Latest news with #action
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘M3GAN 2.0' reviews say the sequel is both too much and not enough
She's baaaaaack. Everyone's favorite viral dance craze-creating android goes from villain to (anti)hero in M3GAN 2.0, the follow-up to 2023's breakout horror hit. Once again produced by genre titans Jason Blum and James Wan, the sequel introduces a T-1000 to M3GAN's T-800 — a military-manufactured A.I. powered weapon named AMELIA. Other returning players include Alison Williams as M3GAN's maker, Gemma, and Violet McGraw as her niece, Cady. Director Gerard Johnstone is also back behind the camera for another round. More from Gold Derby Marge lives! Here are 3 other 'Simpsons' characters that returned from the grave - and 3 who stayed dead Fast cars vs. killer dolls: 'F1,' 'M3GAN 2.0' gear up for box-office showdown While the first M3GAN caught a pop culture wave, sequels to surprise successes can sometimes go astray. And the reviews for her upgrade suggest that going bigger didn't necessarily result in a movie that's necessarily better. M3GAN 2.0 currently has a 63 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes and registers at a middling 55 percent on Metacritic. Size definitely doesn't matter to Associated Press critic, Mark Kennedy. "Most of the same team that gave us the refreshing horror-comedy original two years ago have not only gone super-big, but also changed the franchise's genre," he writes, noting that the sequel goes the full-on action spectacle route. "[It] sometimes feels like the moviemakers just threw money at the sequel and tried to ape other franchises by going massive." Like many critics, David Rooney makes the Terminator 2 comparison explicit in his Hollywood Reporter writeup. "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," he notes. Rooney's also not a big fan of AMELIA's moves. "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." Representing the middle ground, Paste's Jesse Hassenger expresses more appreciation for the franchise's genre pivot. "It's a savvy move to introduce Amelia, a killer robot weaponizing the original Megan specs to serve as a potential tool of the military-industrial complex," he writes, praising the "ridiculous fun of seeing Megan suit up for a bunch of unlikely spy missions." But the too-muchness inevitably gets to him as well. "Even with a fair number of sci-fi ideas riffing lightly on mech-suits, neural implants, anti-tech crusading, and the capacity for artificial beings to grow and change, there is no reason for this particular lightweight movie to run two full hours." Still, there are those reviewers who don't regret taking the ride — including The Wrap's Michael Ordoña. "The new movie thankfully avoids pretty much every possible pitfall of a sequel, especially the usual fate of horror follow-ups being merely bigger and bloodier rehashes," he observes. "Of course, bigger isn't always better; but here, bigger is accompanied by different." Best of Gold Derby Tom Cruise movies: 17 greatest films ranked worst to best 'It was wonderful to be on that ride': Christian Slater talks his beloved roles, from cult classics ('Heathers,' 'True Romance') to TV hits ('Mr. Robot,' 'Dexter: Original Sin') 'It almost killed me': Horror maestro Mike Flanagan looks back at career-making hits from 'Gerald's Game' to 'Hill House' to 'Life of Chuck' Click here to read the full article.
