Review: M3GAN 2.0 is an Action Upgrade That’s Missing Its Edge

Let’s get this out of the way: M3GAN 2.0 isn’t remotely a horror film. It’s a sequel of a different flavor, like Happy Death Day 2U or Evil Dead II. Or swapping Windows for Apple. Writer and director Gerard Johnstone and co-writer Akela Cooper reimagine M3GAN 2.0 as an off-the-wall action comedy with artificial intelligence as a topic of controversy. That’s not necessarily a terrible thing, pivoting into 90s-era campy spy games … unless you were hoping for a M3GAN continuation in the same tone, tempo, and genre.

Most surviving players return for M3GAN 2.0, including leads Allison Williams and Violet McGraw. We reunite with Gemma (Williams) as an author and advocate for AI regulation, while Cady (McGraw) wants to follow in her aunt’s computer science footsteps, tinkering with code strings when she’s not practicing martial arts thanks to an affinity for Steven Seagal classics. It’s been two years since the M3GAN incident; life is simpler, but trouble comes to their doorstep. A rogue Autonomous Military Engagement Logistics and Infiltration Android, dubbed Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno), is revealed to be running on M3GAN’s stolen scripts. That means there’s only one hope of defeating Amelia before she summons an AI uprising: ”That B,” M3GAN (Amie Donald in person, Jenna Davis as her voice).

M3GAN 2.0 is the Aliens to M3GAN’s Alien, except even less dedicated to horror. M3GAN’s return is a sassy assessment of AI coexistence, as she continually tries to atone for her murderous tantrum. If M3GAN presented the doll as a petulant and dangerous child, M3GAN 2.0 is her coming-of-age reclamation, where she pays for her misdeeds while learning how to move forward. Although she’s an artificial program, so empathy still comes across as uncanny and foreign. Johnstone finds humor in M3GAN’s coldly rigid, synthetic expressions as she tries to earn back the trust of Gemma’s coworker, Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez), or sings Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work” to Gemma, serenading her with kind lyrics despite having no concept of reading the room.

In return, we’re taken on a science fiction adventure that’s drunk on dumb bitch juice (mostly complimentary). M3GAN 2.0 bounces all over the place as Gemma’s floundering technology company turns into an inexperienced espionage outfit. Gone are typical studio horror structures, melted down and repoured into a B-movie framework. Johnstone and Cooper are allowed to get stupendously silly, but it’s not always in the film’s best interest. Some bits land—M3GAN’s first “body” is a dinky, kid-friendly Moxie companion—while overuse of dorky one-liners wears thinner. Johnstone’s proven more than capable of balancing horror and comedy in the past (Housebound, M3GAN), and that abandoned darker edge is sorely missed.

As for the “bigger and badder” promises, that’s what keeps things loopy enough to enjoy on a “why the f@ck not” level. Action sequences remind me of Leigh Whannell’s Upgrade, another Blumhouse flick, with both Amie Donald and Ivanna Sakhno taking cues from Logan Marshall-Green’s automaton-y choreography as an AI-driven brawler. Both women cleanly dispatch shock-stick-waving guards and FBI agents firing EMP rounds, keeping motions fluid and punishment at a premium. Donald’s especially impressive as an undercover version of M3GAN wearing this sparkly cosmic getup à la Space Channel 5, who busts an epic dance number at an “Empowering AI” conference—before whooping butts in costume. Donald, Sakhno, and even Williams all have their turn as badasses capable of beating their problems into pulp … even if the PG-13 rating handcuffs splatter and violence.

The problem becomes how M3GAN 2.0 spaces its highs and lows. Veteran comedians like Jemaine Clement, as arrogant billionaire Alton Appleton, and Aristotle Athari, as “Safe AI” lobbyist Christian (Gemma’s partner), handle their wackiest lines with capable talent. Others aren’t as keen, like an overly eager FBI agent who remarks about his “bigger” gun. M3GAN 2.0 can be quite amusing at times, especially when Seagal’s filmography becomes relevant, but it can also be forced in its comedic approach, hoping to impress with more viral TikTok energy. Set pieces explode in scale from M3GAN’s subterranean lair to [redacted’s] third-act facility, and yet there’s a lack of personality without a nastier horror shadow. That’s what made M3GAN so popular in the first place—she’s back, but not as the “B” we once knew and loved.

M3GAN 2.0 is the sequel none of us expected, but it’s a curveball we can handle. Don’t try to parse out poignant AI commentaries because the story itself is a jumble of cybersecurity concerns and softball advocacy. Johnstone sets out to deliver a big, brainless actioner pitting two chip-controlled supersoldiers against one another, one of whom is trying to erase her “villain” label. On those terms, mission accomplished. Good luck if you were hoping for something else because M3GAN undergoes a warm-hearted Ethan Hunt makeover, and she’s not looking back.

Movie Score: 3/5