M3GAN 2.0 review: "A bold sequel with a slightly underwhelming conclusion"

M3GAN 2.0 is a new model in more ways than one. The sequel to 2022's campy horror-comedy both upgrades its titular antiheroine and advances its scope, eschewing all pretence of being a horror movie and leaning fully into sci-fi action. In the eponymous doll's own words: "Hold onto your vaginas."

Two years have passed since the events of M3GAN, when toy company roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams) accidentally created a killer robot in her attempts to make an AI companion and protector for her newly orphaned niece Cady (Violet McGraw). In M3GAN 2.0, Gemma hasn't completely left the world of robotics behind, but she's no longer in the business of creating artificial intelligence. In fact, she's advocating for its regulation instead through a foundation she runs with her pretentious new beau, "chambray shirt-wearing shithead" Christian (Aristotle Athari).

Gemma's principles are put to the test, however, when a new threat emerges: AMELIA (Autonomous Military Engagement Logistics and Infiltration Android), a highly intelligent military droid that's turned on her creators and threatens to destroy the world as we know it. There's a catch, though: whoever programmed her somehow got their hands on M3GAN's code, despite Gemma's best efforts to delete it, so there's only one way of taking AMELIA down: reactivate M3GAN and hope her murderous urges are a little more latent now.

Even without a physical body, she still wreaks havoc, and it's fun to see M3GAN back in action. One early sequence involves her setting up a series of Home Alone-esque obstacles to protect against intruders in Gemma's smart home (why an AI skeptic lives in a smart home is quickly glossed over). AMELIA's style, by comparison, is much more cold, calculated, and ruthless.

Forging a new path

Matching the original with its fair share of laughs (although some of the novelty factor has slightly faded), this is one to watch in a packed-out theater. Williams' comic timing is put to good use, and she's as skilful as ever in her delivery of sincere nonsense. "You wouldn't give your child cocaine. Why would you give them a smartphone?" she implores earnestly from a convention stage in the movie's opening montage. A musical number courtesy of M3GAN herself should also be the cause of bemused giggles, although it doesn't best her rendition of 'Titanium' from the first movie.

Soundtracks aside, M3GAN 2.0 is a pretty bold sequel in that it doesn't try to create a cheap imitation of what came before it. By switching up its genre, it lessens the risk of comparison, and it also uses its own timeline to its advantage. A problem that often befalls sequels featuring child actors is what to do when their stars no longer look the same as they did in the original, but M3GAN 2.0 does a good job of dealing with Cady's newfound maturity, from the new obstacles her tweenage years present, to her relationship with her aunt, to her developed relationship with M3GAN now that she's not such a young kid anymore.

The same can't necessarily be said for every character, though. What We Do in the Shadows' Jemaine Clement joins the cast as the cartoonishly villainous self-styled "philanthrocapitalist" Alton Appleton, but he walks a wobbly line between humorous and annoying in his parody of obnoxious tech billionaires (although the fact that the character doesn't overstay his welcome in the script stops that line being crossed entirely).

The film also isn't entirely sure what to do with its side characters, namely Gemma's colleagues Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) and Tess (Jen Van Epps) – so much so that it's even joked about later in the movie. They've got more screen time here than in the original, but this mostly amounts to them helping advance Gemma, Cady, and M3GAN's storylines, and the movie doesn't give us much reason to care about them as individuals.

Mixed messages

For the most part, though, it's easy enough to overlook these flaws because, like its predecessor, M3GAN 2.0 is a lot of campy, silly fun. It zips along nicely, until it sort of doesn't, and the final act begins to falter in both plot and pacing as the movie is forced to confront its most significant limitation. M3GAN 2.0's key issue is that it doesn't seem to know how it actually feels about AI; it struggles to balance an anti-AI stance, which feels timely and almost radical in a ChatGPT-obsessed cultural landscape, with its AI hero. If artificial intelligence is as bad and dangerous as the movie keeps telling us it is, why are we rooting for M3GAN, an artificially intelligent being, to triumph? There are some interesting ideas here about morality and human accountability in relation to AI, but the film only seems to realize the quandary it's walked into at the last minute, and the result is a slightly underwhelming conclusion.

Does it really matter, though? Personally, I found that it didn't. Or not much, at least. If you're going into M3GAN 2.0 expecting an astute commentary on AI, you're going to be left cold, but I'd question what you're doing there in the first place. If you're going into M3GAN 2.0 expecting a good giggle and a decent amount of gnarly violence, you'll have much more fun.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives in theaters on June 27. In the meantime, check out our guide to the rest of this year's biggest movie release dates.