Forbes
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘M3GAN 2.0' Got The Blessing Of Steven Seagal And A Selfless Kate Bush
She's back! M3GAN in 'M3GAN 2.0' After M3GAN slayed at the box office in 2023, grossing $180 million worldwide against a $12 million budget, the studio greenlit a sequel. However, M3GAN 2.0, the follow-up to the science fiction horror film, is full of surprises, including a genre shift that leans towards action and humor, as well as the titular icon's evolution from an AI killer doll to a hero. And audiences absolutely won't be expecting an homage to the martial artist-turned-action-movie-star Steven Seagal. Cady, the girl M3gan has been tasked with protecting, is a fan of his movies and studies Aikido. "We did have to get Steven's permission," writer-director Gerard Johnstone confirms to me during a chat over Zoom. "I don't know if we sent him the script, but we absolutely did have to get permission, and he was gracious enough to give it to us. I'm well aware that he's a controversial figure, but there was something about young Steven Seagal as a presence in that era of Stallone, Van Damme, and Schwarzenegger. Here came this guy that's just completely different and so unique, and he felt like an oddity in the sort of era of those movies that I thought it was worth celebrating." "Aristotle Athari, who plays Christian, and I bonded over Seagal when we first met and talked about the role. We talked about movies we liked, and we somehow both shared a reverence for early Seagal and the presence he exuded. When I thought about Cady coming into her own as a teenager, strengthening herself as a character, and getting into martial arts, I thought it would be very funny if Gemma took her to Aikido. It is the most peaceful, non-aggressive martial art there is. Still, it has this incredibly volatile, controversial, public spokesperson for it, so I just thought that was really interesting and funny." Another pivotal moment in M3GAN 2.0 involves the classic Kate Bush track, "This Woman's Work." A fan of the legendary British singer, Johnstone has had designs on the song for a while. "It was in the script, but in an earlier draft, it was another song because the situation was different and called for a different song," the filmmaker explains. "I wanted M3gan to sing This Woman's Work over the titles of the first film, but we didn't have enough time to seek out the rights. That was a fun idea I had that I didn't get to do anything with. Once I realized the context of the scene in the sequel had changed and it was about motherhood, it felt like the most natural song choice." "I'm a massive fan of Kate Bush, and in all honesty, we shot that scene not knowing if we would get the rights; we just had to hope and pray that we did. It took a little bit of convincing, and she had to see the scene to approve it, but she did. Kate didn't take any money for it either. We gave her all we could afford, and she gave it to charity. That made me an even bigger fan." 'M3GAN 2.0' Is Influenced By An Eclectic Selection Of Classic Movies Set two years after the first film, M3GAN's creator, Gemma, played by Allison Williams, resurrects her notorious invention to take down Amelia, the military-grade weapon built by a defense contractor who stole M3GAN's underlying tech. M3GAN 2.0 is exclusively in theaters now and is not available on streaming to watch at home. Due to the robot vs. robot storyline, numerous comparisons are being drawn with classic films from the 1980s and 1990s, such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Johnstone happily confirms that it is in the mix, but some of the other inspirations might surprise people. "Terminator 2 is the most obvious one just because two robots are going at each other. When James Wan was thinking about another robot, he was thinking T2 in some ways, and then he handed me the keys," the Housebound director confirms. "I'm a child of the 80s and 90s, so those were the films that stuck with me, and I miss those movies. I miss the crazy, bombastic, bold, and subversive popcorn movies that are massively entertaining, but they have a layer that's very offbeat. They're operating on two tracks. On one lane, it's absolutely populist entertainment, but on another, it's asking people to think about some deep things, and that's what I'm trying to do with this." "Total Recall is in there, and I watched Short Circuit early on and examined the relationship between Johnny 5 and his human counterparts. That inspired the relationship between Cady and Megan this time around because Cady is the one who's trying to figure things out, and is M3gan real and conscious or just a bunch of zeros and ones? Robocop and Bram Stoker's Dracula were also influences, as were The City of Lost Children and Pan's Labyrinth. The creation of M3gan's lair owes a lot to those sorts of movies. They influenced everything about the film, including its visual appearance. We tried