I’m taking some time off from work for the next couple weeks before my actual vacation, so I’m using the time to catch up on stuff I’ve missed for one reason or another for the past few weeks. First up: M3GAN 2.0, the sequel to 2022’s M3GAN. Why that one? I like to spend my afternoons in the summer reading on my balcony, and it had the earliest start time while still be shorter than F1. Heck, I probably was looking forward to this one the least.
With that in mind, how was it?
It’s been a couple years since the events of the first movie, and inventor and roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams) has since gone to work with potential love interest Christian Bradley (Aristotle Athari) where both advocate against artificial intelligence. Gemma’s niece/adopted daughter Cady (Violet McGraw) wants to work with programming and the like, but Gemma keeps blocking that. There are just two problems: first, that Gemma is unaware that M3GAN uploaded herself to Gemma’s smart home systems, and that another, even more lifelike robot AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno) went rogue while on an espionage mission and seems to be wiping out anyone who had anything to do with her creation. That includes Gemma.
While initially doing everything she can to keep Cady in the dark about everything, the only real solution to the AMELIA problem is to bring M3GAN back to fight the other robot. That or hide as AMELIA may be bringing down all of human civilization, and while M3GAN can be sarcastic, cutting, and rather unpleasant, the one thing that she will do beyond all doubt will be to protect Cady. The only real question is whether or not M3GAN is capable of personal growth or if she even cares to protect anyone other than Cady. Because, when push com es to shove, you may need one killer robot to defeat another.
I liked the first M3GAN in part due to a more satirical/comedic tone, at least for the first two acts. Yes, moviegoers loved it when she danced or sang pop songs, and she does that again here, but this one just doesn’t seem to have the same tone here. There are attempts at humor, but I don’t think they work as well this time around. The script feels more cliched, and the basic idea here is that this time, M3GAN is fighting to save the world and Cady. Why? Not why would M3GAN do that: why did someone think that this was the way to go? Making the robotic villain more heroic comes from Terminator 2, and there were moments that might also have come from Aliens and Metropolis. Despite being a new direction for this particular franchise, I couldn’t help but think I had seen this all before.
In fact, there wasn’t much here I liked. There were a couple moments when someone would get hit by a weapon, but I wasn’t sure who was hit right away due to either poor editing or poor direction. I’m not sure which. The villains are dull. M3GAN’s uncanny valley appearance seems somehow less impressive. I think Sakhno plays a good robot at least for the first two acts, and Jemaine Clement in a small role does his best with so-so material, but there’s not much here worth recommending. I probably should have just gone to see F1 after all.
Grade: C-
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