‘M3GAN 2.0’ Review: Mother Serves in Hard Sci-Fi Sequel with a Technosocial Conscience

Imagine John Waters at the helm of a Terminator 2 remake and you have an inkling of just how wild a pivot M3GAN 2.0 is from its predecessor. If anything, writer-director Gerard Johnstone’s sequel has more in common with the last two Mission: Impossible films than the original M3GAN. Even then, it’s doubtful we’ll ever see Tom Cruise trapped in a sentient smart speaker telling the IMF to “hold onto their vaginas” before taking off in a futuristic sports car after a murderbot at 235 miles per hour while the Knight Rider theme plays.

Yes, M3GAN has gotten an upgrade from horror to sci-fi action, and the sequel also has a lot more on its mind. Understandable, really, since in only three short years since the original film’s release, A.I. has infected nearly every facet of our lives, and even the first film now has moments that now scan as eerily ominous. That’s a fact that M3GAN 2.0’s story isn’t blind to.

Gemma (Allison Williams), M3GAN’s chief engineer, has become a fierce anti-A.I. crusader, developing technology where the human element is the primary driving force. But it’s too little, too late. Since the design documents for M3GAN were leaked by a character in the first film, the U.S. government has already used them to secretly build their own A.I. killbot prototype named AM3LIA (Ivanna Sakhno). But after her first test run to carry out a military options in Iran goes awry, AM3LIA goes rogue, killing everyone associated with her creation. The government will need all the help they can get to take her down, so they turn to Gemma for help, who then finds out M3GAN herself isn’t as dead as she previously thought.

For her part, M3GAN (voiced by Jenna Davis) has stayed pretty chill since the whole “murdering multiple people” thing, secretly keeping to her original programming of protecting Gemma’s niece, Cady (Violet McGraw). And it’s to that end that M3GAN makes a deal with Gemma to have a better, stronger, faster body built for her so she can better protect Cady and fight AM3LIA in meatspace. M3GAN also takes the opportunity to bicker with Gemma over the ethics and humanity of her very existence, as well as Gemma’s failings as a caretaker.

The bitchy Ryan Murphy-esque “two mothers arguing about how to raise their daughter” factor that made the original such an unexpected delight has been cranked up a few more notches here, though much of the outright dread and horror of the first film has been muted. It’s not gone, particularly thanks to AM3LIA’s penchant for decapitations and spine ripping, but, as in T2, the horror is more punctuation than undercurrent. In its place is a far more blatant, maximalist sense of humor and self-awareness. The film knows the icon M3GAN has become in certain circles and doubles down, largely to fun, freewheeling effect, the peak being an out-of-nowhere musical beat set to Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work.”

All that still has to share a crowded thematic space with M3GAN 2.0’s sci-fi ideas and influences. The first film did enough table setting for its sequel to incorporate harder sci-fi elements, but M3GAN 2.0 has to also balance being a broad action-horror-comedy-satire at the same time. That’s a tricky juggling act that Johnstone’s film struggles to pull off, but it has its winning gonzo moments, like one action beat that’s essentially a dream match between Maria from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Battle Angel Alita’s titular cyborg.

M3GAN 2.0 lands on the right conclusion at least, emphasizing the value of humanity in an increasingly technological world, techbro billionaires be damned. The catty M3GAN may be an oddball ambassador for that message, but this high-energy crowd pleaser has the timely, sharp, and incisive criticism pop culture it needs to meet the moment.