The original M3GAN released in 2022 and was generally regarded as an inoffensive and fun new horror film. Produced under Blumhouse, this was a 21st century revitalisation of films akin to Child’s Play, and the rest of the ‘Chucky’ franchise, and it did sufficiently critically but even better commercially. Only being made with around a $12 million budget, it grossed over $180 million, smashing expectations and raking in a lot of money for Universal and Blumhouse. The first film was fun because it did not take itself too seriously and worked well as a horror spoof firing on all cylinders. The kills were excellently done, it was darkly funny and, of course, you have this weird, freaky doll at the centre of it all that carries the whole thing, begging to cement herself as a cult horror icon. And this brings us to the trouble with the newly released sequel: M3GAN 2.0. This sequel was inevitable with the original’s success but most of the trouble with this one stems from how it is trying to ride the coattails of its predecessor. This film is all about M3GAN and whilst the stuff surrounding her is quite fun and inoffensive, anything surrounding her falls quite flat.

M3GAN 2.0 continues a couple years after the original film, still following young girl, Cady (Violet McGraw), and her tech savvy aunt, Gemma (Allison Williams). However in the opening scene, we immediately see just how far a deviation this film is from its predecessor. We see a sequence of an android named AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno) showing off her military prowess by completing an infiltration mission, viewed from afar via a demonstration at the Pentagon. However, AMELIA goes rogue and very quickly, the government realise she is going to be a big problem. Meanwhile, with the aftermath of M3GAN’s rampage still relaatively fresh, Gemma is trying to use it as a cautionary tale to push her campaign against the use of AI, warning of its many potential dangers. With how busy her aunt is, Cady feels estranged from Gemma. Even still, she is clearly inspired by her and is following in her aunt’s footsteps by studying computer science at school and even writing her own code. Due to Gemma’s platform and history though, the government comes for her help with AMELIA. Considering her danger though, it is clear that the only way to stop her is to fight fire with fire, and it just so happens that M3GAN (potrayed by Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis) has been hiding in the code of Gemma’s smart home. Claiming she has changed and has learnt from her past, M3GAN persuades Gemma to be rebuilt and help her in a mission to stop AMELIA.

If it was not immediately clear, M3GAN 2.0 is not concerned with matching the original film. With the first film being just a fun spoof horror film that made a decent box office profit, it seems Blumhouse have got a memo that everybody just loves the character of M3GAN and thinks she is an icon. Naturally, this has lead them to make this film essentially just an action-comedy with M3GAN at the centre. Now in fairness, the best part about this film is M3GAN herself and when it focuses on her being silly rather than showing all the human characters, it can work and be funny. There are perhaps a couple laugh-out-loud jokes and a good amount of silent chuckles to be had, even if it is laughing at the film. Considering its spoof nature though, that is almost definitely an intentional aspect. A scene with M3GAN doing her singing at a very inappropriate moment, that was framed as being an emotional scene, is hilarious and my screening erupted with laughter the most then. If they did not intend that scene to be funny, I severely worry for the writers. But with its spoofiness in mind, it simply had to be intentional, and therefore well executed by riffing off a scene from the original. Unfortunately it is just any attempt at comedy from the human characters that falls tremendously flat. Jenna Davis just manages to get that M3GAN voice just right and it somehow makes some ordinary lines actually funny. Nobody else has that talent for delivery that she does and it makes the comedy writing quite disjointed.

In terms of the film’s general writing, it is pretty poor. Even if it has some things to say about AI and how it should be regulated, it loves to smack you round the face with that notion. It could have said or inferred how dangerous AI could be a few times and it would have been fine. But when it is practically every scene, it does start to get rather grating. In an age where AI usage is being so worryingly normalised, it can definitely be appreciated that it wants to shout this message so loud. Too much of this makes this narrative come across as though it only has one thing to say. Of course, this is a dumb action-comedy; the likelihood of it actually having something impactful to say is quite slim. In which case, I suppose it is to be congratulated that it at least tried. Though it does not help that the rest of the narrative is so devoid of anything remotely interesting. There is the odd twist and turn but it certainly does not help that none of the characters are remotely interesting. Cady and Gemma are better written than the others but even they are not expanded on enough from what we have seen before. M3GAN does become more of an actual character though which does work. There is the whole throughline of her not having morality as a variable she has experienced and it’s about her navigating what that means. It is not explored much but it is definitely one of the more interesting character aspects and its funny that her character has more emotional conflict than the humans.

Nobody is going into this expecting anything particularly magnificent, but is it at least entertaining. Well that all depends on what you want from it. If you want a grounded spoof horror experience, building on ideas present in the original, run for the hills because this is not for you. If, however, you want some decent enough slapstic action, a very over the top plot that does not take itself too seriously and a funny robot that kicks arse and swears, you may have a good time. It is not as good as its predecessor, nor is it even slightly as intelligent. But sometimes, it can be fun to just watch a silly film to laugh at or along with. M3GAN 2.0 is that film and while I cannot quite say I liked it, a complete sequel flip like this could have landed a lot worse.