It’s virtually impossible to catch viral-sensation lightning in a bottle twice. M3GAN 2.0 doesn’t even come close.
Gerard Johnston’s sequel, in theaters June 27, rehashes the lukewarm sassiness and dancing-routine campiness that made its 2022 ancestor a surprise pop-culture phenomenon. Yet switching genres in a futile effort to justify the series’ continued existence, this misbegotten creation is a leaden and aimless bit of cinematic malware—not to mention the most convoluted 2025 theatrical release to date.
In the aftermath of child-companion robot M3GAN (Amie Donald, with Jenna Davis as her voice) trying to kill its creator Gemma (Allison Williams) in a deranged attempt to protect Gemma’s niece Cady (Violet McGraw), the world has awakened to the dangers of A.I.
At the forefront of the push to warn humanity about technology’s lethal downsides is Gemma, who’s turned her company—comprised of herself and superfluous colleagues Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) and Tess (Jen Van Epps)—into a force for good. In that endeavor, she’s partnered with her activist boyfriend Christian (Aristotle Athari), as well as written a book whose corny schoolmarmish title (Modern Moderation) is in keeping with her new do-gooder approach to using machines to help mankind.
Alas, not everyone has the same opinion about the hazards of M3GAN tech. That is evidenced by an introductory sequence in which a Defense Innovation Unit agent (Timm Sharp) oversees an exercise taking place near the Turkish-Iranian border that’s carried out by AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno), a ‘bot whose designs are based on M3GAN’s blueprints, and who disobeys orders by slaying the target she was meant to rescue, stealing poisonous toxins, and vanishing without a trace.
Sharp’s government stooge promptly visits Gemma, whose house he breaks into in the dead of night just so he can serve her a warrant to tap her computer. This makes no sense, nor, initially, does the fact that—as more than one person remarks—Gemma can afford a luxurious home on her modest salary. The latter, though, turns out to be the handiwork of M3GAN, who isn’t dead; rather, her consciousness continues to exist in Gemma’s various smart-home gadgets.
M3GAN is still waxy-faced and wanly saucy, her every comment and look about as animated as a Mac’s spinning wheel of death. As Gemma learns that the evil automaton is a digital ghost, she’s forced to deal with a paraplegic tech billionaire (Jemaine Clement) who believes his neural implants are going to transform society—and to bolster his claim, he demonstrates how they’ve restored his ability to walk.
These two issues collide when Gemma agrees to stick M3GAN’s mind in a harmless toy and Clement’s cocky mogul is targeted by AMELIA. This instigates the first of M3GAN 2.0’s Mission: Impossible-style set pieces, this one taking place at a gala bash where the villainous AMELIA seduces and murders on her way to seizing control of cloud servers that will allow her to trigger a global shutdown.
These spy shenanigans culminate with M3GAN commandeering a sports car to the sounds of the Knight Rider theme song and telling passengers to “hold onto your vaginas” as she hits the gas—pitiful jokes that typify the material’s strained sense of humor.
Afterwards, M3GAN reveals to Gemma and Cady that she’s been operating beneath their home in a subterranean lair full of tunnels, workshops, and a hand-painted portrait of herself and Cady.
Everyone is shocked but agrees, ludicrously, that the only way to stop AMELIA is to build M3GAN a new body so she can fight the rogue android, albeit not before Johnstone’s script indulges in superficial blather about M3GAN’s culpability for her prior homicides (hey, it was just her programming!) and her capacity to feel actual emotions.
There’s also plenty of preposterous bonding between M3GAN and Cady and tedious bickering between Gemma and her mecha-offspring, whom she outfits with a chip that prevents her from killing, which is no problem since M3GAN can mimic Cady’s martial arts moves (inspired by, cue eye rolls, Steven Seagal).
M3GAN 2.0 is a rambling affair that lurches wildly in so many different directions that it feels like the film is searching, in real time, for a point. It fails to find one, but it does discover a variety of ways to bore, most having to do with M3GAN engaging in action heroics shot with rotating camerawork and marked by ho-hum PG-13 violence.
Johnstone eschews any trace of horror in favor of tame espionage hijinks and beat-‘em-up mayhem. Yet the proceedings’ lack of seriousness stymies any actual thrills. At least the original knew it was a tongue-in-cheek scary movie in a Child’s Play vein; this follow-up appears clueless as to what it wants to accomplish, much less how to do so without tying itself up in irrelevant complications.
M3GAN 2.0’s decision to reimagine M3GAN as a quasi-hero pitted against a more wicked robot is just the latest example of a hackneyed narrative switcharoo (most recently seen in Don’t Breathe 2) that dulls the series’ sole hook.
Johnstone makes sure to have his main character show off her boogieing skills, and he gives Williams greater opportunities to kick butt during a chaotic combat-heavy finale. However, he can’t wrestle his all-over-the-place story into a coherent whole, and worse, he doesn’t even proffer a lucid perspective on artificial intelligence, which is depicted as both a grave threat that must be thwarted at any cost, and a positive force with the capacity to recognize, and do, the “right thing.”
No one’s looking for a nuanced A.I. treatise from M3GAN 2.0, but Johnstone’s tale is muddled beyond repair—a disastrous problem given that it routinely expounds upon the subject. There’s no doubt about the identity of the film’s genuine baddie, just as there’s zero chance that Gemma and Cady won’t realize that their former inhuman adversary is a reliable ally—if not, groan, part of the family.
By the conclusion of this clumsy and disjointed venture, the real question is why Johnstone thought the best tack to take with his contemporary horror icon was to strip her (and her saga) of the very sinister attitude and atmosphere that defined her debut. Whatever the answer, his sequel is the sort of janky, ill-conceived update that fatally bricks the franchise.
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