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Tom's Guide
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
'M3GAN 2.0' arrives on streaming and don't listen to the haters — it's exactly what a summer blockbuster's supposed to be
"M3GAN 2.0" isn't doing too hot in theaters, so much so that it's already on digital streaming. That's right, you can stream Blumhouse's sequel to the campy 2022 horror hit from home, less than three weeks after it opened in theaters on June 27. Typically, that's a sign that a moviemaker is desperate to drum up more buzz (and sales) for a flop in the premium video-on-demand market. "M3GAN 2.0" is no exception, earning $36 million during its theatrical run so far, compared to the original's $180 million global haul. It isn't faring much better with critics either. Currently, it holds a 58% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes (though notably, the "fresh" reviews slightly outweight the "rotten" ones.) But after seeing it in theaters, I'm here to say: Don't listen to those haters. If you're expecting another horrifying take on the rise of AI, you might be disappointed, sure. But if you go into it expecting a typical summer blockbuster where the only goal is to have fun and be entertained, you'll have a blast. Audiences seem to be on my side, too, as it has a considerably better 82% Popcornmeter from Rotten Tomatoes users. The sequel shifts from small-scale horror into a superhero action movie a la "Terminator 2," and that genre switch-up may have some viewers understandably bummed. That being said, I had so much fun seeing it in theaters that I think M3GAN's killer glow-up has the makings of the next sleeper hit on streaming. Those who enjoyed the original's campier parts will be eating good. There's more ridiculous dancing, more over-the-top deaths, more snarky comebacks and more queer overtones than you can shake a dismembered arm at. (Just look at that bisexual lighting in the image above — I am here for it!) Here's everything you need to know about where to watch "M3GAN 2.0" online, and when we expect to see "M3GAN 2.0" streaming free on Peacock. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. The first "M3GAN" introduced us to the titular autonomous android (played by Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis ), designed by roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams) to be a companion for her niece Cady (Violet McGraw) after her parents are killed in a car accident. When M3GAN develops self-awareness and goes off the rails, taking her mission to protect Cady to deadly extremes, the two are forced to take her out of commission. The sequel continues two years after M3GAN went rogue. When a dangerous new android, AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno), built using M3GAN's initial design starts cracking skulls, government agents break into Gemma and Cady's home demanding answers. Once they leave, Gemma, now an advocate for AI regulation (and who can blame her?), discovers M3GAN is not only still around but has been secretly pulling the strings to fast-track her career. With M3GAN's cover blown and her protocol to protect Cady still driving her, she volunteers to help take down her power-hungry counterpart, becoming a reluctant anti-hero along the way. There's just one condition: She'll need a new body, and she wants to be taller this time. As of July 15, you can buy or rent "M3GAN 2.0" on Amazon, Apple and other VOD platforms. As with other premium new releases, it's available to rent for $19.99 or purchase for $24.99, though the price may vary depending on your platform of choice. As of now, "M3GAN 2.0" is not streaming on any subscription streaming services. We expect to see "M3GAN 2.0" arrive on Peacock at some point in the future, but an official date has not yet been announced. We do have a guess, though. Another Universal release, "The Woman in the Yard," came to Peacock on June 27, about three months after opening in theaters. If history repeats itself, that would mean "M3GAN 2.0" could land on Peacock around late September or the first week of October. I'll always prefer a messy swing for the fences over a safe single. Even at its most chaotic, "M3GAN 2.0" remains energetic and entertaining, packed with the same sharp wit and wicked edge that defined the original. "M3GAN" became a hit thanks in large part to a surge of internet memes, and "M3GAN 2.0" definitely tries to recapture lightning in a bottle with moments clearly designed to go viral. Some land while others don't, though one standout reference to the infamous singing scene from the original had me and the rest of the theater cracking up. While "M3GAN 2.0" may not match the first movie's endlessly quotable appeal and it largely trades scares for pulpy mayhem, it still delivers plenty of wild, memorable scenes that are easy to lose yourself in. M3GAN's transformation from a once-lethal cyborg to humanity's protector will resonate with fans of the "Terminator" movies, the series's clearest inspiration. In many ways, it feels like an old-fashioned "turn your brain off and enjoy" action film, perfect for cackling over some popcorn on a summer night. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘M3GAN 2.0' Review: Allison Williams in an Occasionally Fun but Overloaded AI Sequel That Botches Its Factory Reset
The campy sense of mischief that made Gerard Johnstone's 2023 hit M3GAN so enjoyable asserts itself intermittently in M3GAN 2.0, a logical title for a follow-up to the thriller about a murderous robot. But the humor is forced to compete with seriously overcomplicated plotting in a sequel that entangles its horror comedy roots with uninspired espionage elements, becoming a convoluted mishmash with shades of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Mission: Impossible and the Austin Powers franchise. There are amusing moments reminiscent of the original, but in terms of tone and coherence, the movie loses its way. The sequel works best when its focus remains on the central family unit — robotics scientist Gemma (Allison Williams), her orphaned niece Cady (Violet McGraw) and M3GAN (played physically by dancer Amie Donald in a mask and voiced by Jenna Davis), the android intended as Cady's companion and protector, who went rogue in the first movie and had to be destroyed. More from The Hollywood Reporter 'M3GAN 2.0' Filmmaker Gerard Johnstone Won't Be Surprised If There's "Another Five of These Movies" Allison Williams Has "Been Dreaming of" a 'M3GAN' Trilogy Blumhouse Buys 'Saw' Stake From Twisted Pictures Johnstone takes on solo script duties from a story he developed with M3GAN screenwriter Akela Cooper, based on characters she created with James Wan. The director makes it clear from the opening that this will be a very different film — less interested in the domestic dysfunction and corporate mayhem of its predecessor and more concerned with arms dealers, duplicitous techies and an industrial military complex with a shiny new toy. None of which, sad to say, is terribly fresh or exciting. Much has changed on the artificial intelligence front in the two and a half years since M3GAN was released, as AI has rapidly become more prevalent in contemporary life, both online and off. The new movie states the obvious when it talks up the need for humans to coexist with robotics technology, albeit with legal safeguards in place. But it's too silly to have much bearing on the real world. The tagline for the sequel is 'I'm Still That B.' But M3GAN 2.0 is too infrequently allowed to be that B. Instead, she starts acquiring empathy and morality, which we all know are no fun. That's not to say she has lost her snarky delivery, her mean-girl death stare or her passive-aggressive manipulation skills. 