M3GAN 2.0
Far more action-comedy than horror-thriller, M3GAN 2.0 is an incredibly silly film. I don't know if there's a suspenseful moment in the entire movie as writer/director Gerard Johnstone leans hard into comedy, but there is some wacky fun to be had in a script that seems to have a very mixed message about the rise of Artificial Intelligence. Allison Williams and Violet McGraw reprise their roles of Gemma and Cady from the first film who are forced to bring M3GAN (Jenna Davis) back when an even deadlier android based on the M3GAN designs, and built as an assassin for the military, goes haywire and begins following her own agenda including killing anyone tied to her creation.
Brian Jordan Alvarez and Jen Van Epps also return as Gemma's coworkers who help to rebuild M3GAN over Gemma's initial objections. Ivanna Sakhno stars as the other android AMELIA who gets to kill more people than M3GAN while in search of some treasure trove of lost AI tech that could make her invincible. We also get Aristotle Athari as Gemma’s boyfriend who publicly works alongside Gemma to caution the world on the rise of AI technology and Timm Sharp as the kind of dumb cop you only see in these kinds of films.
The plot is a little slow to get going until we getting M3GAN up and running, first in a toy and later in a new body. It's more memorable for its humor and action set pieces than anything else. The emotional beats are pretty pat in the Gemma/Cady relationship, and we get a halfhearted twist and a myriad of false finishes to keep M3GAN around for an inevitable third film in attempts to liven up the latter third of the movie which only makes things a bit more complicated than necessary. M3GAN 2.0 works best when putting M3GAN to work while allowing its human characters to be conflicted about everything they've helped put in motion.
Watch the trailer- Title: M3GAN 2.0
- IMDb: link
