‘M3GAN 2.0’ Movie Review: Nonsensical Sequel Gets Goofier But Not An Upgrade
Photo from Universal Pictures
From Jeremy Kibler
In January 2023 surprise M3GAN, the titular life-size doll-bot who’d definitely make Chucky her bitch became such a pop-culture icon that a sequel was a sure thing. Part Wes Craven’s Deadly Friend, part Garry Marshall’s Raising Helen, and part Jaume Collet-Serra’s Orphan, director Gerard Johnstone’s techno-horror thriller was effectively modulated: playfully creepy and giddily nutty but also smart and a little campy. So how does his follow-up, M3GAN 2.0, up the ante you might ask? Well, it takes the Terminator-to-Terminator 2: Judgment Day model and shifts into something of a . . . spy thriller? That’s an ambitious creative swing to be bigger and more action-heavy, but it’s not quite the upgrade when we see the snarky android wing-suiting as if she’s Tom Cruise.
When last we found Seattle roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams) and her niece Cady (Violet McGraw), they destroyed Aunt Gemma’s operating system Model 3 Generation Android (M3GAN), which went rogue with murderous impulses in trying to protect Cady. Moving to San Francisco, Gemma is now giving TED Talks, preaching to the world about using tech more responsibly under the guidance of too-pretty-to-be-trusted tech boyfriend Christian (Aristotle Athari), and 12-year-old Cady is now a Steven Seagal fan who can take care of herself. Enter military-grade android Amelia (a much cuter acronym for “Autonomous Military Engagement Logistics and Infiltration Android”), played by Ivanna Sakhno and not Elizabeth Olsen, who seeks a takeover. Once the FBI wrongfully suspects Gemma had something to do with Amelia’s design and programming, the consciousness of M3GAN turns out to still be very much alive in the cloud — and she wants her body back, bitch. Gemma initially refuses to do that, but we know how movies work.
The screenplay by writer-director Johnstone (with only a story credit by Akela Cooper this time) surely takes a risk, opening on the Turkish-Iranian border to introduce Amelia. Whereas the first film did have something on its mind—tech does not work as a parental replacement—beyond being a killer-doll slasher and an AI cautionary tale, M3GAN 2.0 starts with ideas before losing all brain cells. Even the first film felt dramatically sincere when it was about Gemma learning to become a single parent to her niece, but this one just settles for insipid technobabble, maudlin moralizing, and a lot of silliness.
First and foremost, making M3GAN more of an action hero is kind of a miscalculation, declawing her bitchy barbs. The animatronic-faced M3GAN, herself, is still played vocally by Jenna Davis, aided by a physical performance by Amie Donald. Like M3GAN’s hilariously expected song choice for a lullaby, she does get another welcome musical moment here in the form of a Kate Bush ballad that Gemma is forced to endure, and it’s a hoot (if not the entire film’s highlight).
Williams and McGraw are still game, once again bringing as much conviction as they can, even when the material is this damn goofy. To Williams’ credit, she gets to take her role up a notch when she gets mentally paired with M3GAN and performs a kick-ass fight sequence while still knocked out. For a couple of scenes, Jemaine Clement brings his signature smarmy weirdness to douchey brain-implant tech zillionaire Alton Appleton whose womanizing ways become his downfall (in a far less gnarly way compared to Species and even Mars Attacks!).
As M3GAN 2.0 officially departs from being a horror movie, one can’t say this is just a more-of-the-same redux of its predecessor. However, by sliding into a different genre and forcing audiences to compartmentalize, this sequel loses much of the spark that made the first movie so much fun. It’s not that M3GAN 2.0 isn’t entertaining—there are moments here and there spread across two hours—but by the third or fourth reveal of clunky exposition, it becomes more needlessly overcomplicated and overlong than fun. This time, the absurdity is more of a bug than a feature.
Rating: 2/5
M3GAN 2.0 is currently in theaters.
