M3gan 2.0 Review
M3gan 2.0 (2025) Film Review, a movie directed by Gerard Johnstone, written by Akela Cooper, Gerard Johnstone and James Wan and starring Allison Williams, Jemaine Clement, Violet McGraw, Jenna Davis, Amie Donald, Ivanna Sakhno, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Aristotle Athari, Mike Edward, Timm Sharp, Jen Van Epps, Mayen Mehta, Steven Logan, Ara Raad and Simon Eskow.
Director Gerard Johnstone’s new follow-up film to the smash hit, M3gan, is a timely, but boring, attempt to tackle the difficult topic of artificial intelligence. M3gan 2.0 has the most high-concept plot that one could possibly imagine, but its pedestrian dialogue and several stiff cast members undermine its purpose and prevent it from ever rising above the norm for a series that has inexplicably switched over from horror to pure science-fiction this time out.
Once again, Allison Williams plays the ambitious Gemma while the young and talented Violet McGraw returns to the role of Cady. M3gan (the fun voice of Jenna Davis), at the start, has been taken out of the equation in terms of having a body to help her propel her thoughts into motion. However, there are bigger problems in the story that come in the form of a new military weapon called Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno) who looks glamorous but doesn’t seem to have the intent of making artificial intelligence work for the greater good. Amelia becomes a foe for M3gan who, for some peculiar reason, turns heroic in this new entry in the series despite having been a psychotic killer in the previous film.
Some of the supporting cast members lack the charisma to carry the plot. One such character is played by Aristotle Athari who is, for all intents and purposes, one of the central villains of the piece even though we don’t know that fact for quite a bit of the film. Athari doesn’t carry the weight of the role although he tries to. He’s actually a small flaw when compared to Brian Jordan Alvarez’s Cole who teams up with Cady to try to figure out how to maintain the status quo and stop Amelia and company dead in their tracks which is obviously easier said than done.
What the film offers in fun includes the use of the song, “This Woman’s Work” from Kate Bush which is utilized at one point in the movie thanks to M3gan who, surprisingly, has a smaller part in the action than I would have liked her to. M3gan gets really “messed up” by the time all is said and done despite being perfectly kempt when she first comes into her robotic body again. Amelia ultimately and unfairly gets more screen time than M3gan which is odd in a movie that is named after M3gan.
Williams is still solid as her character tries to stop artificial intelligence from conquering the world. A data breach occurs that threatens to jeopardize life as we know it for all, and the key heroic characters must do everything in their power to save the world from those who threaten its existence. This is despite the fact that most of the heroes are actually kept out of the central elements of the action thanks to the surprisingly disappointing details of the sometimes-generic plot.
Though the story is thought-provoking at times, Johnstone’s direction is flatter than one may have hoped for. This is the sort of high-profile project that seems as if it got rushed into production to cash in on the success of the first film and the new picture’s lack of sufficient character development and compelling plot details shows on-screen. It plods on for nearly two hours at a snail’s pace and only picks up steam occasionally when M3gan shows up. However, M3gan desperately needed to be a bigger part of the action this time out to make the new film a success. Returning at the conclusion to fight Amelia, M3gan feels like an afterthought for a movie more obsessed with stopping artificial intelligence than analyzing its pros in a deeper way. Horror fans may also be turned off that this series has become more science fiction focused than scary with no clear reasoning to justify that decision.
Being a big fan of M3gan, the character, it’s safe to say that the wise, twisted and funny robot is way underutilized this time around. Johnstone sets up plot details that don’t always satisfy and they seem like the most basic ingredients of a script rather than enough to maintain the film’s entertainment value for a lengthy two-hour duration. In fact, if not for a couple of interesting and inventive side story line details, M3gan 2.0 would have been a total disappointment. They may have killed the franchise for good by going this route of turning M3gan into a hero as Amelia doesn’t have the same wicked pizazz that M3gan possessed in the first picture.
Rating: 5/10
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