Latest news with #M3GAN
Sydney Morning Herald
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
AI doll M3GAN grows up for this campy techno thriller sequel
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.
The Age
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
AI doll M3GAN grows up for this campy techno thriller sequel
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.
Cosmopolitan
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Cosmopolitan
When ‘M3GAN 2.0' Will Be Available to Stream and How to Watch
Everyone's favorite dancing robot is officially back, but has she really changed? M3GAN 2.0 is officially here and it looks like she is not the only android out here that's causing chaos. Now there's AMELIA, who is plotting an AI takeover, which we obviously don't want. So what's a girl to do? Well, you're going to want to tune in to find out. Thankfully, it's a lot easier to catch a movie than it is to take down a murderous military robot and we've made it super easy for ya! Here's everything you need to know about watching M3GAN 2.0. The M3GAN sequel was officially released on June 27, 2025. Don't worry, you don't need to build a special program or anything to try to get tickets. All you have to do is check out showtimes at your local theater to see when it's playing and check it out! But she's not dancing on the big screen forever! If you want to catch it in theaters, you're definitely going to want to tune in ASAP! Okay, so, about that... Unfortunately, the movie isn't available on streaming just yet. But don't you worry, it'll be here soon enough! Like all our favorite films, it'll be available on streaming after it leaves the big screen. While it is released by Universal Pictures, exactly *where* it'll be streaming is still a bit up in the air. Normally, that would mean it will be out on Peacock, but the first film is currently streaming on Starz. But hopefully we get an answer real soon! The one thing you can count on? You can still rent or buy it at home via online stores like Prime Video, iTunes, Fandango at Home, YouTube, or Google Play. Or if you're a huge fan, you'll also be able to buy it on Blu-ray and DVD!
USA Today
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Spoilers! Why 'M3GAN 2.0' is actually a 'redemption story'
Spoiler alert! We're discussing major details about the ending of 'M3GAN 2.0' (in theaters now), so beware if you haven't seen it yet. 'You wouldn't give your child cocaine. Why would you give them a smartphone?' That's the sardonic hypothetical posed by roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams) at the start of 'M3GAN 2.0,' a high-octane sequel to the 2023 hit horror comedy. When the new movie picks up, Gemma is tirelessly advocating for government oversight of artificial intelligence, after creating a bratty, pussy-bowed animatronic named M3GAN that killed four people and a dog in the original film. 'Honestly, Gemma has a point,' jokes Williams, the mother of a 3-year-old, Arlo, with actor Alexander Dreymon. 'Any time my son looks at my screen, I'm like, 'This does feel like the way people react to cocaine. This is not going to be easy to remove from his presence.' ' The first movie was an allegory about parenting and how technology is compromising the emotional human bonds that we share with one another. But in the action-packed follow-up, writer/director Gerard Johnstone wanted to explore the real-life ramifications of having M3GAN-like technology unleashed on the world. 'With the way AI was changing, and the conversation around AI was evolving, it opened up a door narratively to where we could go in the sequel,' Johnstone says. How does 'M3GAN 2.0' end? 'M3GAN 2.0' introduces a new villain in Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno), a weapons-grade automaton built by the U.S. military using M3GAN's stolen programming. But when Amelia goes rogue on a lethal mission for AI to rule the world, Gemma comes to realize that M3GAN is the only one who can stop her. Gemma reluctantly agrees to rebuild her impudent robot in a new body, and the sequel ends with an explosive showdown between Amelia and M3GAN, who nearly dies in a noble attempt to save Gemma and her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw). 'If Amelia walked out of that intact, that's a very different world we're all living in. M3GAN literally saves the world,' Williams says. 'When the first movie ends, you're like, 'Oh, she's a bad seed and I'm glad she's gone.' But by the end of this movie, you have completely different feelings about her. There's a feeling of relief when you realize she's still here, which is indicative of how much ground gets covered in this movie.' M3GAN's willingness to sacrifice herself shows real growth from the deadpanning android that audiences fell in love with two years ago. But Johnstone has always felt 'a strong empathy' towards M3GAN and never wanted to make her an outright villain. Even in the first film, 'everything she does is a result of her programming,' Johnstone says. 