When your design brief says ‘industrial chic,’ but your mission is murder.
She’s Baaaack
The impressively viral touchstone of 2023 returns to grace us with her AI-enhanced presence and signature sass — and, as shocked as I am to say it, damn if she isn’t way better the second time around.
She may still look like she stepped out of a 1970s Rhoda episode, but behind the scenes, her engineers clearly worked overtime, because M3GAN is sharper and funnier than ever.
Where the original felt hobbled by slow pacing and the confines of its PG-13 rating, it still earned a qualified recommendation on cultural impact alone.
This even longer sequel? The bugs are finally squashed.
Who needs a soul when you have perfect posture and Bluetooth?
From Fledgling Horror to Meta Comedy
Given its lackluster trailer — showcasing an expanded universe concept that looked like it needed more time in the idea factory, I was fully primed to hate on M3GAN 2.0.
But here’s the brilliance: M3GAN 1.0 got the memo.
PG-13 horror is hard and rarely done well. As a horror flick, the first one was only slightly above average, with almost all its memeable cult candy crammed into the trailer.
The genius of 2.0 is that it isn’t a horror movie at all and, wisely, never tries to be.
M3GAN 2.0 is first and foremost a self-aware, meta comedy.
It’s part Terminator sequel, part Mission: Impossible installment, while subversively tipping its hat to countless 80s and 90s movies — Aliens, Sneakers, The Thing, The Addams Family. True cinephiles will catch the delightful nostalgic winks.
And therein lies another reason this sequel works.
Unlike the first movie, writer/director Gerard Johnstone, Blumhouse and producer/star Allison Williams know exactly who their audience is now and they’ve tailor-made this sequel for those of us who came for the promise of the original’s marketing, yet walked away fully unsatisfied.
If M3GAN was an accidental camp darling, 2.0 brings the s’mores, lights the fire, and invites us to gather around for the masterclass.
Consider yourself fully served this time… and not just by the trailer.
Slay First. Ask Questions Later.
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Just a casual tour of your doll’s DIY lair. Nothing to see here.
Killer Doll vs. Rogue Bot
Williams and her now 12-year-old niece relocate to San Francisco, where she runs an innovation lab, evangelizing for safe technology and warning about AI’s pitfalls.
When the U.S. military’s lethal android prototype AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno, Ahsoka) drifts off-mission and goes rogue during a covert op, suspicion falls on Williams. So, naturally the solution to combat this T2 upgrade is to bring back the original doll.
First sliding M3GAN’s revived consciousness into the recently-defunct Moxie children’s e-learning robot to make her more physically hindered and docile? Inspired.
The comedic payoff of her disgust at the cutesy, clunky new chassis is gold. But to take on military-grade tech? M3GAN needs a proper upgrade.
Yes, the plot isn’t terribly unique and leans on well-worn tropes (the evil-gloating monologues, the “As you know, Bob…” exposition dumps). But by the time those faults register, we’re giggling too hard to care.
The team meeting that should have been an email — but now it has a body count.
Upgrades All Around
M3GAN’s not the only one who levels up, though. Williams and McGraw get in on the action-star fun and deliver strong performances.
Brian Jordan Alvarez (English Teacher, Will & Grace) and Jen Van Epps (No Exit, One Lane Bridge), also return with added comedic relief in significantly expanded roles as M3GAN’s engineering team.
But it’s longtime Taika Waititi colloborator Jemaine Clement (What We Do in the Shadows, Flight of the Conchords) who downright owns the screen during his stint parodying every conceivable eccentricity of Elon Musk — neuralink and all. The brutal takedown is hilariously precise in its exacting mockery.
A touching moment between creator and invention… just before M3GAN breaks into song with This Woman’s Work by Kate Bush.
A Sharper Take on AI
The film’s cultural commentary around tech has also evolved.
We’ve moved past the overly simplistic, binary “AI = bad” diatribes into more thoughtful, nuanced territory that acknowledges the benefits (like, say, expediting cures for diseases?), while still remaining mindful of the pitfalls and how to responsively safeguard against them.
It’s somewhat refreshing to see a popcorn flick explore our human tendency to fear that which we don’t fully understand. Sadly, that knee-jerk reaction extends far beyond the realm of tech.
But M3GAN 2.0 isn’t here to preach.
She’s here to slay.
And slay she does.
Serving killer choreography and murderous intent in one clean silhouette. Dance, mother.
LOADING….
+ 1 point for a teenage girl’s school locker tribute to Steven Seagal
+ 3 points for those digs at everything from Windows 95 to Grammarly
- 3 points for the jarringly obvious edit of a major character’s demise (clearly reserved for the soon-to-stream unrated cut — yet again)
+ 10 points for the disembodied AI building its own underground lair Parasite-style
Disappointing box office, coupled with expectations of Blumhouse’s ever-tighter theatrical windows meant those waiting to watch at home were proven right. Less than three weeks in cinemas before being hitting PVOD streaming.
Call it saving ad dollars, but whatever gains were made by building a theatrical-first franchise with M3GAN have now been undermined by her follow-up's even faster rush to our iPhones.
And I still stand by my assessment that it’s better than the original, if you can deal with the genre switch and a less viral-worthy trailer.
🎬 [PLAYBACK: TRAILER]
Unlike the original, this one actually undersells the picture.
Share this review with anyone who wanted more camp out of the original. And if it hit or missed, tap like or drop your favorite memeable moment in the comments.
