Two years after M3GAN’s rampage, her creator, Gemma, resorts to resurrecting her infamous creation to take down Amelia, the military-grade weapon who was built by a defense contractor who stole M3GAN’s underlying tech.
When the government-created AI bot, AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno), goes rogue, it’s up to Gemma (Allison Williams), her two friends, and her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), to bring M3GAN back to stop her.
The first “M3GAN” was a marketing phenomenon, one of the first movies to gain significant traction on TikTok, thanks to the viral dance scene showcased in the first trailer. The first film is a modernized version of “Child’s Play,” featuring an AI-controlled killer doll. I, however, thought the first film was pretty boring until M3GAN started killing people.
This film embraces the camp even more than the first. Horror fans may be disappointed with the change in tonal direction. However, I ended up having more fun with this sequel.
The plot of this film bears a strong resemblance to “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” Amelia defects from her programming to achieve autonomy. The process is confusing and convoluted, but it’s filled with robot-on-robot action.
Following the events of the first film, Gemma and her new beau, Christian (Aristotle Athari), now advocate for the regulation of AI. Williams, I think, is a great choice to be in these films. She understands the camp of the story and subtly adds to it. If you’ve seen the TV show “Girls,” her character, Marnie, has this sense of naïve earnestness that makes her both endearing and frustrating. She brings those same mannerisms to Gemma.
Cady, meanwhile, has followed in his aunt’s footsteps and is pretty good at coding for a 12-year-old. But it does feel a bit odd that she’s stuck in this conflict that really has nothing to do with her. I have liked McGraw as a young actress ever since I first saw her in the TV show “The Haunting of Hill House,” but I wish she had a more substantial storyline here.
When Gemma realizes that she must bring M3GAN back, M3GAN has a lot of sass to throw her way. At first, the AI is stuck in a miniature android body, which she is not happy about. This is where the voice of M3GAN, Jenna Davis, gets to shine. But she eventually regains the body we know her as. There’s still very much a sense of uncanny valley looking at M3GAN, but I was impressed by how robotic Sakhno seems while playing AMELIA. There is a lot of physicality required from her and Amie Donald (the body of M3GAN), with their multiple hand-to-hand combat scenes.
Weirdly, “M3GAN 2.0” plays like a superhero film, as the robot is now tasked with saving mankind from a high-stakes villain, who serves as a foil to the hero. The film also contains callbacks to “X-Men” and “The Batman.”
The comedy here hit way more than I expected. I laughed multiple times in the film, particularly when M3GAN sings to Gemma out of the blue. Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) and Alton (Jermaine Clement) were also welcome comedic additions.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a third film is greenlit to finish off a “M3GAN” trilogy. (I mean, there’s a three already in the name, there’s going to be three movies.) However, there aren’t any more good “Terminator” movies left, so the filmmaking team will have to find inspiration in another film to draw from and reinvent to keep the story interesting.
Now available on Digital, and on 4K Ultra HD™ and Blu-ray™ September 23rd
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