to make it look very organic, so we shot it using anamorphic lenses to make it feel like a film from those two decades." Director Gerard Johnstone on the set of 'M3GAN 2.0.' A common feature in the 80s and 90s action genre is the use of subtitles, such as Die Hard 2: Die Harder. It's even still used occasionally today for films such as Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. So, did M3GAN 2.0 ever have a different title, or was that always going to be the title? "I didn't come up with the title. The title was announced before I was officially on board, so I had no part in that," Johnstone reveals. "The working title of my script was M3GAN 2: Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. That was what I was always working with, but I never pushed it." Almost as soon as the first trailer was released in 2022, M3gan became a pop culture phenomenon, and, similarly to other titans of terror such as The Babadook, she emerged as a gay icon. Whereas the original film landed in theaters in January, M3GAN 2.0 lands in June, coinciding with Pride Month and officially qualifying it as a summer blockbuster. "I don't know if that was intentional or not, but certainly coming out in the summer is a huge responsibility," the filmmaker muses. "I don't know if which came first, the release date or the direction that we went in for the sequel, but the first film just had such a crazy, huge reaction that I thought, 'Well, let's go big on the sequel.'" "You can never let fear be a driving factor in any of these things. You just have to do what inspires you and try to make a movie that you would want to see. First and foremost, you have to entertain yourself. That's what I enjoy doing. I like to block out the noise, let other people take care of it, and focus on telling a really fun story and having as much fun with the character as I possibly could." (Left to right) James Wan, Gerard Johnstone and Jason Blum attend as Universal Pictures and ... More Blumhouse present the 'M3GAN 2.0' premiere at AMC Lincoln Square 13 in New York City. 'M3GAN 2.0' Is The Start Of A New Beginning For The AI Icon When it comes to questions regarding the franchise's genre shift and departure from the horror roots of M3GAN, Johnstone remains confident in his decision. "Audiences have already decided she's a hero, so it felt like the path was like for us to do that. In the first film, she's more of a mystery. Even M3gan doesn't know what she is, so it felt natural and fitting," he says. "Once you take her out of the shadows and start talking about other robots, it made sense to me to go out of a world of toys, and if a technology like this exists, the only plausible thing you could do with it is bring her into the military. Suddenly, it was a much bigger canvas. It felt as though if we had stayed in horror, it would be oddly limiting. We've done all that. I don't understand why you need to repeat yourself. I understand that audiences want more of the same, but I honestly don't think they would like it. I don't think they'd be happy if you gave them the same thing. As a character, M3gan herself doesn't want to be put in a box." Although a spin-off is already on the way, this is probably where Johnstone and M3gan part ways. Even the M3GAN 2.0 end credit sequence plays out over a montage of highlights from both films, appearing to be a bookend of sorts. Is this the end that it feels like? "It is for me," the New Zealander confesses. "I have been on the M3GAN train since 2018 because that's when I first got the script, so it's been a long time for me. I felt like putting every idea I had and as much as I could into this movie." The M3GAN 2.0 director concludes, "In a way, it's me saying, 'I hope you enjoyed it. I'm pretty sure I'm going to take a break and hand this over to someone else.' She's such a fun character that there's more to do with her, and I'll always be there to support whoever you know might take up the reins."
The Guardian
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
M3gan 2.0 review – hit-and-miss sequel replaces horror with action comedy
As the very first image of devil doll sequel M3gan 2.0 emerges on screen, of a desert with the words 'somewhere on the Turkish-Iranian border' popping up like it's a Bond movie, you'd be forgiven for double-checking if you're in the right cinema. The original, a grabby artificial intelligence (AI) riff on Child's Play and Annabelle, was a brisk, by-the-numbers domestic horror, released on the first weekend of 2023, a slot usually given to the very worst genre films. M3gan was smarter than most, often sly and frequently funny and introducing what's now become a rarity, an almost instant non-IP pop culture icon, whose virality exploded the film into a surprise smash (raking in over $180m from a $12m budget). Like the films it was inspired by, a franchise was inevitable although where we're taken in M3gan 2.0 was far less of a given. For the