an actual child, the M3GAN doll looked like something out of a nightmare, with an attitude to match.

But any tension the doll created was quickly dissolved by dull horror sequences and terrible comedy. In an effort to be entertaining, almost every aspect of horror and anticipation was quickly lost. In between the few comedy or horror sequences, if you could even call them that, were nothing but unnecessary scenes that lacked meaning, with characters who lacked any type of personality.

Almost every character in “M3GAN” was one dimensional. Even the main character, Gemma, lacked a unique personality or solid backstory. She was just “the aunt who worked at the tech company.” I couldn’t care less about her, not to mention the random people who M3GAN targeted throughout the movie. With characters that had no significance, I had no apprehension about who lived or died, another factor that made the film boring.

But if “M3GAN” had nothing else going for it, at least it had a couple of guaranteed laughs, even if it was just me laughing at how stupid the movie was. Because if “M3GAN” intended to be camp, it failed miserably. 

There’s a distinguishable line between camp and cringe, and as the doll did a few TikTok dance moves in the hallway, or started to sing out of nowhere, it fell more towards the cringe side. 

The only positive emotion I felt towards “M3GAN” was relief when the credits finally started rolling. So when “M3GAN” finally came to a close with its predictably happy ending, while of course, still leaving room for a sequel, all I thought was “finally this is over.”