M3GAN 2.0 (2025) is directed by Gerard Johnstone, who wrote the screenplay alongside Akela Cooper. It stars Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Jenna Davis, Amie Donald, Ivanna Sakhno, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Aristotle Athari, Jemaine Clement, Timm Sharp, James Gaylyn, and Jacque Drew. 2 years after the events of M3GAN (2022), Gemma (Williams) and Cady (McGraw) are living their best lives until Amelia (Sakhno), a deadly AI created using M3GAN’s original designs, emerges as a potent threat to US national security. This forces them to reluctantly strike a deal with M3GAN, freeing her consciousness from cyberspace, providing her with a new & improved body, and sending her to fight fire with fire. With their backs against the wall, Gemma and M3GAN are forced to find common ground before it’s too late. 

The performances from the returning cast members are consistent with the ones they delivered in the first installment. McGraw is good in that film, but her character is a tad silly. Thankfully, Cady is a much more intelligent and reasonable presence this time around. Her characterization is developed beyond “traumatized child,” finally allowing her to present aspects of her personality that are non-M3GAN related. For example, she’s a huge Steven Seagal fan. He’s a pretty bad role model for a 10-year-old girl, but it’s a detail that fits the film’s goofy sense of humor perfectly. 

Gemma’s arc this time around nicely parallels the journey she experienced in the first film. Whereas she previously learned the dangers of over relying on technology, she’s now forced to face the consequences of shunning it altogether. This theme is often painfully on-the-nose, but ultimately works because the script spends the proper time earning trust between Gemma and M3GAN. No matter how silly these films often are, having these two resolve their differences too quickly would’ve felt lazy. This provides some necessary tension throughout the film, something it desperately needs considering its muted, almost non-existent horror elements. 

M3GAN is still a fun and witty character, but loses a bit of edge due to the film’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) approach. This feels like a natural choice when considering the film’s clear parallels to that franchise, but it eliminates scares—a key ingredient in the first movie’s success. This would be fine if it worked to improve the action, but it doesn’t; it just allows for more of it, no matter how mediocre it may be. I often felt like I was just watching a mid-tier Marvel film. Other than the plot, originality was the one thing the first film had going for it, which makes this sequel’s lack of X-factor infinitely more frustrating. This is all made worse by the fact that M3GAN, the one character most audiences are paying to see, doesn’t appear in physical form until halfway through the film. 

Since M3GAN isn’t interested in killing this time around, the murdering robot escapades are executed by Amelia. This character is essentially the antithesis of M3GAN, which is an issue considering that M3GAN is designed to be as entertaining as possible. This makes Amelia completely generic, at best displaying some of the cold qualities of Robert Patrick’s Terminator character from Judgement Day. The difference is that Robert Patrick sells the threat of his character through horrifying violence, something Amelia is never fully able to achieve because of the film’s conservative PG-13 rating. 

Even though this is a big step back from the quality of the first film, I appreciate that it at least attempts to do something different. It rarely relies on the things that worked previously, and when it does, reframes them in ways that are self-aware and satisfying. For example, the script puts a fun twist on M3GAN’s tendency to break out into song when people are feeling sad. Let’s put it this way: it doesn’t work on full-grown adults as well as it does on 8-year-old girls.

Overall, this is a serviceable but forgettable sequel that attempts to take the franchise in an unexpected direction, but only works to strip away the elements that made its predecessor such a hit. Why go in a wildly different tonal direction when the one you’ve already established is far more unique? It’s also at least 30 minutes too long, spending far too much time on characters and subplots the audience couldn’t care less about. This is because, above all else, the film takes itself far too seriously. It’s as if the writers have forgotten that we don’t want to take M3GAN seriously; we want her to be fun and funny above all else. If she can’t deliver on that level first and foremost, everything else feels like a time-consuming distraction. C