The internet’s favourite viral killer doll is pitted against her own kind in a goofy, fun sequel. Here’s our M3GAN 2.0 review.
2023 got off to an explosive start with director Gerard Johnstone’s M3GAN, a horror-thriller about a killer doll that will stop at nothing to protect its inventor’s niece, even if it means killing a lot of people. The film explored familiar themes but did so with a spark, winking at the audience every now and then.
In his Film Stories review, Brendon Connelly awarded M3GAN five stars, praising its “sheer polish, momentum and lopsided dark humour.” M3GAN 2.0 has a lot of work to do in order to meet our sky-high expectations and wariness around sequels.
And still, somehow, M3GAN 2.0 is kind of excellent on the first watch. Gerard Johnstone returns to direct and seems to understand lightning can’t strike twice. Smartly, he leans more into the sci-fi element rather than straight-up horror and tells his story with even more humour and wit than the first film.
As expected, Alison Williams and Violet McGraw return as Gemma and Cady. Gemma, who still blames herself for M3GAN’s killing spree, is now preaching for more regulation when it comes to AI and it’s easy to agree with her. Gemma preaches the similarities between giving your child cocaine and a smartphone – yes, you read that right – and limits Cady’s screen time, much to the youngster’s annoyance.
But this is a M3GAN film, so M3GAN we shall have. Gemma’s creation is still alive, albeit without a body, but it comes in pretty handy when a new robot named AMELIA threatens to take over pretty much the entire world. There’s nothing particularly new or exciting to the plot of M3GAN 2.0, but it is a rollicking good time, at least.
Arguably, AMELIA, played by Ivanna Sakhno, is the film’s biggest star. AMELIA is more advanced every way and looks less like a doll in order to be used in covert missions and infiltrating enemy bases. Still, Sakhno finds multiple ways of making AMELIA feel and look uncanny. Perhaps the most terrifying thing about M3GAN 2.0 is that I wouldn’t even be surprised if something like this was being planned or executed behind closed doors.
That’s about as far as the film’s horror effect goes. M3GAN 2.0 is still listed as a horror film on most websites, but anyone going in expecting scares or excessive bloodletting will be sorely disappointed. Although the laughs are amped up, almost everything else is toned down and Johnstone is just hoping you won’t notice because you’re entertained enough to not think about the details.
Films like these rarely offer much character development, but when you’re having this much fun, you don’t really miss it. Sure, most of the characters are paper thin, but this writer never had time to think about that because I was too busy laughing at the jokes that landed well and the action sequences that made the most out of having two robots fight each other.
It’s only after you walk out of the cinema that you realise just how empty M3GAN 2.0 is. It feels clinically and commercially designed to become another viral sensation. Lines like “Hold on to your vaginas” and the titular doll referring to her human companions as meatsacks feels like they were created by a marketing team based on social media reactions.
There’s not a whole lot of substance to M3GAN 2.0 and it often rushes through the most interesting scenes that almost get you thinking about something in the real world. But the more I think about that, maybe that’s the film’s biggest strength, in a clever disguise. Even with all of its flaws, M3GAN 2.0 is the perfect antidote to the depressing state of the world right now, and offers us the opportunity to escape reality into the magical world of cinema and disappear into this goofy silliness of a movie.
M3GAN 2.0 is in UK cinemas 27th June