'As soon as she does something that Gemma disagrees with, Gemma tries to turn her off, erase her, reprogram her, and effectively kill her. So from that point of view, M3GAN does feel rightly short-changed.' M3GAN's desire to prove herself, and take the moral high ground, is 'what this movie was really about,' Johnstone adds. 'I love redemption stories.' Does 'M3GAN 2.0' set up a third movie? For Williams, part of the appeal of a sequel was getting to play with how M3GAN exists in the world, after her doll exterior was destroyed in the first movie. M3GAN is offscreen for much of this film, with only her voice inhabiting everything from a sports car to a cutesy smart home assistant. 'She's just iterating constantly, which tore through a persona that we've come to know and love,' Williams says. 'It's an extremely cool exercise in a movie like this, where we get to end the movie with a much deeper understanding of who this character is. We've now interacted with her in so many different forms, and yet we still feel the consistency of who she 'is.' That's really the fun of it.' In a way, 'she's like this digital poltergeist that's haunting them from another dimension,' Johnstone adds. 'It was a way to remind people she's more than a doll in a dress – she's an entity.' In the final scene of 'M3GAN 2.0,' we see the character living inside Gemma's computer, in a nostalgic nod to the Microsoft Word paper clip helper. (As millennials, 'our relationship with Clippy was very codependent and very complicated,' Williams quips.) But if there is a third 'M3GAN' movie, it's unlikely that you'll see her trapped in that virtual realm forever. 'M3GAN always needs to maintain a physical form,' Johnstone says. 'One aspect of AI philosophy that we address in this film is this idea of embodiment: If AI is ever going to achieve true consciousness, it has to have a physical form so it can feel anchored. So that's certainly M3GAN's point of view at the beginning of the movie: She feels that if she stays in this formless form for too long, she's going to fragment. 'M3GAN always has to be in a physical body that she recognizes – it's another reason why she won't change her face, even if it draws attention to herself. It's like, 'This is who I am and I'm not changing.' '
News18
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- News18
M3GAN 2.0 Trailer Is A 'Gateway Horror' For Kids And Families
M3GAN 2.0 director Gerard Johnstone shared some thoughts about whether this sequel is suitable for a family audience, especially kids. M3GAN surprised everyone in 2023 with its fresh story and exciting action scenes. Now, two years later, M3GAN 2.0 is here with the same bold robot character in a sequel that mixes horror with intense action. In the first film, the killer robot used various weapons to take down her targets. Fans are curious if the new movie focuses more on fight scenes or scary moments. Director Gerard Johnstone has shared some thoughts about whether this sequel is suitable for a family audience, especially kids. Believing that the film can be enjoyed with the whole family, speaking with People, Johnstone said, 'Some of my favourite horror movies, Insidious, Drag Me to Hell, are PG-13, so you can do it. It's like a gateway horror movie for parents to take their kids to. I'm a parent myself, and it sucks when you have to split the family up and figure out getting a babysitter and stuff like that just so you can go out to the movies. It's awesome when a movie can actually reach a wider audience." Johnstone said that to make it PG-13, 'there were a few things that we had to tone down for this. Some things were really hard to let go of and other things it was like, 'Oh, that actually works better when we make that cut.' So it's like a two-edged sword in a way." Director Gerard Johnstone believes that M3GAN 2.0 is suitable for children. But according to The New York Times review, the PG-13 rated film includes quite a bit of cartoon-like yet intense violence, along with some strong language. As per the official synopsis, 'Two years after M3GAN, a marvel of artificial intelligence, went rogue and embarked on a murderous (and impeccably choreographed) rampage and was subsequently destroyed, M3GAN's creator Gemma has become a high-profile author and advocate for government oversight of A.I. Meanwhile, Gemma's niece Cady, now 14, has become a teenager, rebelling against Gemma's overprotective rules. Unbeknownst to them, the underlying tech for M3GAN has been stolen and misused by a powerful defence contractor to create a military-grade weapon known as Amelia, the ultimate killer infiltration spy." As Amelia starts to think more for herself, she no longer wants to follow human commands. She even begins to question if humans should exist at all. This puts everyone in danger. To stop her, Gemma decides that the only solution is to bring back M3GAN and improve her skills. As both advanced AI robots come face to face, the original robot now has a real challenge ahead. M3GAN 2.0 features Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis, Ivanna Sakhno, Aristotle Athari, Timm Sharp and Jemaine Clement. First Published:
