My Review of M3GAN 2.0 (2025)

 

Written by Gerard Johnstone And Akela Cooper

Directed by Gerald Johnstone 

Cady (re M3GAN): "Everyone deserves a second chance."

Two and a half years ago, homicidal android M3GAN (Amie Donald/Jenna Davis) became an overnight sensation. Surely, the sequel was going to propel her to even greater heights. As it would turn out, the opposite would be true.

Going down a route not dissimilar to Terminator, this sequel also had a lot to say about the rise in AI but none of it particularly original so to speak. Oh and there's another killer android, this one named AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno). She's also one of the drawbacks of this sequel.

Let's just say the government had access to M3GAN's schematics and thought they could replicate the idea and keep it under control. That illusion quickly got shattered when AMELIA went off script pretty fast and soon, a lot of people had a target on their backs.

One of them was assumed to be Gemma (Allison Williams), the creator of M3GAN. Since the first movie, she's faced consequences for her creation's killing spree, become something of an advocate/celebrity while also still struggling to connect with her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw). Cady's also taken up self defence and has become increasingly intolerant of Gemma's evasiveness concerning important issues.

AMELIA's arrival however did force Gemma into reluctantly teaming up with M3GAN in order to stop AMELIA and it's a diverting enough journey. Between Gemma and Cady learning to lean on each to Gemma's co-workers, Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) and Tess (Jen Van Eps) getting suckered into the thick of things, who would've thought the villain would be more on the anti AI side of things? You heard correctly.

With M3GAN being a chaotic source for good this time with a fairly decent character arc and AMELIA being more of a useful idiot, it's really anti AI cyber security guy, Christian Bradley (Aristotle Athari) to assume the big bad role. Sadly he's a very flat and unengaging to watch as a character that even his comeuppance wasn't that satisfying to watch.

- There's a decent supporting role from Jemaine Clement as tech billionaire, Alton Appleton. M3GAN got temporarily placed in the body of small robot, Moxie (Fryda Wolff).

- The end credits did say "This work may not be trained to use AI".

- Standout music: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard's Mars for The Rich.

- Chronology: Two years have passed since the events of the first movie.

M3GAN 2.0 on paper seemed like it had the right idea to land a successful sequel and the ideas are good on paper. The execution's largely flat as are the villains of the piece. M3GAN kind of worked as an anti hero and this movie did set up another sequel that's not likely to materialise anytime soon.

Rating: 6 out of 10