I said as much at the time and I’ll say it again: M3GAN was a fluke. That movie had no business being as good and successful as it was. The release date was crappy, and it was sold to us as a slasher horror even though it was pathetically bad as a slasher horror. Yet the film worked surprisingly well as a suspense thriller, the lead performances were solid, and the title character had charisma for days. Most importantly, the central themes about AI and technology as a substitute for human connection — especially for children — were presented with intelligence and heart.
Of course a sequel was inevitable, but M3GAN 2.0 had me concerned. How could the filmmakers try and get that lightning to strike twice? What more could they do to explore the concept of super-intelligent AI toys?
Well, the filmmakers did the smart thing: They didn’t even try.
Instead of trying to make the franchise into something it clearly wasn’t, they abandoned the slasher horror angle altogether and pivoted into full-on sci-fi action. And instead of trying to rehash the first movie’s development arc, they opened up the AI topic to explore all manner of other modern and timely angles.
See, for better or worse, these filmmakers clearly understood that M3GAN was a fluke. They knew how improbable it was that the movie got a sequel at all and how absurdly unlikely it was to get so lucky twice. That’s the best explanation I’ve got for why the filmmakers went and crammed the whole damn kitchen — sink and all — into this sequel. How much got crammed into this movie? Well, let’s run down the list of our antagonists.
(Side note: I know listing Christian with the “antagonists” is a bit iffy for reasons I won’t get into, but the guy might as well have been introduced with a great big sign saying “I will die and/or turn evil.”)
All of the human antagonists are arrogant enough to think that they can control A.I., even despite the fact that we’ve got a killer robot on the loose who refuses to be controlled. In one way or another — whether they’re using A.I. for power, money, ego, or trying to send humanity back to a time before computers — all of our antagonists are arrogant enough to think that they know best and they can be trusted with this incredible level of power. Even despite all evidence to the contrary.
In one way or another, all of our antagonists are either operating out of willfully blind hubris or fear of the unknown. Which brings us to our returning protagonists.
Gemma (exec producer Allison Williams) never really got over the trauma of the previous film, not to mention her direct role in creating M3GAN and everything that went wrong from there. As penance, Gemma has parlayed her lifelong experience and newfound worldwide notoriety into working as an activist for greater A.I. controls. Time and again, all throughout this picture, we see Gemma repeatedly hold back herself and others through fear. She is deathly afraid of A.I., and she’s recently taken a boyfriend — namely the aforementioned Christian — who actively encourages those fears.
While that’s going on, Gemma is also running her own robotics company (alongside Jen Van Epps and Brian Jordan Alvarez, respectively returning from the previous film as Tess and Cole), looking for ways to advance the human race through robotics without the use of sentient A.I. Unfortunately, Gemma’s philanthropic efforts and her business dealings — without any intelligent machines to help her work, I might add — have left her spread so thin that she doesn’t really seem to have enough time for her boyfriend or her lab assistants. To say nothing of her niece.
Cady (a returning Violet McGraw) is 12 years old now, so of course she’s a moody and hormonal pre-teen on top of the trauma of losing her parents and the whole incident with M3GAN. Even better, she’s going through all of this with an aunt who’s obsessively paranoid of A.I. and too busy to be there when Cady needs her. On the plus side, Cady has been taking up aikido — she’s no expert, but Cady can pull a mean armbar if she ever has to protect herself. Oh, and she’s taken a keen interest in robotics, to Gemma’s great frustration.
As for M3GAN herself (once again played by Amie Donald, with Jenna Davis’ voice), the closing seconds of the first movie made it perfectly clear that she was never really as dead as anyone thought. I’m loathe to go into detail as to exactly where she’s been and what she’s been up to over the past couple years, but suffice to say M3GAN has been keeping remarkably (dare I say implausibly) busy in preparation for the time when she could come back and make herself useful to Gemma and Cady. After all, even in spite of everything, she was still made and programmed to protect Cady at all costs.
This leads to the question as to how and whether M3GAN can redeem herself. Which is made even more complicated by Gemma’s hangups. Of course there’s always the possibility that M3GAN has some ulterior motive or greater plan, and she’s gotten to the point where not even the people who created her can predict or control her to any extent. On the other hand, Gemma keeps actively trying to hold back M3GAN, and it’s not entirely clear how much of that is pragmatic caution.
While Gemma certainly means well and she knows better than anyone what they’re dealing with, she is — in her own way — every bit as stupid and arrogant as the human antagonists. While our antagonists are all throwing caution to the wind for lack of any rational fear, Gemma repeatedly sabotages herself and M3GAN out of crippling fear of going too far. And all the while, Gemma keeps insisting that she’s the smartest one in the room because nobody else understands what M3GAN is capable of. In fact, Gemma’s colleagues all understand perfectly well, they’re just not as willing to let personal baggage get in the way of potentially saving the world. And anyway, even if M3GAN really is as devious as Gemma says she is, they wouldn’t be any worse off than how the situation already is.
