M3GAN 2.0

The first M3GAN film was somewhat fun, even if it was a tad underwhelming as the horror it was marketed as.  Feeling more like a comedic Black Mirror episode, it tackled the idea of technology being used as a babysitter well enough, and the dangers on reliance on AI in the absence of human interaction.  The film’s strength came when it leant into the more absurd aspects as M3GAN (Model 3 Generative ANdroid) took her simple programming command to protect Cady a bit too seriously, and there’s no denying it offered up some dark humour, primarily delivered through the AI itself.  That film became a success, which surely was boosted by the variety of Tik-Tok trends that spun from it – the iconic dance for example – and so a sequel was greenlit.  This time, however, it was clear from the trailers that they were moving away from the horror angle, and taking the idea in a rather unexpected direction.

Set two years after the first film, the set up for this second offering sees another AI construct, AMELIA, modelled on M3GAN’s hardware and software, gain self awareness and  break free of the orders of her creators at the Pentagon.  Gemma (Alison Williams) is called in to try to assist in the tracking down and deactivating of AMELIA, and discovers that M3GAN’s AI is still present, and is, in fact, controlling Gemma’s smart home, where she has continued her duty to protect Cady.  One thing leads to another and the idea is formed to give M3GAN a new body so she can take on AMELIA – but can M3GAN be trusted?

Look, this is dumb fun which turns M3GAN into an action hero of sorts, shifting the tone wildly not only from the first film, but throughout itself.  Once again, it is when the film leans heavily into the absurdly comical fun that it gets its strength.  Unfortunately it takes far too long to actually get there, with the first hour being padded out with a whole heap of unnecessary sub-stories and exposition.  This is a 90 minutes film drawn out to an unnecessary 120 minutes, and a huge chunk of the first hour could easily be excised to make it a much leaner film, without losing anything of importance.

But when it does get fun – and this is pretty much once M3GAN starts quipping her barbarous lines of dialogue – it leads nicely into a wild last hour that had me beaming a solid grin throughout.  The film’s strength is in the title character, with the human characters not having enough depth to them to really offer anything of note.  Jenna Davis’ voice, coupled with Amie Donald’s robotic motions are the highlight of the film, and it is M3GAN’s interplay with those around her that reminds you of why this creation struck such a chord in the first film.  By the final act, with the showdown between the two AI units, it leans into the bonkers to just the right degree for it to successfully recover the film from that first hour, and even left me interested enough in a further entry in the series should one happen.

M3GAN 2.0 is, overall, more of the same that works on the strengths of what made the first film enjoyable enough, but much like that first film also struggles with its identity a little too much to entirely work.  As far as a fun time at the cinema, however, yeah it ticks the box, even if it is pretty disposable afterwards.