M3GAN 2.0 review: Slasher movie sequel a huge disappointment
Becoming a viral sensation can be a mixed blessing for movies. Given the fleeting nature of internet stardom, studios get the illusion of success which doesn’t always translate to box office glory. Marvel found this out the hard way in 2022, when the ironic enjoyment of megaflop Morbius led the studio to re-release the film, only to find audience members were laughing at the movie, not with it.
One character, however, who benefitted social media fame was M3GAN, the dancing AI doll that was the subject of a TikTok craze prior to the release of the horror film of the same name three years ago. It made the low-budget slasher a hit, earning $180m worldwide from a $12m budget. This, of course, greenlit a sequel, but are the Gen Z-savvy antics of the killer robot still something worth watching?
Set two years on from the events of the first film, psychotic android M3GAN’s inventor Gemma (Allison Williams) has built a public platform bringing awareness to the dangers of AI. Her invention’s attacks have left her distant from her niece Cady (Violet McGraw), who finds her aunt’s over-protectiveness stifling. Both their worst nightmares return when AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno), a government-made robot based on M3GAN’s designs, goes rogue and begins to kill her creators. With Cady’s life at risk, Gemma must bring M3GAN back to prevent further bloodshed.
It’s hard to think of a sequel so at odds with what is expected of it. The witty campness of the original is stripped away for something that has more in common with an action-thriller than a horror film. Pitching itself as a lighter twist on the Terminator and Mission: Impossible franchises, it’s as if the filmmakers didn’t realise what made the first film popular, and so threw everything out.
Bafflingly, M3GAN is not seen on screen in any substantial manner for the first hour, a ridiculous decision given the majority of marketing is centred around the character. While she has some snappy comebacks as a disembodied AI, it’s not really why the crowds are here. Worse still, the new model is rather unimpressive. The allure of M3GAN was the uncanny valley effect of a doll that felt alive. AMELIA is simply a glamorous actor with an expressionless face, who doesn’t look synthetic or threatening.
The script wobbles between melodrama and comedy, unsure whether it’s the right time to crack a joke or elicit a gasp, so it does neither. The human performances are flat, with Williams and McGraw grappling with pages of exposition to justify why anyone should care about any of this. Given the relatively serious tone, it’s surprisingly light on any insight into AI, preferring an end of the world scenario that’s loud instead of clever.
There are moments of levity, mostly in M3GAN’s bitchy putdowns and a brief but hilarious appearance from Jermaine Clement as a greasy tech billionaire. As for viral moments, there are a couple of funny scenes that are reminiscent of the previous film, specifically M3GAN dancing in front of a crowd of geeks at an AI convention, and her unsettling but hilarious rendition of Kate Bush’s This Woman’s Work.
Mostly, however, M3GAN 2.0 is a programme in need of a serious upgrade. Neither funny nor inventive enough to justify two hours of your time, it has to be one of the bigger disappointments of the year.
M3GAN 2.0 is in cinemas now