2023’s M3GAN wasn’t exactly a genre game-changer, but it did manage to pull off the rare horror trick of launching a genuine new icon. As manufactured and algorithmic as Blumhouse’s AI-kills-kid’s-family vehicle was, it also knew how to have a bit of fun. Somewhere between the meme-worthy dance, the offbeat kills, and the delightfully dry performance from Allison Williams, it found just enough edge and absurdity to become an instant viral hit. It was Child’s Play for the iPad generation, with a spark of self-aware menace that hinted at the bonkers future it might evolve into.
Well, M3GAN 2.0 is here, and the evolution has arrived…sort of. With the deadly doll’s core memory bank now fully tapped into pop culture, this sequel clearly tries to lean harder into the camp, the chaos, and the cutting satire promised the first time around. But while 2.0 brings a few inspired upgrades and goofy delights, it also short circuits itself with a bloated story, a soggy middle, and a disappointing refusal to let its most exciting ideas really go off the rails.
We pick back up with Gemma (Williams), still a true believer in the power of technology, and Cady (Violet McGraw), now in her early teens. The trauma of the first movie is still lingering in both of them, but the pair are doing their best to move forward – at least until Gemma gets pulled into the orbit of Jemaine Clement’s boisterous tech mogul Alton Appleton and his shiny new brain-linking AI, AM3LIA (Ivanna Sakhno). It’s not long before the past comes calling, with M3GAN herself (Amie Donald as the body with Jenna Davis as the voice) resurrected in a makeshift new body and a new conflict brewing between old code and upgraded ambition.
The smartest thing M3GAN 2.0 does is acknowledge that it can’t just do the same thing over again. The killer doll is no longer a surprise; we already know what she’s capable of. Instead of rehashing the same slasher beats, the film widens its scope, pushing more toward pulpy high-concept sci-fi action than horror. This is less a slasher and more a B-movie tech-thriller battle of the bots, with M3GAN facing off against the more sinister AM3LIA in what basically becomes Ultron vs. Ultron by the final act.
That pivot should be fun – hell, at times it really is. One of the best sequences involves an absurdly cheeky neck snap that immediately smash-cuts to a breaking news segment, setting the tone for the sort of deadpan mayhem the movie could’ve delivered in spades. There’s even more bite in some of the script’s throwaway lines, like “I don’t need an algorithm to tell me how to drive,” and a delightful stretch where M3GAN returns in a new, tiny, harmless body before inevitably becoming a Terminator-esque killing machine once again.
But those moments are fleeting. For every bit of inspired lunacy, there’s a heavy exposition dump waiting to clog the gears. This movie talks. A lot. There’s a whole mess of technobabble about consciousness and neuro-hardware that’s dumped on the cast like an avalanche of ones and zeroes, and while actors like Williams manage to sell even the most absurd dialogue with a grounded, totally committed performance, it’s a lot of sound and fury leading nowhere particularly interesting. And that’s before we even get to the snoozer surprise villain reveal, a performance so utterly bland and off-base it feels like it was beamed in from an entirely different (and much worse) movie.
That’s the most frustrating thing about M3GAN 2.0 – the pieces are all here. You can feel the film itching to break out and go full throttle with the camp, to fully lean into its own ridiculousness the way Malignant or Lisa Frankenstein do. Instead, it’s constantly pulling its punches. The comedy is never sharp or frequent enough to register as full-on satire, and the horror is largely abandoned, save for a few too-quick-to-end action sequences and a bit of body horror in M3GAN’s newer, more Frankenstein-ish forms.
There’s also the pacing, which hits a complete wall somewhere around the middle stretch. A ton of side characters are introduced – most of them utterly forgettable – and a subplot with an FBI agent named Sattler (Timm Sharp) threatens to actually become amusingly compelling before the film forgets about it entirely. It all builds to a third act that should be wild, chaotic, and exhilarating. Instead, it just kind of happens.
Still, there are some highlights that make the ride worth it for the curious. The designs for both M3GAN and AM3LIA are impressive, walking that uncanny valley line between animatronic and digital so well that it’s often impossible to tell what’s real and what’s not. The commitment to making these AIs look and move just a little too human remains one of the franchise’s most unsettling strengths. And M3GAN’s voice – equal parts Valley girl and HAL 9000 – remains exceptionally enjoyable.
But the movie just can’t settle on a tone or a coherent identity. Is it a satire? A cautionary tale? A campy horror romp? A sleek sci-fi action flick? It wants to be all of those at once and ends up as none of them. M3GAN 2.0 might be a more ambitious movie than its predecessor, but that ambition ends up weighing it down. There are glimpses of something sharper, weirder, and funnier here – but the movie never goes far enough to earn its wilder instincts. It’s a bummer, because when this sequel works, it really works.
Allison Williams remains the franchise’s secret weapon, bringing total sincerity to even the most unhinged scenes and dialogue. M3GAN herself still rules in all her catty, deadly glory. And the ideas bubbling beneath the surface – especially when it comes to modern tech, digital companionship, and our obsession with “smart” everything – are still juicy and relevant.
But none of it comes together in a satisfying way. If the first M3GAN was a promising beta test, then 2.0 feels like an early-access build with a lot of bugs left to patch. Let’s hope version 3.0 (should it actually happen) finally lets the mayhem run as wild as it should.
‘M3GAN 2.0’ is now in theaters.