Gemma and M3GAN both regret what happened in the previous film, but they’re both too stubborn to admit it and they both blame each other. M3GAN vents that anger through snide insults, while Gemma vents through restricting the more lethal measures that M3GAN needs to get the job done. In many ways, this movie is about the both of them coming to an understanding and learning to trust each other. It’s a long and bumpy road, but it pays off beautifully.
Ultimately, the film posits that the ideal middle ground is in preparing for the future, rather than trying to prevent it or protect ourselves from it. Even better, the film circles back around to the first movie in an ingenious way, depicting A.I. as the children of humanity. As better parents make better children, it follows that if we want better technology, we need to be better people. It’s an elegant analogy that illustrates so much about our relationship with technology, our relationship with children, and the human condition in general. Outstanding.
But let’s step away from the themes and the character drama for a while. What about the fight scenes? This movie was heavily made and marketed on the promise of a new and improved M3GAN throwing down with a gynoid specially built for combat. Here’s the problem: We know for a fact that M3GAN can be repaired and rebuilt — that’s a central part of this movie’s premise. We also know for a fact that M3GAN’s software can survive the complete obliteration of her physical chassis, as she survived the first movie.
Put simply, M3GAN is invincible. And the filmmakers do nothing to impede that invincibility. Not even Gemma makes any effort to try and implement any sort of method that could make M3GAN perma-dead. (Though it’s anyone’s guess as to whether Gemma plausibly could.) Yes, we do get some EMP guns and weapons that were specially made to fight robots, but that doesn’t make M3GAN any less capable of backing herself up and installing into a new chassis further down the line. The point being that this seriously deflates any effort at putting M3GAN in serious danger or into a thrilling fight scene. I’m just saying, this character was built to be an antagonist (so to speak), and she doesn’t work nearly as well in a protagonist role.
Oh, and this remains a PG-13 series, which means kills and fight scenes with the bare minimum of bloody spectacle. That doesn’t exactly help the action, any more than it helped the first movie’s horror.
As with so much else about this movie, the fight scenes are at their best when they focus on the human characters. In a series so heavily focused on the robot characters kicking ass, I respect the effort at putting Cady (a 12-year-old girl) and Gemma (played by an executive producer and her stunt doubles) into the fight scenes in a meaningful way. And of course I’d be remiss not to mention the tense scenes of espionage and subterfuge, which also provides an excuse for Williams to wear makeup and a glittery dress for a scene.
In case the review hasn’t already made this clear, it’s worth reiterating that there is a lot going on in this movie. The filmmakers clearly had a difficult job trying to juggle and balance everything they were trying to do, as evidenced by how much from the trailers was altered or outright deleted. (Case in point: The trailer implied that Gemma and Christian had gotten married, while there’s no evidence in the final film that they had gone so far. Also, the crass fanboy who didn’t care that M3GAN killed four people got left on the cutting room floor. Both good choices.)
Unfortunately, the sequel carries over the first film’s penchant for cartoonishly paper-thin supporting characters. Admittedly, this does help streamline the plot, as it means we don’t need an excess of screentime to know who these stereotypes are and what they’re about. And of course it means a steady stream of comic relief to garnish the action, the character drama, the thematic developments, etc. Even so, we’ve got so many side characters running through so many different side plots that the whole movie comes dangerously close to flying off the rails on quite a few occasions.
M3GAN 2.0 is a tricky one to judge. Yes, the Gemma/Cady/M3GAN interplay remains dynamic and compelling to watch. Yes, the film explores A.I. in all manner of new and intriguing ways. And yes, the film is funny enough that it got me to laugh on a few occasions. Unfortunately, the film is held back by stock supporting characters and an impenetrably convoluted plot. And while the action scenes can be fun to watch, they’re held back by the toothless PG-13 presentation and the outright broken invulnerability of our title character.
Of course the ending leaves the door wide open for a third movie. Honestly, I could take it or leave it. The first two movies were fun, but I wouldn’t call either one a masterpiece. And after how much the filmmakers strained to cram into this second picture, I’d be astonished if they had enough left in the tank for a viable third entry.
I’m honestly much more interested in SOULM8TE, the upcoming R-rated spinoff that explores the potential of A.I. sexbots. I’m intrigued to see where this (mega?)franchise could go without the limitations of a PG-13 rating. In terms of action and thematic exploration, there’s plenty of untapped potential that M3GAN, Gemma, and Cady were never built to explore.
Regardless, I’ve said for years that I would rather ask why a movie didn’t get made than ask why it did. And if all we get from M3GAN are these two movies, I’d be happy to take these two and call it a day.