'You killed four people and a dog!' Gemma reminds her. 'I was a kid when it happened, doing what I thought was right,' replies M3GAN with dubious contrition. She then gives Gemma a comforting pep talk about the challenges of being a mom before launching into a truly hilarious Kate Bush homage. While M3GAN's humanoid casing was destroyed when she got out of control last time around, her codes survived in not-quite-sleep mode. She's been an unseen but all-seeing presence in Gemma and Cady's home, which also serves as the lab where Gemma and her colleagues Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) and Tess (Jen Van Epps) continue their robotics work. M3GAN has way too much intimate knowledge of her inventor for Gemma's comfort, but when their lives are endangered, the robot makes a convincing case that only she can help them take down a new robo-threat. All she needs is a new body and a few upgrades. That threat goes by the name Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno), the T-1000 to M3GAN's 101 model. Developed from the M3GAN template by the U.S. Army's Defense Innovation Unit in Palo Alto and overseen by Colonel Sattler (Timm Sharp), Amelia is introduced on a test mission near the Turkish-Iranian border, where she ignores her orders to rescue a kidnapped scientist, instead killing him and wiping out an entire research facility. Once Amelia has eliminated almost everyone involved in her creation, Gemma and Cady seem likely to be next on her list. But there's an awful lot of plot to trudge through before Amelia's inevitable encounter with the rebirthed M3GAN. Some of that involves Gemma's advocacy for stricter AI control measures; her quasi-romance with fellow cautionary tech activist Christian (Aristotle Athani); her secret development with Cole and Tess of an AI-free mecha-suit that will equip humans with robot strength and stamina; the industrial espionage of tech billionaire Alton Appleton (Jemaine Clement), who believes that Gemma's new exosuit could be a game-changer with the addition of his neuro-chips; and the discovery of a killer robot dating back to 1984, dubbed Project Black Box, which has been locked in a vault, continuing to develop for decades. The ultimate fear is that Amelia will harness that mother-bot's power and unleash global chaos. Naturally, there's also friction between rebellious Cady and her aunt, whose alarmism after the renegade M3GAN disaster in the first movie means computer science enthusiast Cady has to keep her own robotics projects hidden. Not that this thread is given the space to acquire much weight. It's delightful to see M3GAN 2.0 sashay back to life and reappear in her customary retro-preppy look, just as it is to watch her bust her signature dance moves at an AI convention, wearing a cyber-babe disguise. But too often, the star attraction takes a back seat to the much less entertaining Amelia, an icy blonde killing machine like so many icy blonde killing machines before her, with none of M3GAN's sardonic wit. I got more laughs out of Gemma's smart-home system outmaneuvering a team of FBI agents. Sure, Amelia gets to do some cool stuff like scamper on all fours toward a target, scramble down a wall like a spider, rip the head off one poor unfortunate and neutralize entire tactical units with her dazzling fight skills. But the action mostly feels rote and lacking in suspense. While it's unfair to criticize Johnstone for wanting to change things up, it's disappointing that he's made a Blumhouse-Atomic Monster production that has almost no connection to horror. The creepiness that offset the camp in the first movie is undetectable. McGraw and Williams (who's also a producer here) are no less appealing than they were in the original, and Gemma gets to step into the fray with gusto once M3GAN slips inside her head via a neuro-chip. Clement is a droll presence who seems to have wandered in from the set of a James Bond spoof ('Ooh, you're a naughty one,' Alton tells Amelia, his interest further aroused when she wallops him across the face). But he doesn't stick around long enough to help get through the messy patches. And Athani signals Christian's shadiness almost from his first appearance, which removes any surprise from the busy narrative contortions of the protracted climax. The movie looks polished, thanks to Get Out cinematographer Toby Oliver's sleek widescreen visuals. But it becomes a drag as confusion spirals around who's controlling Amelia and how to stop her. M3GAN herself remains a fabulous creation with a wicked sense of humor ('Hold onto your vaginas,' she warns Gemma and Cole as she takes control of a sports car), and the character's canny mix of sweetness and menace is by no means tapped out. But if the franchise is to continue, she needs to go back to the lab for reprogramming. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Wes Anderson's Movies Ranked From Worst to Best 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How ‘M3GAN 2.0' Star Violet McGraw Kicked Off a Wave of Good Fortune for Blumhouse
The Blumhouse family is counting their lucky stars that they met Violet McGraw's family. In April 2020, McGraw was cast as 10-year-old Cady James in Blumhouse/Atomic Monster's techno horror-comedy, M3GAN. In July 2020, Violet's sister, Madeleine McGraw, was hired for the banner's supernatural horror film, The Black Phone. The two films went on to gross over $343 million against a combined budget of less than $30 million, prompting quick sequel green lights, beginning with M3GAN 2.0's release on June 27 and Black Phone 2 this fall. More from The Hollywood Reporter 'M3GAN 2.0' Team on Delivering a "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" Version of Their Killer Dancing AI Robot Box Office Preview: 'F1' to Leave 'M3GAN 2.0' in the Dust With High-Octane $40M-$50M U.S. Opening 'M3GAN 2.0' Review: Allison Williams in an Occasionally Fun but Overloaded AI Sequel That Botches Its Factory Reset Writer-director Gerard Johnstone's M3GAN sequel takes place two years after the events of his 2023 picture, and a now 12-year-old Cady is still at odds with her aunt Gemma (Allison Williams) due to her strict rules on technology usage and the lack of quality time they spend together. Gemma has been preoccupied with her efforts to publicly atone for creating a murderous AI doll, and so Cady has had to get crafty in order to explore her budding interest in coding. 