follow-up, writer-director Gerard Johnstone has swerved from horror to action while retaining and tweaking the comedy with a release date that's been upgraded to summer blockbuster territory. It doesn't always work – a two-hour runtime that's a little too long, world-saving stakes that are a little too big, funny lines that are a little too not funny – but it's a mostly watchable second-tier event movie that, in a world of inconsequential sequels that fail to justify their existence, will do. For M3gan 2.0, Johnstone has picked the Terminator 2 model, resurrecting M3gan to help destroy an even more evil robot called Amelia (Ukrainian actor Ivanna Sakhno) who has gone rogue. Since the previous film, understandably haunted roboticist Gemma (a returning Allison Williams, giving it her all once again) has rejigged her thinking on technology, fighting for the ethical use of AI and urging people to step away from their smartphones. But she's forced to team up with the monster she created when Amelia threatens not just the lives of those around her but the entire world. The details of how we get there are absurdly convoluted and it takes a while for Johnstone to convince us that an evil doll movie really needs this much political conspiracy and corporate intrigue (with the addition of every new espionage element, I had to keep reminding myself I was watching a M3gan movie). But it just about works with time, mostly down to its sheer energy, Johnstone pitching it as a goofy Mission: Impossible for younger teens (I did enjoy this mildly more than Tom Cruise's boringly bloated Final Reckoning). The tonal swerve is reminiscent of that employed in another Blumhouse sequel, Happy Death Day 2U that transformed a fun, gimmicky slasher into an indecipherable sci-fi romp. That film couldn't find a way out of the overly complicated mess it made for itself and the comparatively simple M3gan 2.0 finds a slicker way to reinvent itself. No one could have predicted just how many memes the first film would spawn but it was still written, by Malignant's Akela Cooper, with enough self-awareness to suggest that it wouldn't be a complete surprise. The campaign for the sequel had been rather worrying, however, veering from self-aware to smug, ads built entirely on camp cheek, trailers soundtracked by Britney Spears's Oops!… I Did It Again, grimly suggesting the film would be crippled by its thirst to go viral. It's surprisingly restrained though in that regard and any studio-mandated repetition – yes, she dances again; yes, she sings another ballad at an inopportune moment again – feels mostly organic (a rendition of Kate Bush's This Woman's Work is arguably more effective than Sia and David Guetta's Titanium was in the first). One of the major problems is that the comedy just doesn't quite land this time around, bar one genuinely funny bit involving Steven Seagal film titles. Johnstone took over writing duties from Cooper but he hasn't found a way to sustain M3gan's humour despite ample insert-zinger-here moments. It's also clear that Johnstone has retrofitted the film to act as an audition tape for bigger things, showcasing flashier adeptness on a much larger canvas, a sizzle reel to be sent on to execs looking for the next Marvel minion. His debut, Housebound, a thrilling comedy horror that pitched him as a mix of Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, was a film of incredible ingenuity and it's hard not to feel a little disappointed, if not exactly surprised, that his way up the studio system has demanded that edges be smoothed out and ambitions remain boringly generic. The finale of M3gan 2.0 is as familiar as any superhero ending, if a little more coherently choreographed, and while it's sort of kind of just about effective enough (even if some muddled messaging about learning not to fear but coexist with AI is hard to stomach), I kept wishing we were in less well-charted territory. M3gan 2.0 isn't an upgrade or a downgrade, but M3gan 3.0 could do with some new code. M3gan 2.0 is out in cinemas now
The Guardian
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
M3gan 2.0 review – hit-and-miss sequel replaces horror with action comedy
As the very first image of devil doll sequel M3gan 2.0 emerges on screen, of a desert with the words 'somewhere on the Turkish-Iranian border' popping up like it's a Bond movie, you'd be forgiven for double-checking if you're in the right cinema. The original, a grabby artificial intelligence (AI) riff on Child's Play and Annabelle, was a brisk, by-the-numbers domestic horror, released on the first weekend of 2023, a slot usually given to the very worst genre films. M3gan was smarter than most, often sly and frequently funny and introducing what's now become a rarity, an almost instant non-IP pop culture icon, whose virality exploded the film into a surprise smash (raking in over $180m from a $12m budget). Like the films it was inspired by, a franchise was inevitable