Movie review: 'M3gan 2.0' has fun with upgrades

UPI

6 days ago

1 of 5 | M3gan (Amie Donald) only wears her signature outfit once in "M3gan 2.0," in theaters Friday. Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures
LOS ANGELES, June 25 (UPI) -- M3gan 2.0, in theaters Friday, attempts to advance its franchise the way Aliens and Terminator 2 did theirs. It's not as natural an evolution as James Cameron's sequels, but it's still good, silly fun.
After the artificial intelligence doll M3gan (Amie Donald with Jenna Davis' voice) went on a rampage in the first film, the military applied her technology to Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno). When Amelia goes rogue in the sequel, M3gan is the only one who can stop her.
So M3gan contacts her creator, Gemma Forrester (Allison Williams), via her smart house technology. After Gemma saw M3gan violently defend her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), in the original film, Gemma now advocates for limiting technology amongst children, and developing any technology responsibly.
The expansion of the M3gan world is not simply that there are now two robots causing trouble. The film's entire concept of artificial intelligence is larger.
M3gan does need a new body, and Gemma is the one capable of rebuilding her. This forces Gemma to form an uneasy alliance with her former tormentor, like Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger).
The dynamic of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" is dramatically interesting. Gemma and M3gan keep trying to outsmart each other while facing the larger threat of Amelia.
Writer/director Gerard Johnstone is in on the joke with the convoluted plot he's creating. Characters breeze through exposition to keep introducing absurd technological developments with a sense of humor, from the smart house defending Gemma and Cady from intruders, to a Fast and the Furious/Knight Rider car chase between M3gan and Amelia.
Every new aspect of M3gan's plan requires expensive technology. The film simply glosses over how M3gan manipulated technology to buy said tech and set it up previously so it's ready for the current scene.
At two full hours, the plot goes a bit too far and for too long. By the climax, twists become predictable.
The sequel ramps up the personality M3gan developed via learning in the first movie. She enters this film already making sarcastic, passive-aggressive remarks.
M3gan also transitions into beloved antihero, the way T2 made Arnold Schwarzenegger's robot the good guy moving forward.
It also leaves the horror genre behind to become primarily an action movie. Since M3gan and Amelia are only going after generic tech workers or government agents, it's not as scary as M3gan retaliating excessively against regular people in Cady's life.
This sequel also loses touch with the heart of M3gan in a way that Aliens and Terminator 2 did not. Though there are moments in which Cady reckons with enabling M3gan and M3gan seeks Cady's forgiveness, it feels like the movie really just wants to get M3gan and Amelia in the same room.
While Aliens took Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) back to the planet with the alien colony to fight an army of creatures, it sincerely developed her trauma from encountering just one. Sarah Connor faced two robots while trying to protect her son, but also took drastic action to prevent their creation.
M3gan 2.0 is too busy with its new toys to really focus on its characters. That's mostly okay though. The filmmakers spent Universal's money on a robot movie where M3gan adds to her dance repertoire and sings an '80s power ballad.
Gemma's corporate rival is Alton Appleton (Jemaine Clement), a tech mogul who developed a neural AI that allows paraplegics to walk. M3gan wears a lavender suit for most of the movie that makes her look like a superhero.
Amelia does look more human than M3gan, though just shiny enough to still be robotic. All of these developments pay off in the film's action.
There are many more inventions in M3gan 2.0. While some judiciousness may have been warranted, any of those new creations could be someone's favorite part of the movie.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.