57% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 204 reviews)
Runtime: A full two hours
Directed by: Gerald Johnstone
Starring: The returning cast members, plus the likes of Ivanna Sakhno, Aristotle Athari & Jermaine Clement
From: Universal/Blumhouse/Atomic Monster
If they HAD to make a sequel, at least it wasn't a rehash of the original. That is my opinion of M3GAN 2.0. The OG M3GAN was silly yet rather entertaining in its tale of an AI doll gone wrong as a tech aunt just doesn't know how to raise her little niece. Social media (in particular TikTok) loved the title character, her wacky dancing, and her sarcastic dialogue. Theatrical audiences don't feel the same now; it is 2 1/2 years later & releasing in the summer rather that in the doldrums of January like the original also played a factor.
While watching the film, how ludicrous the plot was: obvious. Further scrutiny would beyond question make the story look even worse. Be that as it may, this tale of M3GAN tech's usage in the creation of a military weapon known as AMELIA which of course goes awry which of course requires an upgraded M3GAN to combat the threat... Terminator 2: Judgment Day was an obvious inspiration; more surprising to me was the references to a certain disgraced action star of the past along with other nostalgia points from my childhood.
The bold idea to make 2.0 a sci-fi action-thriller w/ few horror elements and some comedy when horror-comedy-science fiction was the first's genres: if not always successful, the decision to not make a Xerox (or Xenox in this film's universe) copy but instead change genres and create a big plot w/ end-of-the-world stakes was at least an inspired one. It was even low-budget, at least by modern standards. The action & the modern way it was filmed: not spectacular yet not terrible either. The cast was fine although Jermaine Clement as the billionaire tech bro was the funniest character.
Not a surprise that the reception to this film was as mixed as the first, despite the bountiful amount of differences between the two. As much of a dumb modern movie as M3GAN 2.0 is, somehow I was able to laugh along with it and 2.0 was enjoyable poppycock.
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