although where we're taken in M3gan 2.0 was far less of a given. For the follow-up, writer-director Gerard Johnstone has swerved from horror to action while retaining and tweaking the comedy with a release date that's been upgraded to summer blockbuster territory. It doesn't always work – a two-hour runtime that's a little too long, world-saving stakes that are a little too big, funny lines that are a little too not funny – but it's a mostly watchable second-tier event movie that, in a world of inconsequential sequels that fail to justify their existence, will do. For M3gan 2.0, Johnstone has picked the Terminator 2 model, resurrecting M3gan to help destroy an even more evil robot called Amelia (Ukrainian actor Ivanna Sakhno) who has gone rogue. Since the previous film, understandably haunted roboticist Gemma (a returning Allison Williams, giving it her all once again) has rejigged her thinking on technology, fighting for the ethical use of AI and urging people to step away from their smartphones. But she's forced to team up with the monster she created when Amelia threatens not just the lives of those around her but the entire world. The details of how we get there are absurdly convoluted and it takes a while for Johnstone to convince us that an evil doll movie really needs this much political conspiracy and corporate intrigue (with the addition of every new espionage element, I had to keep reminding myself I was watching a M3gan movie). But it just about works with time, mostly down to its sheer energy, Johnstone pitching it as a goofy Mission: Impossible for younger teens (I did enjoy this mildly more than Tom Cruise's boringly bloated Final Reckoning). The tonal swerve is reminiscent of that employed in another Blumhouse sequel, Happy Death Day 2U that transformed a fun, gimmicky slasher into an indecipherable sci-fi romp. That film couldn't find a way out of the overly complicated mess it made for itself and the comparatively simple M3gan 2.0 finds a slicker way to reinvent itself. No one could have predicted just how many memes the first film would spawn but it was still written, by Malignant's Akela Cooper, with enough self-awareness to suggest that it wouldn't be a complete surprise. The campaign for the sequel had been rather worrying, however, veering from self-aware to smug, ads built entirely on camp cheek, trailers soundtracked by Britney Spears's Oops!… I Did It Again, grimly suggesting the film would be crippled by its thirst to go viral. It's surprisingly restrained though in that regard and any studio-mandated repetition – yes, she dances again; yes, she sings another ballad at an inopportune moment again – feels mostly organic (a rendition of Kate Bush's This Woman's Work is arguably more effective than Sia and David Guetta's Titanium was in the first). One of the major problems is that the comedy just doesn't quite land this time around, bar one genuinely funny bit involving Steven Seagal film titles. Johnstone took over writing duties from Cooper but he hasn't found a way to sustain M3gan's humour despite ample insert-zinger-here moments. It's also clear that Johnstone has retrofitted the film to act as an audition tape for bigger things, showcasing flashier adeptness on a much larger canvas, a sizzle reel to be sent on to execs looking for the next Marvel minion. His debut, Housebound, a thrilling comedy horror that pitched him as a mix of Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, was a film of incredible ingenuity and it's hard not to feel a little disappointed, if not exactly surprised, that his way up the studio system has demanded that edges be smoothed out and ambitions remain boringly generic. The finale of M3gan 2.0 is as familiar as any superhero ending, if a little more coherently choreographed, and while it's sort of kind of just about effective enough (even if some muddled messaging about learning not to fear but coexist with AI is hard to stomach), I kept wishing we were in less well-charted territory. M3gan 2.0 isn't an upgrade or a downgrade, but M3gan 3.0 could do with some new code. M3gan 2.0 is out in cinemas now
Geek Tyrant
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
Trailer for the Action Film BANG with Peter Weller and Jack Kesy — GeekTyrant
Saban Films has released a trailer for the upcoming action thriller Bang , and it follows a character named Bang, played by Jack Kesy, 'one of the most feared hitmen, questions his violent life after a near-death experience. Seeing a future beyond bloodshed, he wants out—but his crime boss won't let go without a fight.' The movie was directed by Wych Kaosayananda, and it also stars Peter Weller, Tristin Mays, Kane Kosugi, and Bear Williams. This looks like another one of those generic and forgettable action movies, but there is an audience out there for them, otherwise these kinds of films wouldn't keep getting made. Bang will be released in select theaters and on VOD on July 11th, 2025.