'Cady is definitely getting more into tech after the first movie, but Gemma isn't a big fan of that because she doesn't want Cady to turn into her or make another M3GAN for that matter,' McGraw tells The Hollywood Reporter. McGraw, who's now 14 years old, admits that she didn't know what AI was until she filmed the first movie about an AI-powered android that kills in the name of 'protecting' Cady. The conversation around the new tech increased significantly upon the release of the film, as chatbots and AI 'art' had become the talk of the town in the lead-up to Hollywood's impending labor disputes involving AI-related matters. 'I became more cautious of AI because of M3GAN,' McGraw says. 'It scares me a little bit, and I never would've thought of it that way if I wasn't in M3GAN.' That being said, she can't deny her love for the sassy robot, partially because she's become dear friends with M3GAN's on-set performer, Amie Donald. 'I love M3GAN so much. If there was a M3GAN in real life, which probably should never happen, I would totally be best friends with her,' McGraw says. Violet and her now 16-year-old sister, Madeleine, have plenty of their own self-starting ambitions. In 2024, they co-starred in a supernatural film called The Curse of the Necklace, which they produced alongside their mother, Jackie. The McGraw sisters also just wrapped production on another acting-producing vehicle, High Stakes Holiday, for Warner Bros. Both sisters are eager to continue working together, and in an industry that's filled with sibling actors, that's not always a given. (The Fanning sisters have yet to share a scene together, and the Mara sisters recently wrapped their first movie together after decades of individual work.)'This is totally just the beginning of it, and if we've produced two movies already, I think we can definitely go further,' McGraw shares. 'We both want to do more behind-the-camera stuff as producers or maybe even as directors. But we'll definitely be co-stars with each other again.' Below, during a recent conversation with THR, McGraw also discusses her two different experiences playing a young version of Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova in Black Widow and Thunderbolts*. Then she reflects on her multiple projects with Mike Flanagan. *** I once asked producers Jason Blum and James Wan if they somehow met you through your sister's movie, , but it looks like had the same casting directors. Did you land your Blumhouse role a few months after Madeleine landed hers? That must've been an exciting time for your family. It was very exciting, but I honestly don't remember the timing. It feels like ages ago, but I think it was somewhere around that same time period. [Writer's Note: Violet accepted her M3GAN role in April 2020, three months before Madeleine was cast in Scott Derrickson's The Black Phone. However, pandemic-era scheduling and rescheduling resulted in Black Phone shooting first in February 2021. Derrickson actually pushed the latter's schedule in order to not lose Madeleine to her existing Disney show. In June 2021, Violet started filming M3GAN.] By the time M3GAN came out and became a hit, you were 11 years old at the time. Were you and your friends allowed to see it? We were. I actually took every single friend that I knew to the theaters, and we watched it. I am not the biggest fan of watching myself because I'll critique myself. I'll be like, 'Oh, I should have fixed that,' but it was very fun to go with friends to see a movie that I was in. When you were making it, did you assume that it would be too violent and scary for people your age? Honestly, no. What's crazy to me is some of my biggest fans are usually little six-year-olds, and I'm like, 'How are you guys allowed to watch this?' But I wasn't really thinking about the gore at the time. There wasn't that much in it. That stuff doesn't really occur to me until the end of filming. Hollywood is desperately trying to figure out how to get teenagers to go to movies these days. They don't seem to prioritize moviegoing like generations past. What is the key to getting you and your friends to go to movie theaters? Honestly, my whole friend group loves going to the movie theaters. We love to go see a really good movie, and we bring blankets and a bunch of snacks. There's something about the smell at a movie theater that brings me to the theater. The vibe is just awesome at movie theaters. It's lovely. Have you figured out why it's not as important to other people your age? I just feel like some people want to stay at home and wait for something to come out on TV. But there's nothing like going to a movie theater because you hear the audience's reactions to the movie, which can be incredible. So I know I prefer to go to a movie theater. is partially about how emotionally dependent we are on our devices, especially kids. Did your parents start monitoring your screen time a lot more after watching it? I would say my screen time is the same. I had an iPad at the time, and we had these screen time limits when we would have to get off screen and turn it in. But I wouldn't say it was because of the movie; they've always been pretty good at knowing how much media we should have. But I became more cautious of AI because of M3GAN. When I was 10 and filming the movie, I didn't really know what it was, so I became a little bit more cautious about it afterwards. So many people use ChatGPT and Snap AI nowadays, and I see so many self-driving cars, which is insane. So it scares me a little bit, and I never would've thought of it that way if I wasn't in M3GAN. I read in 's production notes that you don't allow your folks to watch your scenes on set. Is that true? No, I wouldn't say that's really true. They can totally watch if they want. I just always like knowing that they're on set. I love my parents so much, and they're free to do whatever they want. In , Cady is now 12 years old, and Gemma carefully monitors her use of technology after the first movie's M3GAN debacle. Cady doesn't even have a cell phone. But she's still finding sneaky ways to learn coding without Gemma knowing. Yeah, that [picture frame-concealed tablet] was so cool. I was so excited to see how we were going to do that. Cady is definitely getting more into tech after the first movie, but Gemma isn't a big fan of that because she doesn't want Cady to turn into her or make another M3GAN for that matter. But she's also super fed up with Aunt Gemma's overly strict rules with screens and stuff. But I'm glad Gemma's issues with Cady's coaster and bathroom habits seem to be a thing of the past. (Laughs.) Yeah, there's no longer any coaster or bathroom issues. We're good on that. But Cady and Gemma are still working on their relationship. Cady wants to trust that