Film Review: M3GAN 2.0
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There’s a lot of freedom that comes with making a sequel to a successful film. Budgets are higher, confidence is up, actors are familiar with their roles, and the creatives behind the project can stretch their wings a bit more. However, there are downsides to this and unfortunately for audiences, M3GAN 2.0 trades in the simple pleasures of its predecessor for big swings that never quite cohere.
M3GAN 2.0 takes place two years after the previous film. After a military robot named AMELIA goes rogue, Gemma now an author and a AI regulation advocate is forced to turn to MEGAN for help, despite vowing to everyone that she had been destroyed. Convinced by her niece and team of coworkers to rebuild the robot, everyone teams together to try and stop AMELIA from accessing something that will all but ensure an AI takeover.
As I mentioned above, this movie aims to be bigger and bolder than the original movie, but it is immediately evident during the (too long) 2 hour run time that there’s no real interesting ideas here. While Akela Cooper was involved with the story of the script, there definitely is something missing from the film without having her at the helm of the whole script. There’s a demented heart that’s sorely missing from this movie that make the sillier moments stand alongside the more standard dramatic beats.
Take for instance the moment the government decides to show up at Gemma’s house to question her. Rather than go through proper channels, they send in Black Ops shoulders, who are trounced by the still alive Megan as she takes over household objects, before the real government agents walk in. This sequence is clearly designed to show the effectiveness of Megan despite being disembodied but is wholly nonsensical given who the adversary is. This and many more moments lead to the conclusion that the movie would rather have the appearance of being cool or campy rather than investing the work to be that. Director/writer Gerard Johnstone’s direction here is serviceable, however on the heels of the original which had a lot of intriguing moments, the larger landscape gave way to flatter direction.
There are certainly some laughs to be had from this film, but they are so many long stretches of this movie where it just feels like we’re being moved from point A to point B. We spend so much time setting up the villain and setting up Megan and setting up the plot and setting up the twist and…you get the picture. If you see this film, make sure to treasure the brief moments of genuine fun being had by Alison Williams, Brian Jordan Alvarez, or Jermaine Clement cause you’ll need to hold onto them to slog through the rest. Especially because right when the movie gets to its most interesting interrogation of AI, the film zigs when you want it to zag and ultimately builds to an ending that backtracks on anything worthwhile.
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