TL;DR – When it lands on the surreal nature of the premise, it is a blast to watch. When they need to forward the plot, you can feel the gears grinding to a halt.  

Post-Credit Scene – There is no end credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

M3GAN 2.0 Review –

Back in 2023, there was this weirdly wonderful thing that sliced its way into the world. M3GAN was filled with equal parts of camp and horror, but ended in a tidy, neat bow. Well, suppose you know anything about horror, especially artificial antagonists, you know that there is always a way to bring them back from the dead, and sure enough, it is now time to jump into the second iteration of M3GAN.

So, to set the scene, in the years since M3GAN (Amie Donald/Jenna Davis) was deactivated during her murderous rampage, trying to protect Cady (Violet McGraw) by killing everyone around her. Her inventor, Gemma (Allison Williams), has been looking at ways to bring the world forward without the dangers of technology. But after a heavy-handed FBI raid after a botched operation on the Iranian/Turkish border led by Saudi Arabia, they discover that someone has stolen the coding for M3GAN and built their own robot called AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno), who has gone on a rampage, killing everyone involved in her construction. There seems to be a theme here. But this could also include Gemma and Cady. So, how do you stop a robot on a murderous rampage? Well… maybe you can look a bit deeper into who is running the tech in your house and perhaps let them out of their digital cage. I’m sure nothing could go wrong …     

M3GAN 2.0 was a film of two halves for me, and I want to start with what worked. This was honestly such a blast of a movie at times. You could feel the joy and laughter ripple through the audience. For example, the ladies next to me were having a blast at every quip and joke. When the film really leans into the comedic absurdity that is on offer, you can’t help but get sucked in with it. M3GAN 2.0 also understands the shoulders that it is standing on, not just the first film, but also diverse references from Knight Rider to Upgrade, and everything in between. It is also as subtle as a 2×4 to the side of the head at times. Look, if you are going to throw out a tech billionaire who is a sleazebag way too much into neural chips and call him “Alton”, then you better cast Jemaine Clement to commit 110%.

On that front, most of the cast was an absolute delight. I loved the team that M3GAN, Gemma, Cady, Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez), and Tess (Jen Van Epps) made. They have such comedic timing together that you can’t help but find a smile on your face. Ivanna Sakhno makes an instant impression in a film and is another example of perfect casting. Goodness, does she captivate in every scene she is in. Of course, we do have to talk about the M3GAN double act of Amie Donald/Jenna Davis, along with all the puppeteers, artists, and animatronics. They perfected the combination in the first film, and here they hit it out of the park.

Okay, but we do have to take a moment to talk about the second half of the film, and that was nearly every single moment the film tried to move the plot along. Every, single, time, you could feel the gears of the narrative grind to a halt as they try to get through this expositional dialogue. It is also dabbling in themes around technology that it doesn’t have a crystal-clear handle on, so it all feels very wishy-washy. The worst thing is that it pulls you out of the fun/horror elements that the movie excels in. One example of this is the character of Gemma, who I know has an arc here that does stick the landing, but they make her into such a dislikeable character for most of the proceedings to get there.    

In the end, do we recommend M3GAN 2.0? While it does struggle with some of the plot elements, thankfully, it all comes together in the end to stick the landing, with a bit of murder along the way. If you liked the first film, then I would absolutely recommend this one to you. If you like the more comedic side of the horror genre, then I would also suggest checking it out. Have you watched M3GAN 2.0? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked M3GAN 2.0, we would recommend to you Companion.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of M3GAN 2.0
Directed by – Gerard Johnstone
Story by – Gerard Johnstone & Akela Cooper
Screenplay by – Gerard Johnstone
Based on – M3GAN by Akela Cooper & James Wan
Music by – Chris Bacon
Cinematography by – Toby Oliver
Edited by – Jeff McEvoy
Production/Distribution Companies – Blumhouse Productions, Atomic Monster, & Universal Pictures.
Starring – Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis, Ivanna Sakhno, Jemaine Clement, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Mike Edward, Mayen Mehta, Aristotle Athari & Timm Sharp
Rating  – Australia: M; Canada: 14A; Germany: 16; New Zealand: M; United Kingdom: 15; United States: PG-13