M3GAN 2.0 (2025) - Film Review

      M3GAN 2.0, 2025.

      Written and Directed by Gerard Johnstone.

      Featuring Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis, Ivanna Sakhno, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Aristotle Athari, Timm Sharp, Jemaine Clement, Mayen Mehta, and Mike Edward.

      SYNOPSIS:

      Two years after M3GAN’s violent spree, her creator, Gemma, is forced to bring back her notorious creation to combat AMELIA, a military-grade weapon developed by a defense contractor who appropriated M3GAN’s core technology.

      It is essential to inform readers that M3GAN 2.0 differs from its predecessor as it is no longer a comedy-slasher, but rather a sci-fi-action-comedy. This shift in genre was effective for Terminator 2: Judgment Day decades ago (though it doesn't embrace humor to the same extent, with only a few lighthearted moments), a film that director Gerard Johnstone, who also penned the screenplay, aspires to modernize. He bases this story on a concept brought forth by M3GAN co-writer Akela Cooper (in collaboration with horror veteran James Wan), but at times, it appears to undermine the themes and messages from the original film to such a degree that it feels as though the script could have been written by someone who misunderstood the source material. Without Akela Cooper and James Wan’s contributions to the script, this film feels thematically adrift.

      It's frustrating that M3GAN 2.0 takes a rather ambiguous stance on technology, particularly AI, while attempting to redefine the murderous android as an antihero. While this worked for Terminator 2: Judgment Day under different conditions (for instance, Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't portraying the same machine), the current depiction of a machine doing good can easily lead into the risks of promoting pro-AI propaganda. This raises doubts about whether Gerard Johnstone fully grasps the significance of the original blockbuster.

      This perspective is not meant to overly criticize Gerard Johnstone for taking inspiration from one of cinema’s most renowned, successful, and celebrated films. However, if one is going to venture down that path, it would have been better to focus on the android-on-android conflict rather than entangling the narrative in convoluted dialogue and foreseeable betrayals among an array of characters, including government defense officials, tech CEOs, and returning family and friends from the original, alongside AMELIA, a new android constructed with remnants of M3GAN code for military tasks. The two-hour runtime doesn’t feel lengthy due to boredom (quite the opposite, honestly), but rather because the plot is so overstuffed that one gets the impression that time is being manipulated, leading to a sense that nearly three hours have elapsed.

      In essence, U.S. defense personnel, led by a rather foolish character, break into Gemma's (Allison Williams) home, where she has become more mindful of her technological creations and the amount of screen time she permits her niece Cady (Violet McGraw). They compel her and her team to investigate the reasons behind AMELIA going rogue during her first mission. AMELIA also starts targeting anyone associated with M3GAN's creation, thus posing a significant threat to Gemma, Cady, and their returning comedic sidekicks, who, as the film humorously notes, do very little. Cady remains intrigued by technology but also engages in other pursuits, such as practicing martial arts and idolizing Steven Seagal action films, which surprisingly turns out to be one of the film’s funnier running gags.

      Somehow (attempting to clarify the “how” and “why” of this plot would be futile due to the overwhelming amount of information and exposition constantly thrown at the viewer—explaining it would require several paragraphs and ultimately not be worth the effort), M3GAN's consciousness persists, and her code remains intact. She persuades Gemma that the only way to overcome AMELIA and ensure Cady's safety (which was central to her original programming and the cause of her malfunction, given her lack of moral constraints) is to restore her to a robotic body. Gemma, initially reluctant to trust, ultimately decides to upload M3GAN into a humorously outdated machine that lacks Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connectivity.

      In a twist that is likely already revealed in trailers and the film's title, achieving success requires more drastic measures, which means M3GAN regains her original body alongside physical enhancements to improve her chances in a confrontation with AMELIA. However, her programming is adjusted for non-lethal engagement (which seems overly simplistic and raises questions about why it wasn't implemented in the first film).

      Instead of fully embracing the ‘send a robot to kill’ approach, M3GAN 2.0 often appears bogged down in recreating familiar elements from