Ok, so I just watched this a couple of days ago.
Now keep in mind that I hate most remakes and I especially hate modern day horror remakes which usually feel like lazy cash grabs. Aside from Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, I can't think of a good horror remake since the turn of the century.
And admittedly, Child's Play is probably the only franchise I can think of where I am literally watching it just for one character. Give me Chucky being awesome, and I'll be okay with it. That's why I am at least willing to tolerate lesser entries like 3 and Seed. Bad movies, but hey, Chucky made me laugh, so I can live with it.
So low expectations and low set of requirements from me, but to be perfectly honest, I actually enjoyed this remake.
Its not perfect, and I prefer the stronger entries of the Child's Play series (1, 2, and Bride) but it managed to avoid falling into the same traps that other horror remakes fall into. When I look at the A Nightmare on Elm Street remake, all I see is a crappy retread of a classic. It is virtually the same movie, but made without the charm, care, or creative juices that made the original a classic to begin with. The best horror remakes (The Thing, The Fly, Dawn of the Dead, etc.) are the ones that are able to approach the same premise from a different vantage point or find some other way of telling the story.
Child's Play 2019 accomplishes this with the smart device angle, which modernizes Chucky and allows for the film to stand on its own without having to rely so much on the history of the film series or the character. They didn't shoehorn Tiffany into it. They didn't have too many direct quotes from the old films (off the top of my head, I can only recall one). They found a new way to present the character and told the story appropriately.
In fact, it is so different, I wonder if the script started out as something else and they just transformed it into a Child's Play remake just to get people to care. In any case, I actually quite liked this new version of Chucky. Now as I said before, I LOVE the unapologetic murdering wisecracker Chucky voiced by Brad Dourif. He is the epitome of a fun bad guy. He's evil and he enjoys being evil, and we have fun watching him be evil. I thought for sure they'd have Mark Hamill just do an impression of Dourif and just piggyback off of that. What they did instead though was remove the supernatural elements and make Chucky a damaged toy with way more innocence than the character ever had before. He learns to be a murderer through the world around him and legitimately does want to be Andy's friend, but doesn't know how to properly act as a friend. Its almost like a modern day Frankenstein in that regard. Again, I prefer the old Chucky, but I definitely appreciate the attempt at something new, and Hamill voices him perfectly, giving him this fun sweetness that contrasts with some of the horrible acts he commits.
In taking on this approach, the movie manages to have creepiness with the doll and also a lot of dark humor sprinkled in as well, which feels like it is true to the spirit of the older films. And hey, I liked the cast this time around too. Though it is weird seeing her play the mom in a film now, Aubrey Plaza was fun as Andy's mother, and going a little bit older with Andy this time around at least allowed for a better actor to take the role. His friends were a little annoying, but not enough to hurt the film. And again, the whole smart device aspect gave the film a different angle, and Chucky trying to legitimately be Andy's friend gave the film more of a heart than it would have had otherwise. Oh and I am going to have The Buddi Song stuck in my head forever, so kudos to Bear McCreary and Mark Hamill on that one.
Certain elements of the film are rushed, and once Chucky starts acting violent, it seemed a little weird that Andy didn't get rid of him immediately, but all in all, I had a fun time with this, and hey, if I get to enjoy Chucky and smile a bit, then the Child's Play movie did all I asked of it.
TL;DR, I liked the film and I say it is worth a look.