Gemma will be there for her when she needs her the most. Early on, Gemma raises her voice and reminds Cady that she's only 12 years old. I, too, remember being that age and wanting to be treated as older than I really was. Do you also relate to what Cady is feeling? Do you sometimes want to be treated as older than you really are? That's a good question, but not really. When I was younger, for sure. I was definitely like Cady when I was 12 years old or younger. I have older siblings, and because they have older friends, I just always wanted to be a part of those situations or events. But, right now, I just want to be treated like a 14-year-old. That's all I need. Overall, do you share anything else in common with Cady? We both love M3GAN. I love M3GAN so much. If there was a M3GAN in real life, which probably should never happen, I would totally be best friends with her. That would be super cool. So I would give M3GAN a second chance. Is it that you love M3GAN? Or is it really that you love Amie Donald as M3GAN? That's a good point. If I was talking to M3GAN during a scene, I knew that my best friend was actually behind the mask. So that really helped me, and it made it so much easier to really be in the moment and live in the scene. So maybe I wouldn't want my own M3GAN; maybe I just want my own Amie. (Laughs.) Have you remained friends between movies? We literally just talked five minutes ago. We talked about what we're going to wear to the premiere. When you have scenes with M3GAN, how often are you working with Amie versus an animatronic puppet? It honestly just depends. If she's blinking or there isn't a big movement, then it's probably the animatronic. I still don't even know how they made that. The first [movie's] doll was already incredible, but the second [movie's] doll is actually insane. Everyone thinks that M3GAN is fake or CG, but if you saw her in person, your eyes would be playing tricks on you. Is the ratio something like 75 percent Amie and 25 percent animatronic? Yeah, that's a good rating system, I would say. Jenna Davis voices M3GAN in post, but Amie still delivers her lines on the day? She does, yes. She learns all the lines, and she does a fabulous job. Amie and Jenna are the perfect M3GANs. Cady is also taking Aikido classes. Has any of that training stuck with you? I haven't needed to use it yet, but I would say I don't remember any of it now. If you asked me to show you right now, I probably wouldn't be able to. But I do remember one move; I just can't talk about it yet. Cady also plays soccer now, and I play soccer in real life. We never established what positions she plays, but now we're going to say that she plays my positions: striker or center-mid. My dad raised me on a steady diet of Steven Seagal movies. Had you ever heard his name before this movie? I hadn't! Before we started filming, Gerard and I had a call to tell me what he was about. So that's when I got more of a background on Cady's idol. So I did not realize until recently that you played young Yelena in and . I didn't recognize you at all, and it was probably because of the blonde hair. Did Marvel's casting director learn about you when your sister played young Hope Van Dyne in ? Gosh, I was super young [eight years old] on Black Widow, so I don't know if that had anything to do with it. It definitely could have. On Black Widow, we did a blonde wig, and there was this doll that looked just like me. It was a dummy. It's Marvel, and they can do that. But it was insane. My mom went into the hair and makeup trailer, and was like, 'Violet, you got your wig on very fast.' But it was literally the doll [that she was talking to]; it wasn't even me. So we have a picture of it, and it's scary. And Thunderbolts* was also a wig, so I was a little blondie for a while, which was fun. Did you understand the context of your scenes at the time? How much explanation were you given for those flashbacks? Jake Schreier, the director, was amazing. He just made the experience so much better. It's a very dark and very sad scene. So I did know the context because, as young Yelena, I had to. And, of course, working with Florence Pugh was awesome. She's amazing. I saw you and Florence on the red carpet, and I think you're taller than her now. Either I'm taller, or we're the same height. She was like, 'You were up to here when we first met.' (McGraw mimics where Pugh measured on herself.) Everyone tells me that now. I was so short, and I grew four inches last year, which was insane. But I would say we're the same height, because I was also wearing heels on the carpet. What's the key to playing a younger version of her? Oh my gosh, I don't even know. I was so excited that I got to go back because not every younger version of a Marvel character gets to return. I was so grateful. One time, I went into her trailer for Black Widow, and we did one little finger thing that we were both going to do in the film. But they didn't end up using it. It was going to be a similarity between young Yelena and older Yelena. Mike Flanagan, who you worked with on , also invited you back for recently. Are you always flattered when people ask you to team up a second time? Yeah, it's amazing. Mike also invited me to be in Doctor Sleep. Mike Flanagan is insane. His vision for movies and TV shows is incredible. When he invited me back to do both those things, there was so much gratitude in me, and I was praying that I gave him what he wanted. I just wanted to do really well for him. So I hope to continue to work with Mike in the future. Your scene with Rebecca Ferguson still freaks me out. I still haven't seen the movie. Your parents wouldn't let you? Yeah, there are some dark scenes, and at the premiere, they were like, 'Violet, we don't think you should see this movie.' I was really young, too. I was eight. So I was like, 'Okay.' But I still haven't seen it, so I'm going to watch it very soon. Were you actually scared during that scene, or did you not really have a sense of what was happening? Everyone thinks you're going to be scared when filming a horror movie, but I am never really scared. On The Haunting of Hill House, I ate lunch with the pretend ghosts. There's also a lot of crew and no music or sound effects yet, so that makes it a lot less scary. But The Haunting of Hill House set was all built on a soundstage, and that terrifying house set is the only time I've actually been scared while filming. Other than that, I don't really get scared on set. You and Madeleine just shot for Warner Bros. in Las Vegas. It's a heist movie meets ? Yeah, you pretty much got it. It was awesome. My mom, my sister and I produced it, and filming in Vegas was great. There were some ups and downs, but I love Vegas a lot. The three of you produced together as well. In general, I like that you and Madeleine are willing to embrace your real-life relationship on screen. There are a lot of sibling actors who either avoid it or haven't found the right situation for it to happen. Yeah, my