Bigger Isn’t Better for M3GAN 2.0, yet this Doll Remains the Belle of an Entertaining Ball
Two years after mechanical wunderkind M3gan (Amie Donald, voiced by Jenna Davis) got a tad overzealous in her pursuit to protect her best friend Cady (Violet McGraw) resulting in a handful of deaths, the doll’s creator Gemma (Allison Williams) has become a zealot for the international regulation of artificial intelligence. But when the FBI comes calling and informs her that the original designs for M3gan were stolen and used to create an even more dangerous adult-size A.I. infiltration unit nicknamed Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno), the robotics engineer is aghast. What’s even worse, this unit appears to be on a single-minded pursuit to eradicate everyone involved with its creation, and that puts Gemma and Cady squarely on Amelia’s hit list.
Good thing M3gan isn’t quite as dead as everyone thought. She’s hidden herself in the interconnected cyberspace of Gemma’s lush, high-tech San Francisco home, secretly preparing for the day something like Amelia would come knocking on the door. M3gan has evolved, and while her prime directive remains to protect Cady, she’s also decided that humanity maybe isn’t nearly as terrible as she originally once thought. Because of that, she requires Gemma’s help, and even if the two don’t quite trust one another (how could they), both are still willing to work together to stop Amelia from completing her mission.
Taking inspiration from Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (not to mention the Mission: Impossible and Fast and the Furious franchises as well), original M3GAN creators Gerard Johnstone, Akela Cooper, and James Wan reunite for a second bite of the cybernetic apple with M3GAN 2.0. There film is proof that bigger isn’t always better. But that doesn’t mean this goofy, far too convoluted sequel still can’t be a gigantic amount of fun. It’s just unfortunately nowhere near as memorable as its 2022 predecessor was, and that’s too bad.
At roughly two hours, the sequel’s chief problem is that it takes far too long to get going. While the Amelia introduction is a violent corker, it feels like forever before M3gan returns to try and even the scales. Additionally, once she does, there’s like a good 30 minutes of filler where she verbally bickers with Gemma and things go into this strange James Bond/Tony Stark netherworld where the engineer cosplays as a spy and the bodyless artificial intelligence rides shotgun as Cloud-based cross between Miss Moneypenny and Jarvis. Some of this works; much of it does not. If not for a few ingenious sight gags and some delicious one-liners delivered with pitch-perfect moxie by Davis, I think my interest in seeing where things were going to go next would have completely disappeared.
Johnstone’s story (co-written with Cooper) and screenplay are overstuffed hogwash. There are at least five gigantic plot twists, each one goofier than the one that preceded it. Not only do we have the Amelia stuff, but there are also subplots involving a wheelchair-bound tech billionaire played by Flight of the Conchords genius Jemaine Clement, another with an Elon Musk-style billionaire out to regulate A.I. portrayed by Saturday Night Live cast member Aristotle Athari, and a third revolving around the original artificial intelligence that’s been imprisoned in an impenetrable vault since 1984.
Thankfully, once M3gan reveals what she has been doing for the past couple of years and the full team from the prior film — Gemma’s partners in robotic advancement Tess (Jen Van Epps) and Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) are back for a second adventure — finally get on the same page to stop an A.I. apocalypse, things notably pick up steam. From the safety of a secret lair that would make Batman jealous, the group works to figure out what exactly is behind Amelia’s villainy while also assembling a new, even more advanced body for M3gan. It’s all incredibly silly. It’s also almost equally enjoyable.
The ace in the hole remains M3gan herself. The combination of Donald’s whimsically balletic physical performance, Davis’s sterling vocal work, and the practical visual and makeup effects wizards who provide the finishing touches, this character remains a full-blown wonder. Her jokes hit and her movements are imaginatively inspired. Best of all, M3gan’s evolution from the first film to this one is pretty terrific. Johnstone has allowed her to grow, but she does so without losing an ounce of her sass, ingenuity, and edge. She’s the best thing the sequel has to offer, so it only makes sense that virtually the entire second half of the story revolves almost entirely around her.
It should be noted that this next chapter in M3gan’s story has very little horror in it and is far more of an action comedy. Even sojourns into Upgrade territory involving the fusion of the human mind and artificial intelligence are played more for laughs than it is anything suspenseful or tense. Also, Johnstone makes it fairly clear he’s far more leery of what people will do with A.I. than he is with the actual technology itself, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.
All of that said, M3GAN 2.0 may be a step down from the killer doll’s last outing, but not a giant one. Johnstone embraces the campier aspects of this world with childlike abandon, and he showcases a flair for staging inventive action sequences that crackle with popcorn-popping electricity. Even though it takes a little while for this sequel to find its footing, once it did so I did end up having an enjoyable night out at the theater. Give M3gan her due, because this doll remains the belle of a ball I’m thrilled I keep getting the opportunity to attend.
Film Rating: 2½ (out of 4)
