M3GAN 2.0, the follow-up to the surprisingly good M3GAN from 2022, has just hit cinemas, and it hasn’t made much of a splash. Grossing just $10.2million in American markets in its opening weekend is only a third of what the original made in its corresponding debut. It seems like this was the sequel that nobody wanted, right?
The follow-up to the Child’s Play-like film about an android AI named M3GAN following her primary objective too literally takes things to new extremes. In the first film, brought to you by Blumhouse and Atomic Monster, M3GAN is tasked with protecting Cady (Violet McGraw) at all costs. Unfortunately, that resulted in her trying to kill Cady’s aunt Gemma (Allison Williams). M3GAN 2.0 sees the android return from the “dead” to protect her users from a deadly military AI bot called Amelia (Ivanna Sakho).
Now for the controversial part.
Despite its meager showings at the box office and middling critic reviews (54 on metacritic), I FREAKING LOVED IT. M3GAN 2.0 is the b*st*rd child of M3GAN and Aliens, T2: Judgement Day, and Mission: Impossible. Yeah. I just invoked the names of some pretttttty huge films there.
I won’t be apologising because M3GAN 2.0 is a masterpiece.
It’s Terminator 2, in essence.
In the years that passed after the M3GAN incident, her creator, Gemma, has gone full-blown anti-AI activist, even campaigning politically for moderation in technology. I get that. I mean, her robot invention almost ripped her face off and killed a bunch of people. It’s only natural to be a little sceptical. However, the army has not been warned off so lightly. They have plagiarized Gemma’s old idea and created Amelia, the most advanced espionage weapon in the world.
Too bad she becomes autonomous and turns against everyone who had a hand in creating her. And Gemma and Cady are on that list. That’s when M3GAN reveals that she’s been hiding in their smart devices since she was thought to have expired. It’s up to M3GAN to save the family, and MAYBE EVEN THE PLANET from Amelia and her sinister plans for world domination before it’s too late.
Old evil robot becomes a good but untrustworthy robot to fight a new and more advanced evil robot from killing the only hope the world has? It’s freaking T2!!!
M3GAN 2.0 is not a horror movie.
The original was creepy, tense, and had some surprisingly shocking moments. It was a horror movie with comedic moments, but it leaned more on the scary elements. How effective it was can be debated because the AI bot was a lot less poop-inducing than the likes of Chucky and definitely Annabelle (I ain’t watching that film).
M3GAN 2.0 is an action comedy. Pure and simple. It’s not expecting you to feel scared at any point. Is there death and destruction? Of course. But it’s all in service of good fight scenes, mayhem, shooty-mcshootering, and stabby-stabs. Sakho plays Amelia like an unemotional automaton, following objectives with cold determination, and the dead behind her eyes is the closest I felt to being creeped out.
Like Aliens, it switches genres from old school horror to action flick, subverting expectations. It was a stroke of genius. The main tension from the original was asking yourself, “When is M3GAN going to snap and start murdering folk?” That tension can’t be clawed back in the same way, so you use what you’ve got: a kickass robot fighting another kickass robot.
Where M3GAN excelled was in its humor and ridiculous moments. We all remember the dancing meme where she’s bopping down the corridor menacingly before murdering a couple of people. Well, M3GAN 2.0 leans into that sort of gloriousness, making it laugh-out-loud hilarious.
The cast is perfect. Cady and Gemma are the more serious characters in the movie, but that accentuates all of the great comedic performances. The wonderful Jenna Davis brings life to M3GAN’s voice. She was always sassy, but now that the veil of innocence is out the window, she can really let loose. Jermaine Clement is his usual silly self, portraying billionaire playboy Alton Appleton, and Aristotle Atharl plays Gemma’s boyfriend, the weedy Christian that Cady thinks is lame. And he is.
I haven’t laughed in a movie theater like I did while watching this film for a long time. I left the showing with a wide smile on my face that hasn’t yet faded.
Let me spit facts here: I’m not saying this is a perfect movie by any stretch of the imagination. There are things introduced in M3GAN 2.0 akin to half-hearted character progressions that are barely followed up on. Gemma definitely gives M3GAN a chance to redeem herself far too easily, even if she was backed into a corner by her circumstances. And, there are a heap of times when you have to wave your hands at things and accept it instead of thinking “why would they do that?” or “nah, no way!”
But none of that actually matters.
That’s not what this film is trying to be. It’s trying to be a fun romp with some characters you like and a sassy, over-the-top AI b*tch. It’s trying to have that B*TCH beat the android snot out of that other B*TCH, maybe with some will-they-won’t-they turn on each other vibes. It’s got good action, fantastic comedy, satisfying kills, and a bit of AI (both anti and pro) propaganda.
M3GAN 2.0 does what it’s trying to do masterfully.
I began this review by telling you that M3GAN 2.0 is a masterpiece. I stand by it, but you need to know what you’re in for. This is not the gritty follow-up to the hit horror comedy from 2022. It’s the action comedy sequel to that movie, and sticks to that vision for the entirety of the film. It does exactly what it wanted to achieve and then some.
Now, if you were hoping for the same genre as the original’s tense atmosphere, but sans the silly stuff that broke up the atmosphere of those nail-biting moments, then you’re out of luck. This is not that, and I, for one, am happy about it. Once you’ve seen M3GAN reveal herself, it’s hard to put the genie back into the bottle.
What you do is make friends with that genie, let its freak flag fly and have at it. That’s what makes this film a masterpiece. It’s everything that I didn’t know I wanted from a sequel to M3GAN and more.
And, it’s TERMINATOR F*CKING 2! How could you not be down for that?