sister and I don't fight in real life. We've never been like that, and it's never been a competition between us. She's always given me advice on how to do things better. I've never given her advice, but I hope that I've helped her a little bit in her career. Do you have even more plans together? For sure. This is totally just the beginning of it, and if we've produced two movies already, I think we can definitely go further. We both want to do more behind-the-camera stuff as producers or maybe even as directors. That would be super cool, but we'll definitely be co-stars with each other again. What was your most memorable day on the set? I suck at not spoiling, but one scene that sticks out was the scene with Jemaine Clement in the beginning. I've never laughed harder in a rehearsal, and once I laugh, I don't go back. It's hard to get the laughter out of me. Jemaine is just so funny, and he made that scene so hilarious. So it took a few tries, but we got it. As we see in the trailer, the bottom half of AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno) confronts Cady. What was the reference on the day? It was literally a little piece of green tape. Someone either had a green x on their hand, or I was looking at the bottom of someone's torso. That was a crazy scene, and that was me [who's pulled through the wall]. Did you stick around for M3GAN's dance party? I did! That con scene was one of the other scenes I was going to talk about. Before I got the M3GAN 2.0 script, I was trying to plot what was going to happen. So I was like, 'They should add more dance moves,' and they literally did. That dance and that outfit? That's iconic right there. Did anyone try to talk their way into that dance scene? I'm sure. Who wouldn't want to dance with M3GAN? Come on now. ***M3GAN 2.0 opens in movie theaters nationwide on June 27. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Wes Anderson's Movies Ranked From Worst to Best 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT
Sydney Morning Herald
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Jurassic adventure, a deadly doll and body horror: What to see at the movies now
None of these characters are exactly fully rounded, but Johansson is at least afforded star treatment as Zora's hard-boiled exterior gradually softens, where Ali, despite being a two-time Oscar winner, is hardly given enough to do to justify his second billing. There's also a shipwrecked family we follow through a mostly separate series of adventures on the island, alternately gaping in awe and gasping in terror at the dinosaurs, some of which are mutants that evoke the Alien films. Along the way, Dad (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) has to come to terms with the slacker boyfriend (David Iacono) of his eldest daughter (Luna Blaise), while his younger daughter (Audrina Miranda) finds a miniature friend of her own. But all of this again is routine to the point of laziness, and doesn't suggest that Koepp or anyone involved has had a great deal to do with young people lately. Going by his whole career, Edwards' strength is much more in special effects than in storytelling. But some of his strategies pay off, such as the use of 35mm film and natural light, shooting on location in Malta and Thailand: the jungle looks real, which makes it far easier to believe in the reality of the dinosaurs, brought to life using animatronics as well as digital effects. There are moments when the envisaged sense of wonder does kick in, notably a mating dance between two titanosaurs in an open field, their long whiplike tails whirring around them. But Jurassic World Rebirth can only be recommended for a specific age group, roughly between 10 and 14. Any younger, and the set pieces might be too intense; any older, and they're likely to see this material as so familiar it hardly needs reviving. Reviewed by Jake Wilson M3GAN 2.0 ★★★ M, 119 minutes Conspiracy theorists might make something of the fact that M3GAN, a film about a sinister artificially intelligent talking doll, had its US premiere in December 2022, a week or so after ChatGPT was unleashed on the public. Since then, AI fatigue has set in to the point where the prudent choice for filmmakers would be to avoid the subject altogether, especially as M3GAN 's real-life equivalents don't threaten to take over the world so much as drown us in a sea of cliches. But a hit is a hit, and so Gerard Johnstone, the talented New Zealand director of the original, is back for another round with the clumsily titled M3GAN 2.0, this time working from his own script, even if this isn't the version of Hollywood success he might have mapped out for himself in his dreams. Voiced by YouTube personality Jenna Davis and embodied by the young dancer Amie Donald in an animatronic mask, M3GAN started out as a caramel-haired waif about the same size as her orphaned eight-year-old owner Cady (Violet McGraw), but with considerably more adult poise. Since her body was destroyed at the end of the first film, for a while she's reduced to a ghost in the machine, haunting Cady's aunt Gemma (Allison Williams), the tightly-wound roboticist who came up with the idea for a high-tech doll in the first place. Before long M3GAN is back on the earthly plane in a new form – but the changes aren't just physical. In the first film, she was a classic case of good intentions gone wrong, programmed to keep Cady safe at all costs, and racking up a significant kill count in the process. Somewhere along the line, though, Johnstone or his overseers have decided that a cool-eyed, stylish, outwardly demure killing machine prone to quips such as 'Hang onto your vaginas' is simply too fabulous to be treated as a simple villain. Where the first M3GAN was a campy horror movie, this one is more of a campy techno-thriller, with a dash of sub-Spielbergian fantasies of the 1980s such as Short Circuit (Johnstone, born in 1976, knows his vintage pop culture: the climax should gratify fans of B-grade 1990s action films). Much as Terminator 2 made Arnold Schwarzenegger the good guy facing off against a liquid metal antagonist, here there's a new killer robot on the scene, AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno) – a military asset gone rogue, created using the same technology that brought M3GAN to life, but with bigger goals than being a blend of bodyguard and nanny. M3GAN 2.0 is an oddity: overlong, not entirely suited to either children or adults, and probably too much of a departure from the original to satisfy whatever dedicated cult exists. There aren't even as many classic M3GAN moments as might be anticipated, despite one outlandish scene all too visibly designed for the Internet. But unlike much of what's currently in multiplexes, it does feel like a film made by a human being, willing to go off-script as no AI ever would. Reviewed by Jake Wilson THE SHROUDS ★★★★ MA, 120 mins Going by recent reports, The Shrouds may be the last film from 82-year-old David