By ROBERT DANVERS
Starring Allison Williams, Violet McGraw and Amie Donald & Jenna Davis
Written and directed by Gerard Johnstone
Blumhouse/Atomic Monster/Universal
It’s two years later (actually over 28 months later…not to be confused with a rival series of films) as M3GAN 2.0 begins, and if it’s true that “everybody deserves a second chance,” per the toughened and feistier Cady (Violet McGraw, reprising her M3GAN role), should such clemency be applied to this girl’s gone-rogue android protector? After all, the titular robot did run amok and kill “four people and a dog” before she was put down by her creator, Katie’s human protector Gemma Forrester (the excellent Allison Williams, also encoring and now a full producer on the new movie after executive-producing the first).
Aunt Gemma has in the intervening time been advocating against hi-tech creations and abuses of AI power. Eyed (in more ways than one) by billionaire technocrat Alton Appleton (Jemaine Clement, exuding a Musk-y scent), Gemma still has her hands full raising orphaned Cady while working on preventive research with loyal colleagues Cole and Tess (fellow returnees Brian Jordan Alvarez and Jen Van Epps). But, as hinted at in the original film, purloined tech specs on robot M3GAN were going to find their way into the wrong hands–and sure enough, a more dangerous and technologically advanced robot named AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno of PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING) is now on the loose, killing those involved in her creation and self-propelling so as to amass untold power. How else can she be stopped but with the make-a-deal-with-the-devil resurrection of M3GAN?
“Gosh, that’s a lot to unpack,” murmurs M3GAN herself. Indeed it is; encoring director Gerard Johnstone has screenplay credit this time, working from a story credited to him and original co-scripter Akela Cooper. And there’s so much plot, and so many new–and, aside from Sakhno’s antagonist, uninteresting–characters that M3GAN 2.0 bloats to @120 minutes while managing to sideline Cady and/or M3GAN for too much of the time. The titular doll-like android is again brought to weirdly compelling life by Amie Donald (doing the physical performing) and Jenna Davis (speaking the lines); the latter puts in extra effort, since M3GAN’s full-body manifestation is put off for a while.
If M3GAN joining forces with wary humans against a more lethal robot threat puts you in mind of TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY, that’s to be expected and presumably intended; the end result, however, skews closer to a lesser TERMINATOR sequel (insert your choice here). It’s AMELIA who gets the most disturbing moments, early on, yet even these aren’t as unsettling as the steady thrum of anxiety cultivated by the first film’s relatively contained settings and smaller cast of players. This time out, with more “at stake” amidst yakking exposition, the returns are diminishing. Instead of the core suspense related to what M3GAN will or won’t do and when, we’re subjected to TED Talks. There are also multiple references or homages to movies both classic and less so, and beloved television series…none of which flatter this picture.
Even when M3GAN herself resumes clobberin’-time action, it’s rote dispensing of red-shirts, rotely staged. Sakhno’s skill at conveying steely aplomb primes us for the intended escalating showdowns between the two AIs, yet these too wind up falling short. It’s a measure of how little impact M3GAN 2.0 has with its infrequent kills and mayhem that when, late in the movie, one human character twists another’s arm into a broken-floppy mess, the vomit-reaction from an onlooker seems tacked on.
Part of the fun of the original movie was how it accessed campiness and sass; a SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE parody short (starring Chloe Fineman as M3GAN) that went viral during the film’s run only furthered these appreciated qualities, and the lip-smacking marketing campaign and trailers for M3GAN 2.0 have leaned even more heavily into same. But at least one scene from the latter advancing that delicious strain is not in the finished movie, and what remains has to compete for attention with the droning tech discussions. The welcome exception is a show-stopping scene between Williams and M3GAN’s tag-team performers. It’s the one place where the M3GAN 2.0 filmmaking team truly fulfill their prime directive for the actors, the characters and the audience.
