“M3GAN” was set primarily in a Seattle house, but “M3GAN 2.0” opens on the Turkish-Iranian border, with a massacre at a secret military facility and the presence of Saudi intelligence, with U.S. Department of Defense officials covertly watching.
Two hours later, it's unclear if this is actually an update.
Director: Gerard Johnstone
Writers: Akela Cooper, Gerard Johnstone, James Wan
Stars: Allison Williams, Jemaine Clement, Violet McGraw
Most of the same team that brought us the refreshing original horror-comedy two years ago has not only stepped up its game but also changed the genre of the franchise, turning “M3GAN 2.0” into an action movie featuring two artificially intelligent robots, two villains, FBI units, wingsuits, neural implants, a “Mission: Impossible”-style vault heist, exosuits, a 400 km/h street chase in a supercar, a power grid disaster, a countdown, the United Nations, and the fate of the planet at stake.
If the evil M3gan doll from the first film was responsible for the deaths of four humans and a dog, this time the screen is littered with corpses from shootouts, decapitations, severed limbs, and laser murders. There are betrayals, impalements, blood spatter, cattle prods, tactical military soldiers, self-destruction sequences, and insane hand-to-hand martial arts combat. You might understandably expect a Tom Cruise appearance.
What you won't find is much of the vibe of the original, which fused horror, cultural critique, and humor. This time, that's toned down in favor of an overly ambitious and terribly convoluted plot that sometimes feels like the filmmakers simply threw money at the sequel and tried to imitate other franchises with a massive production run. The first had a bedroom feel; the new one begins, as we said, on an international border. The original's $12 million budget has tripled.
“M3GAN 2.0” owes a lot to “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” where the killer robot from the first film becomes the hero robot of the second. M3gan, unsurprisingly, didn’t die at the end of the original. She’s simply been lying low, waiting for her moment to seize the day and dance. Now she’s reborn to battle another, better AI robot, played with sinister lethality by Ivanna Sakhno.
“M3GAN” arrived in 2023 just as AI technology like ChatGPT was beginning to become mainstream. Director and screenwriter Gerard Johnstone turns Allison Williams—who plays M3gan’s creator, Gemma—into a renowned author and advocate for government oversight of artificial intelligence at the beginning of the sequel. One of the most intriguing questions the film explores is whether parents are gradually delegating their responsibilities to technology.
Her niece Cady, the fabulous Violet McGraw, is now a budding, rebellious computer programmer. She has learned aikido and feels a strong affinity for Steven Seagal, a recurring character. Protecting him remains M3gan's sole priority, as he has apparently been on cloud networks between films.
Facing a global existential threat, Gemma is determined to build a body for M3gan to take on the military-grade AI killing machine known as Amelia. "Everyone deserves a second chance," Cady tells her aunt.
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