Cronenberg, Canada's onetime king of 'body horror'. If so, it's an apt farewell – typically morbid, perverse and self-mocking, but also emotionally direct in the manner of some of his most durable classics, such as The Dead Zone and The Fly. Vincent Cassel, who stars as an eccentric tech entrepreneur named Karsh, is a generation younger than Cronenberg but here bears an unmistakable resemblance to his director, with slicked-back white hair, a long bony face that lends itself to dramatic lighting, and the detached verve of a scientist who enjoys the process of dissection. He also recalls some of Cronenberg's earlier eccentric leading men, such as Christopher Walken as a troubled psychic in The Dead Zone, especially when he's flashing a disconcerting grin. Like Walken, Cassel has a knack for throwing us off-balance through his speech rhythms, though in Cassel's case this is partly the consequence of being a native French speaker acting in English. Karsh, like Cronenberg, has 'made a career out of bodies,' in a very literal way. His ventures include a cemetery where the tombstones come equipped with screens, allowing you to log in and watch the corpse of your loved one rotting in real time. Naturally, there's an app for this, known as GraveTech (there's also a restaurant adjacent to the cemetery, encouraging visitors to make a day of it). How many takers there would be for the scheme in real life is hard to say. But this is Cronenberg world, although we're nominally in something resembling present-day Toronto. In any case Karsh is his own most enthusiastic client, maintaining an ongoing relationship with the body of his wife Becca (Diane Kruger) years after her early death from cancer. Understandably, his reluctance to let go is something of an obstacle to his parallel desire to find a new partner among the living. Still, there are several women in his life, among them the blind Soo-Min (Sandrine Holt), who wants a plot in the cemetery for her dying husband, and Becca's identical twin Terry (Kruger again) who works as a dog groomer. Becca has yet another double in the form of a virtual assistant who pops up on Karsh's phone, the creation of Terry's perpetually unshaven ex-husband Maury (Guy Pearce), a 'schmuck' whose jittery manner counterpoints Karsh's suavity: both men are in seemingly permanent mourning, even if the woman Maury loves isn't literally dead. The Shrouds began as a TV show Cronenberg pitched unsuccessfully to Netflix, and the plot is superficially complex, involving sexual jealousy, activist groups who favour cremation over burial, and the possibility of Karsh's high-tech tombs being hacked by foreign spies. But much of this happens offscreen, leaving room for doubt over whether it's really happening at all (Terry, we learn, finds conspiracy theories a turn-on). Again typically for Cronenberg, The Shrouds isn't exactly a thriller, still less a horror film. In the tradition of Luis Bunuel, it's a work of charged yet calm surrealism, contemplating the mysteries of life and death with open eyes – in particular, the mystery of what it means to connect with another person, whether physically or from a distance. In a sense, The Shrouds contains nothing to interpret or decode. The bodies here are bodies, not metaphors for something else, whether they're living or dead, real or virtual. Nonetheless, this is a film designed to sit in the mind and have its effect gradually: days or weeks later, you may find yourself realising that your own world is nearer to Cronenberg's than you'd guessed. Reviewed by Jake Wilson THE WOLVES ALWAYS COME AT NIGHT ★★★ PG, 97 mins While Berlin-based Australian filmmaker Gabrielle Brady is currently developing her first fully fictional feature, The Wolves Always Come At Night marks her second foray into what she calls 'docu-feature', a hybrid storytelling form that merges observational documentary with elements of fiction, driven by the subjects of the film. Her first was Island of the Hungry Ghosts, which was set on Christmas Island and used the visually arresting annual migration of land crabs as a metaphor for the journeys of asylum seekers across the world. A counsellor called Poh Lin Lee served as a kind of focal point in that movie, helping give individual human shape to stories of mass movement. Lee is involved in the new film too, credited as 'narrative therapy consultant'. Also returning is Aaron Cupples, whose work on the ethereal land- and windscape-inspired score is just as impressive as it was on the earlier film, and cinematographer Michael Latham, whose images are once again stunning. Set in Mongolia, The Wolves… focuses on the hard-scrabble existence of goat herder Davaa (Davaasuren Dagvasuren) and his wife Zaya (Otgonzaya Dashzeveg). They are raising four young kids in their ger (circular tent), surrounded by animals and occasionally interacting with neighbours in a far-off community hall, where the conversation revolves around the weather and the birthing of livestock. 'How has your spring been?' 'Good.' That sort of thing. The first shot of Davaa is on horseback, riding hard across the Gobi desert on his stocky pony. The film ends with him and his horse together again. But in between, it's all about the forces that are moving man and beast apart – motorisation, urbanisation, exploitation of the land for minerals, and above all, climate change. Davaa and Zaya are stoic presences, not given to great slabs of articulation, and not especially expressive. Dagvasuren and Dashzeveg are credited as co-writers here, but I hope they weren't paid by the word. To be frank, not a lot happens in The Wolves… If you were feeling mean-spirited, you might say it is exactly the sort of film Marg Downey so brilliantly sent up on Fast Forward 30-plus years ago as 'the SBS woman'. An example, from 1991: 'Ahead in the orgy of superior entertainment on SBS tonight we present the next in our series of films by Turkish director Yilmaz Hobeglu. Kemal and the Weevil tells the heartbreaking story of a boy who befriends an orphaned weevil only to have it cruelly snatched from him by the secret police.' The Wolves… has grander aspirations than that, to be sure. It follows Davaa as he watches over his goats, helps them give birth to their kids, loads their corpses into his flat-bed truck after a sandstorm wipes out half the flock, sells his beloved stallion to help make ends meet, moves the family to the city, and takes a job as an excavator driver at a quarry. They are monumental shifts in a life, but the hands-off approach to scripting means their dramatic import isn't always conveyed as fully as it might have been. Brady lived in Mongolia years ago, and her embrace of this form of hybrid storytelling is clearly designed to afford agency to its subjects, for whom she has palpable empathy. It makes for some beautiful images, some subtly moving moments, and a patina of truth. That's all to be applauded. I just wish there was a little more connective tissue on those narrative bones.
