Child's Play (2019) Review

"This is for Tupac."

-Chucky

To help cheer up her son, Andy (Gabriel Bateman), after moving, Karen Barclay (Aubrey Plaza) gets her hands on a defective Buddi doll, which can not only act as a companion, but can control various electrical objects.  Andy and his doll, Chucky (Mark Hamill), become close, but soon Andy starts to suspect something is wrong with the doll who is protective of the boy to a murderous degree.

What Works:

Knowing the backstory of this movie, I really didn't want this to get made.  I think it's pretty disrespectful to original creator Don Mancini especially when the original series is still going on and is stronger than ever.  That said, I do respect the film for doing something different.  Chucky isn't a serial killer trapped in the body of a doll this time.  Instead, he is simply a defective A.I.  I think remakes should take the source material and do something different with it and that's definitely the case here.

The other interesting aspect is that Chucky can control other electronics.  Although this never gets used to its full potential, it's, again, something different and sets this film apart from the rest of the series.

If we couldn't have Brad Dourif back as Chucky, Mark Hamill was definitely the next best choice.  He doesn't try to do an impression of Dourif, but makes it his own character.  Plus the character design is radically different, and creepier in my opinion, so it really feels like its own character.

The use of lighting is pretty fantastic.  The film has some really memorable shots rather than generic horror lighting.  There is some awesome use of red and blue, plus a memorable scene with Christmas lights as the main source of light.

Finally, there is one truly incredible death scene.  It involves the aforementioned Christmas lights.  It's one of the best death scenes in the entire series and probably the high-point of the film.

What Sucks:

The first half of this movie has some solid setup, but the second half doesn't do a great job in terms of payoff.  The 3rd act in general is just a bit of a letdown.  We had the opportunity to see an army of Chucky's in action, but we never really get that, which is a huge shame.

Most of the death scenes are underwhelming, with the one major exception I mentioned above.  The rest of them are pretty generic.  The only other memorable one, which involves a buzz saw, is fine, but the series of events leading up to the death are Prometheus-levels of stupid and I couldn't enjoy it.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if it came out that this script was originally just about killer electronics and the Chucky stuff was added in later.  That's what it feels like.  The two ideas never fully mesh and while I appreciate the new direction, it definitely could have been implemented better.

Finally, most of the characters are underused.  The first half sets up all of these characters, but we never really get any payoff from them.  It's a shame because some of them were pretty interesting and for them to disappear or die without any fanfare is disappointing.  The biggest bummer is that Aubrey Plaza gets virtually nothing to do in the second half and she was great in the beginning.

Verdict:

It's not the worst film in the series and I was mostly entertained by Child's Play, but it could have been a lot better.  Most of the deaths were underwhelming, the story is disjointed, the characters are underutilized, and the 3rd act is a let down.  I did really enjoy the first half, Mark Hamill is excellent, the film has some original ideas, and there is one truly amazing kill.  Don't bother seeing this in theaters.  Wait for Netflix, but it's worth a watch.

 6/10: Okay