M3GAN 2.0

In all fairness, sequels are hard. Rarely do filmmakers ever re-capture that lighting in a bottle that made their first film so successful. Everyone knows the exceptions, The Godfather Part II, T2: Judgement Day are often cited. When it comes to horror however, the majority of the time the sequel pretty much just does what the first one did, but with a higher kill count. Also with horror, and specifically with a film like M3GAN which cost 12 million to make and earned over 180 million worldwide, you know it was only a matter of time before we got the upgrade, so does M3GAN 2.0 level up? Well…

It’s been two years since Cady’s (Violet McGraw) aunt Gemma (Allison Williams) created M3GAN (Jenna Davis [voice] Amie Donald [stunts]) to be her child companion who was programmed to take such good care of Cady she killed anyone who caused her any kind of harm. Several dead bodies later Cady and Gemma destroyed M3GAN. Or so they thought. Someone has used Gemma’s original plans for M3GAN and created AMELIA (Autonomous Military Engagement Logisti-blah-blah-blah) in order to engage in black ops without risking a soldier’s life. But when AMELIA goes rouge and may be attempting to destroy the world it’s up to Cady, Gemma, her team and M3GAN 2.0 to stop her.

I would say that filmmakers Gerard Johnstone and Akela Cooper certainly shifted gears for M3GAN 2.0. There are some horrific kills, but this isn’t a horror movie. There is some John Wick style action, but it’s not an action movie. There is some relevant sci-fi ideas, but this isn’t a sci-fi movie. What kind of movie is it? I don’t think the filmmakers had any idea either. So they just decided to blend it all together and hoped for something that tastes good. The result was the mess your kid makes when they try to do the same thing.

The other sequel sin this film commits is there are too many villains. We got the tech-bro billionaire (played by the hilarious Jemaine Clement who was one of the few who understood the assignment), the obsessed FBI guy, M3GAN herself, oh and the other killer robot. But the film never settles on just one, also semi-spoilers, there is another villain reveal by the end. We shouldn’t be in Batman & Robin territory on the first sequel. It appears it was meant to keep the audience on their toes, but it came off as annoying and a failure to commit to one thing.

Speaking of commitment, Johnstone and co. also broke one of the cardinal rule of sequels, you need more of what you got the first time around, we came for more M3GAN, we want more M3GAN. We don’t get her for 20 minutes and even then its just a flashback to the first film. When we finally do get the full active body of M3GAN, we’re at about the halfway mark. That’s just bad storytelling. There seemed to be so many abandoned ideas that they cut out but left other pieces in that made it all very inconsistent. Again semi-spoilers (but not really because they gave up on it) there is moment where characters are in a bunker because there is about to be a wold ending apocalypse, but when their mission takes them to the surface, when they get, there everything is normal.

So this new M3GAN film just does not live up to the potential of the first, as the filmmakers could not decide where to lean. The seriousness about the effects of AI, campiness disguised as sci-fi humor, killer robot battles. It’s all here and it all goes nowhere. Will it stop them from getting to M3GAN 3.0? Who knows, I will say, the Freddy Kruger movies had a less than sequel that got better by part three. And lest we forget Friday the 13th and JAWS 3-D?