The Age
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Jurassic adventure, a deadly doll and body horror: What to see at the movies now
None of these characters are exactly fully rounded, but Johansson is at least afforded star treatment as Zora's hard-boiled exterior gradually softens, where Ali, despite being a two-time Oscar winner, is hardly given enough to do to justify his second billing. There's also a shipwrecked family we follow through a mostly separate series of adventures on the island, alternately gaping in awe and gasping in terror at the dinosaurs, some of which are mutants that evoke the Alien films. Along the way, Dad (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) has to come to terms with the slacker boyfriend (David Iacono) of his eldest daughter (Luna Blaise), while his younger daughter (Audrina Miranda) finds a miniature friend of her own. But all of this again is routine to the point of laziness, and doesn't suggest that Koepp or anyone involved has had a great deal to do with young people lately. Going by his whole career, Edwards' strength is much more in special effects than in storytelling. But some of his strategies pay off, such as the use of 35mm film and natural light, shooting on location in Malta and Thailand: the jungle looks real, which makes it far easier to believe in the reality of the dinosaurs, brought to life using animatronics as well as digital effects. There are moments when the envisaged sense of wonder does kick in, notably a mating dance between two titanosaurs in an open field, their long whiplike tails whirring around them. But Jurassic World Rebirth can only be recommended for a specific age group, roughly between 10 and 14. Any younger, and the set pieces might be too intense; any older, and they're likely to see this material as so familiar it hardly needs reviving. Reviewed by Jake Wilson M3GAN 2.0 ★★★ M, 119 minutes Conspiracy theorists might make something of the fact that M3GAN, a film about a sinister artificially intelligent talking doll, had its US premiere in December 2022, a week or so after ChatGPT was unleashed on the public. Since then, AI fatigue has set in to the point where the prudent choice for filmmakers would be to avoid the subject altogether, especially as M3GAN 's real-life equivalents don't threaten to take over the world so much as drown us in a sea of cliches. But a hit is a hit, and so Gerard Johnstone, the talented New Zealand director of the original, is back for another round with the clumsily titled M3GAN 2.0, this time working from his own script, even if this isn't the version of Hollywood success he might have mapped out for himself in his dreams. Voiced by YouTube personality Jenna Davis and embodied by the young dancer Amie Donald in an animatronic mask, M3GAN started out as a caramel-haired waif about the same size as her orphaned eight-year-old owner Cady (Violet McGraw), but with considerably more adult poise. Since her body was destroyed at the end of the first film, for a while she's reduced to a ghost in the machine, haunting Cady's aunt Gemma (Allison Williams), the tightly-wound roboticist who came up with the idea for a high-tech doll in the first place. Before long M3GAN is back on the earthly plane in a new form – but the changes aren't just physical. In the first film, she was a classic case of good intentions gone wrong, programmed to keep Cady safe at all costs, and racking up a significant kill count in the process. Somewhere along the line, though, Johnstone or his overseers have decided that a cool-eyed, stylish, outwardly demure killing machine prone to quips such as 'Hang onto your vaginas' is simply too fabulous to be treated as a simple villain. Where the first M3GAN was a campy horror movie, this one is more of a campy techno-thriller, with a dash of sub-Spielbergian fantasies of the 1980s such as Short Circuit (Johnstone, born in 1976, knows his vintage pop culture: the climax should gratify fans of B-grade 1990s action films). Much as Terminator 2 made Arnold Schwarzenegger the good guy facing off against a liquid metal antagonist, here there's a new killer robot on the scene, AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno) – a military asset gone rogue, created using the same technology that brought M3GAN to life, but with bigger goals than being a blend of bodyguard and nanny. M3GAN 2.0 is an oddity: overlong, not entirely suited to either children or adults, and probably too much of a departure from the original to satisfy whatever dedicated cult exists. There aren't even as many classic M3GAN moments as might be anticipated, despite one outlandish scene all too visibly designed for the Internet. But unlike much of what's currently in multiplexes, it does feel like a film made by a human being, willing to go off-script as no AI ever would. Reviewed by Jake Wilson THE SHROUDS ★★★★ MA, 120 mins Going by recent reports, The Shrouds may be the last film from 82-year-old David Cronenberg, Canada's onetime king of 'body horror'. If so, it's an apt farewell – typically morbid, perverse and self-mocking, but also emotionally direct in the manner of some of his most durable classics, such as The Dead Zone and The Fly. Vincent Cassel, who stars as an eccentric tech entrepreneur named Karsh, is a generation younger than Cronenberg but here bears an unmistakable resemblance to his director, with slicked-back white hair, a long bony face that lends itself to dramatic lighting, and the detached verve of a scientist who enjoys the process of dissection. He also recalls some of Cronenberg's earlier eccentric leading men, such as Christopher Walken as a troubled psychic in The Dead Zone, especially when he's flashing a disconcerting grin. Like Walken, Cassel has a knack for throwing us off-balance through his speech rhythms, though in Cassel's case this is partly the consequence of being a native French speaker acting in English. Karsh, like Cronenberg, has 'made a career out of bodies,' in