Two years on from M3gan’s violent rampage her creator Gemma (Alison Williams) is now an advocate against Artificial Intelligence and for placing limits on children’s time with tech. But when a new military robot named Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno) goes rogue with the goal of hunting down and killing everyone involved in her creation, Gemma may just need to turn back to M3gan for help. 

After the breakout success of 2022’s M3gan production company Blumhouse has fast tracked a sequel with the entire creative team from the original. Director Gerard Johnstone returns as both writer and director this time and is joined by the entire surviving cast of main characters. The horror element of the first film has mostly been dropped in favour of the weird humour and outlandish plot lines from the original but as with the original it never quite lets itself go as much as it should, getting hung up on a plot that does not need that heavy an explanation. 

The film opens with AMELIA – Autonomous Military Engagement Logistics and Infiltration Android – going rogue before cutting to an hilarious scene of Cady (Violet McGraw) catching us up on the events of the two years since the first film via a therapy session. It’s a promising start. 

But then the film seems to dip in and out of wanting to make a serious point in amongst the crazy humour. As with the last film it has a message it wants to make. This time it is about not fighting a technological future but to prepare for it in an appropriate way so that it doesn’t take over or ruin our lives. And there is also a through line about Gemma learning to be a parent and preparing her child for the future – in this case this applies to both Cady and M3gan. 

But as with the original it works best when it is just going a little bit weird and crazy. Jemaine Clement has a superb supporting role as a tech billionaire who just wants to dance. Cady has a bizarre obsession with aikido expert Steven Seagal that fuels a genius bit of humour late on in the film. There is a superb fight sequence reminiscent of Malignant or Upgrade. The ‘Night Rider’ theme plays when M3gan steals a car and utters the immortal line, “hold onto your vaginas”. Which brings me to just say that the more of M3gan’s snarky put downs that are in the film the better. Plus she gets to sing again! 

M3gan 2.0 is as much fun as the original. I just still think it can let its hair down even more, so let’s hope she gets another upgrade soon.