Review: M3GAN 2.0

If the original M3GAN was a glitter-bomb lobbed at the horror genre—equal parts creepy-kid thriller and TikTok-ready camp—then M3GAN 2.0 is the messier, louder sibling who shows up to the party wearing too much eyeliner and quoting Terminator 2 without fully understanding the assignment. Yes, the murderbot with the better wardrobe than most of us is back. But like many a comeback tour, not everything lands where it should.

Director Gerard Johnstone returns, this time co-writing the screenplay from a story credit by M3GAN mastermind Akela Cooper. While Cooper’s signature bonkers brilliance pulses faintly beneath the surface, Johnstone seems less interested in the tight satirical terror of the first film and more obsessed with blowing things up—both literally and tonally. And that's not getting into the morally ambigious tone the film has towards AI, which at times feels completely at odds from the original film's POV.

Picking up two years after the events of the first film, M3GAN 2.0 sees roboticist-turned-AI-whistleblower Gemma (Allison Williams) trying to make amends for the chaos she helped create. Meanwhile, her niece Cady (Violet McGraw), now entering her emo era, is not over the whole “my best friend killed four people and a dog” thing. When a new threat emerges—Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno), a sleeker, sexier killer AI built from stolen M3GAN schematics—Gemma and Cady are forced to unbox their pint-sized Pandora once again. Hijinks, emotional repression, and morally confused violence ensue.

Let’s get the good out of the way: M3GAN still slaps. She’s sassier, glitchier, and more fashion-forward than ever, thanks to the return of Amie Donald’s unsettling physicality and Jenna Davis’ flawlessly snide vocal work. Whether she’s hijacking a fleet of drones or side-eyeing a coworker into submission, M3GAN remains the undisputed queen of viral menace. Weta Workshop gives her multiple battle-damaged variants that suggest an AI version of Cher on tour—different outfits, same attitude.

Unfortunately, it’s everything that isn’t M3GAN that feels a little second-rate. Johnstone’s direction slips into chaos as he juggles genre plates, often dropping them. This sequel wants to be a gonzo sci-fi spectacle, a girlboss redemption arc, a meditation on tech ethics, and a dysfunctional family drama all at once—but it doesn’t have the narrative discipline to pull off even half of that. Plot threads dangle like loose wires. A budding romance between Gemma and Aristotle Athari’s tech ethicist lands with a thud, while promising supporting players (Brian Jordan Alvarez and Jen Van Epps) are relegated to exposition duty and office-politics filler.

The script is overstuffed yet undercooked. There’s a clunky shift from horror to action around the halfway mark that sacrifices dread for spectacle, without earning the scale. Sure, M3GAN and Amelia’s climactic robo-brawl gives us a hint of Pacific Rim via Mean Girls, but everything in between feels like filler from a CW sci-fi pilot. Worse, the movie doesn’t trust its own villain-turned-antihero to stay complicated. Instead of leaning into M3GAN’s narcissistic codependence (the very quality that made her iconic), we’re asked to buy into a redemption arc so abrupt it might’ve been written by ChatGPT on a sugar crash. Her journey from villain to hero is never as convincing or rewarding as the film is banking on.

And yet, amid the mess, there’s still weird magic. A truly unhinged needle drop. A scooter chase that doesn’t quite work but dares to try. A few choice moments of deadpan gore that squeak past the PG-13 rating with impish glee. And M3GAN, in her bratty, bloodthirsty glory, still delivers the kind of campy charisma that can turn a so-so movie into a cult classic. It is a shame that it is almost an hour in the film before she physically graces the screen, ready for her close-up.

M3GAN 2.0 is far from perfect—it’s overwrought, under-edited, and more interested in spectacle than soul. But it also knows its audience. It’s a movie that wants to be Terminator for Teens, and while it trips over its own ambitions, it still serves just enough cyber-couture chaos to justify the ticket. In the end, M3GAN may have a heart now, but thankfully, she still knows how to break a few and plenty of bones as well.

3/5