a very literal way. His ventures include a cemetery where the tombstones come equipped with screens, allowing you to log in and watch the corpse of your loved one rotting in real time. Naturally, there's an app for this, known as GraveTech (there's also a restaurant adjacent to the cemetery, encouraging visitors to make a day of it). How many takers there would be for the scheme in real life is hard to say. But this is Cronenberg world, although we're nominally in something resembling present-day Toronto. In any case Karsh is his own most enthusiastic client, maintaining an ongoing relationship with the body of his wife Becca (Diane Kruger) years after her early death from cancer. Understandably, his reluctance to let go is something of an obstacle to his parallel desire to find a new partner among the living. Still, there are several women in his life, among them the blind Soo-Min (Sandrine Holt), who wants a plot in the cemetery for her dying husband, and Becca's identical twin Terry (Kruger again) who works as a dog groomer. Becca has yet another double in the form of a virtual assistant who pops up on Karsh's phone, the creation of Terry's perpetually unshaven ex-husband Maury (Guy Pearce), a 'schmuck' whose jittery manner counterpoints Karsh's suavity: both men are in seemingly permanent mourning, even if the woman Maury loves isn't literally dead. The Shrouds began as a TV show Cronenberg pitched unsuccessfully to Netflix, and the plot is superficially complex, involving sexual jealousy, activist groups who favour cremation over burial, and the possibility of Karsh's high-tech tombs being hacked by foreign spies. But much of this happens offscreen, leaving room for doubt over whether it's really happening at all (Terry, we learn, finds conspiracy theories a turn-on). Again typically for Cronenberg, The Shrouds isn't exactly a thriller, still less a horror film. In the tradition of Luis Bunuel, it's a work of charged yet calm surrealism, contemplating the mysteries of life and death with open eyes – in particular, the mystery of what it means to connect with another person, whether physically or from a distance. In a sense, The Shrouds contains nothing to interpret or decode. The bodies here are bodies, not metaphors for something else, whether they're living or dead, real or virtual. Nonetheless, this is a film designed to sit in the mind and have its effect gradually: days or weeks later, you may find yourself realising that your own world is nearer to Cronenberg's than you'd guessed. Reviewed by Jake Wilson THE WOLVES ALWAYS COME AT NIGHT ★★★ PG, 97 mins While Berlin-based Australian filmmaker Gabrielle Brady is currently developing her first fully fictional feature, The Wolves Always Come At Night marks her second foray into what she calls 'docu-feature', a hybrid storytelling form that merges observational documentary with elements of fiction, driven by the subjects of the film. Her first was Island of the Hungry Ghosts, which was set on Christmas Island and used the visually arresting annual migration of land crabs as a metaphor for the journeys of asylum seekers across the world. A counsellor called Poh Lin Lee served as a kind of focal point in that movie, helping give individual human shape to stories of mass movement. Lee is involved in the new film too, credited as 'narrative therapy consultant'. Also returning is Aaron Cupples, whose work on the ethereal land- and windscape-inspired score is just as impressive as it was on the earlier film, and cinematographer Michael Latham, whose images are once again stunning. Set in Mongolia, The Wolves… focuses on the hard-scrabble existence of goat herder Davaa (Davaasuren Dagvasuren) and his wife Zaya (Otgonzaya Dashzeveg). They are raising four young kids in their ger (circular tent), surrounded by animals and occasionally interacting with neighbours in a far-off community hall, where the conversation revolves around the weather and the birthing of livestock. 'How has your spring been?' 'Good.' That sort of thing. The first shot of Davaa is on horseback, riding hard across the Gobi desert on his stocky pony. The film ends with him and his horse together again. But in between, it's all about the forces that are moving man and beast apart – motorisation, urbanisation, exploitation of the land for minerals, and above all, climate change. Davaa and Zaya are stoic presences, not given to great slabs of articulation, and not especially expressive. Dagvasuren and Dashzeveg are credited as co-writers here, but I hope they weren't paid by the word. To be frank, not a lot happens in The Wolves… If you were feeling mean-spirited, you might say it is exactly the sort of film Marg Downey so brilliantly sent up on Fast Forward 30-plus years ago as 'the SBS woman'. An example, from 1991: 'Ahead in the orgy of superior entertainment on SBS tonight we present the next in our series of films by Turkish director Yilmaz Hobeglu. Kemal and the Weevil tells the heartbreaking story of a boy who befriends an orphaned weevil only to have it cruelly snatched from him by the secret police.' The Wolves… has grander aspirations than that, to be sure. It follows Davaa as he watches over his goats, helps them give birth to their kids, loads their corpses into his flat-bed truck after a sandstorm wipes out half the flock, sells his beloved stallion to help make ends meet, moves the family to the city, and takes a job as an excavator driver at a quarry. They are monumental shifts in a life, but the hands-off approach to scripting means their dramatic import isn't always conveyed as fully as it might have been. Brady lived in Mongolia years ago, and her embrace of this form of hybrid storytelling is clearly designed to afford agency to its subjects, for whom she has palpable empathy. It makes for some beautiful images, some subtly moving moments, and a patina of truth. That's all to be applauded. I just wish there was a little more connective tissue on those narrative bones.
