Back in 2022, M3GAN surprised everyone — a horror movie about an AI-powered doll that went viral for its sinister dance moves and twisted lullabies. It was a sleeper hit with style, satire, and just enough horror to delight crowds. Fast forward to 2025, and the much-anticipated M3GAN 2.0 has arrived — shinier, bigger, and much more ambitious. But while the scale has increased, the soul has taken a slight detour.
Directed once again by Gerard Johnstone, who co-writes this time with Akela Cooper, M3GAN 2.0 tosses its horror roots for a Terminator-esque action-comedy hybrid. Think Mission: Impossible meets AI-for-Teens, sprinkled with a lot of meta-humor and viral bait. The switch-up is bold, but not always successful.
The Plot: From Dollhouse to Global Doom
The sequel kicks off somewhere along the Turkish-Iranian border — yes, you read that right — with the introduction of AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno), a militarized humanoid created using M3GAN’s tech. She’s powerful, deadly, and rogue. Back in the U.S., roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams, returning with earnestness) and her now-teen niece Cady (Violet McGraw) find themselves entangled in a plot involving corporate espionage, an AI blackout threat, and yes — the resurrection of M3GAN (voiced again with bite by Jenna Davis, physically portrayed by Amie Donald).
It’s an absurd setup, padded with convoluted subplots involving billionaire tech bros, FBI suspicion, and overwrought monologues about screen addiction and AI ethics. The result? A film with more ideas than it knows what to do with.
Smarts, Sass, and Sloppiness
The original film walked a smart tightrope between horror and humor. M3GAN 2.0, however, leans far into the absurd. It features everything from AI exoskeleton montages to dead-serious TED Talk parodies (“Would you give your child cocaine? Then why give them a smartphone?”). The tonal swerve is deliberate but jarring.
The film is clearly gunning for franchise longevity. Its world-building is elaborate, but its script often feels like a collage of genre homages — from Alita: Battle Angel to Happy Death Day 2U. There are flickers of clever commentary on AI ethics and digital dependency, but they rarely resonate amid the chaos.
M3GAN vs. Amelia: A Showdown Minus the Shock
The central showdown between M3GAN and AMELIA is where the film tries to recapture some edge. The action choreography is slick, if sanitized for a PG-13 rating. There’s more death, less blood, and a palpable lack of genuine fear. The horror is gone — replaced with irony and quips.
That’s not to say M3GAN 2.0 isn’t entertaining. M3GAN’s return is marked with meme-ready moments (yes, she dances and sings again — this time a haunting version of Kate Bush’s This Woman’s Work). There are flashes of brilliance in her zingers, and a standout gag involving Steven Seagal film titles earns real laughs. But most jokes feel inserted rather than organic.
Performances & Direction
Allison Williams delivers a committed performance, grounding the madness in some emotional reality. Violet McGraw evolves well into her angsty teen role. Ivanna Sakhno brings icy menace to Amelia, while Jemaine Clement provides comic relief as a clueless tech mogul. Yet, most characters are written with archetypal broadness.
Johnstone’s direction is competent, even flashy. It’s clear this film doubles as a sizzle reel for bigger opportunities — he knows how to stage action and tease spectacle. But gone is the tight ingenuity of his indie horror debut Housebound, replaced with studio slickness and franchise fatigue.
Verdict: Entertaining, But Lacking Bite
M3GAN 2.0 is watchable and occasionally fun. But in trying to be everything — a comedy, a sci-fi thriller, an action adventure, a meme machine — it ends up as a diluted version of its former self. The shift from horror to spectacle is bold, but ultimately robs the sequel of what made the original stand out: its fresh, self-aware tone and creeping menace.
There’s enough here to keep fans curious about M3GAN 3.0, but it’ll need more than a systems update — it needs a return to basics, with sharper satire, tighter stakes, and more… well, horror.
Despite its flaws, M3GAN 2.0 offers some entertaining highs — with noticeably slicker production values, inventive world-building, and Jenna Davis once again lending sharp charisma to the titular doll. A few scenes land with genuine humor, and the ambition to evolve the franchise into a larger sci-fi canvas is admirable. However, the film suffers from an overlong runtime, uneven tonal shifts, and a puzzling decision to abandon horror in favor of middling action and satire. The scares are gone, the suspense is muted, and the film feels more like a viral content generator than a cohesive narrative. Ultimately, M3GAN 2.0 is neither a total upgrade nor a crash — it’s a flashy, occasionally fun sequel caught in a feedback loop of its own ambition.
CINEMA SPICE RATING: ★★½ (2.5/5)
