Kritiken

Directed again by Gerard Johnstone, who showed his skills with unconventional horror as far back as Housebound (2014), M3gan 2.0 is a satisfying, lively sequel.

“M3GAN 2.0” doesn’t seem to set out to do much more than show off and get laughs, and it accomplishes it well enough. The film is bigger, but not better, delivering precisely what fans of the sassy android will come to the theatres to see.

M3GAN 2.0 proves to be an inferior upgrade, like when you get a software update and it makes all the functions you love work worse and keeps pushing new, horrible widgets on you. Johnstone, who took over script duties from Akela Cooper, seems unsure whether he’s trying to make a goofy action flick, a Silicon Valley satire, or a serious point about the ubiquity, threats, and potential of AI.

It’s a movie that coasts on audience expectation and goodwill but never kicks the wickedness up a notch, making the weak-tea ending even more of a disappointment.

It doesn’t always work – a two-hour runtime that’s a little too long, world-saving stakes that are a little too big, funny lines that are a little too not funny – but it’s a mostly watchable second-tier event movie that, in a world of inconsequential sequels that fail to justify their existence, will do.

M3GAN 2.0 is more absurd, self-aware silliness: a riot of timely tech paranoia, with almost no horror but a ton of successful comedy.

The unpredictable left turn for the M3GAN universe becomes a complicated balancing act, which leads to disappointment when the balls being juggled cascade into a bloody puddle.

Johnstone’s repeated attempts to find the soul of “M3GAN 2.0” are better than releasing a film you know is shallow. Die-hard fans will discover enough pleasing weirdness — particularly in its pandering conclusion, inconsistent special effects, and the way Williams says “melatonin” — to make the entire affair seem worthwhile.

Like the first movie, it’s not especially scary, but the lack of shocks never detracts from the fun, as the sarky, super-smart doll slowly reclaims the stage. It works best as a comedy, with one Kate Bush musical moment a major highlight.

Ultimately, it plays as if ChatGPT were asked to write a surefire, mass-market summer hit: by-the-book, enjoyable and instantly forgettable.

Unlike the first film, this doesn't feel like a movie for the girls, gays, and theys who cheered M3GAN since she first sashayed down that hallway. This sequel feels like the filmmakers were trying to make a movie for everyone who didn't get their villain's appeal the first time around.