A broken clock is right twice a day, but also to its most fun, “M3gan 2.0“Feels like it’s here too early and too late. Filmmaker Gerard Johnstone returns with a frustrating and dull follow-up to Blumhouse’s Smash-Hit horror movie about a murdererobot from 2023. The director is reunited Original “M3gan” Star stars Allison Williams and Violet McGraw for his Bizarro sequel – an exhausting Two hours Expansion that introduces several different versions of M3GAN (played by Amie Donald, expressed by Jenna Davis) and a strange new Frenemy known as Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno). Johnstone directs the murderous Android to a muddy redemption arch just as he forces the franchise to suddenly change genres. Replace screens for action laws, the unexpected approach creates a colorful techno-apocalypse with admirable ambitions aimed at something like “Terminator II – For girls! “Yet it lacks life.
Johnstone loses his way and takes over to write the script from the wonderfully fun Akela Cooper (“Malignant“). She created the first” M3GAN “with James Wan and has a story credit on the sequel. Her evil dark humor lives on in M3gan’s Vicious en-liners, even when Johnstone’s exposition-tongue script pulls down the story. From” “”Evil dead ” To “The Strangers”, scary films will often make dramatic tone shifts between their first and second chapters. It is as good a strategy as everyone for keeping experienced slasher fans on their toes, but story categories so potentially different as horror and action can pull in completely different audiences. Bulizing the two crowds can be tough, and “M3gan 2.0” multiplies its problem by acting ambivalent in Penumbra of Real AI.
On behalf of more screen time than any other (or something) in this film Needs, Williams recall his role as Gemma. A reluctant healthcare provider and negligent toy finder – imagine the mother from “Child’s Play” in combination with Mark Zuckerberg on an apology tour – she almost lost her niece, Cady (McGraw), to a worried attached prototype a few years ago. At the age of 12, the orphaned orphans who previously felt like M3gan has the best friend mixed feelings about his brush with the deadly doll. Sure, Cady’s high -tech companions killed four people and one dog; Not to mention, she threatened to lobotomize her aunt. But it was then, this is now, and as M3GAN explains on her triumphant and Bratty return, she only did these things because she is “A person!“With”Feelings !!“And she was”UPSET!!!“
In his first movie, M3GAN was enough camp to become an unintentional gay icon, on par with silent amazing torment from Pennywise to Babadook. Now, in June 2025, Blumhouse is sending its sequel to theaters on a confused wave of Pride theme marketing so niche that it seems likely to be below the film’s PG-13-grade. Hit-or-Miss studio tends to erroneous its success, but Johnstone helps Blumhouse turn “M3gan 2.0” into an extravagant work of misunderstanding with a story that is uncertain and emotionally clumsy. M3gan is an explosive source of passive aggression and is loved by film guests for her unfiltered reactions and atypical combination of characteristics. She is deadly mothers but motivated by a specific type of single terror that is usually reserved for narsisist men and cruel by pre-teen girls.
Arm the scary version of the M3gan with real firepower, and you can have some extra cruel horror-action scenes. Unfortunately, Johnstone cannot get to cut enough dialogue to deliver the promise even his smartest set pieces. M3gan hacking to a rentable street scooter should be bloody and memorable. Instead, the sequel chain his bitchy anti -hero to a moral lesson that will not end. Compared to other Blumhouse sequels, Robotic Misfire reminds the toothlessness of “Five Nights at Freddy’s” while you seriously fear the fate of future projects, such as the upcoming “MA” follower or “Black Phone 2.”
Johnstone’s repeated attempt to find the soul in “M3gan 2.0” is better than releasing a movie you feel is shallow. Die-hard fans will discover enough pleasant strange strangely in their laughing pandating conclusion and inconsistent special effects-to make the whole thick deal seem worthwhile. Still, M3GAN’s greatest asset was never her heart – but her lack of one. It is then somewhat puzzling that she is easily the most equal character in an assortment of algorithmically hateful people. The sequel comes from New Zealand, and it is probably how he got Jemaine Clement to play a cracked technical billionaire. But hell just knows where Blumhouse started watching when it was time to throw a slippery technical ethics like Gemma’s deep pretentious interest (Aristotle Athari).
Verka narrative threads and for many wasted elements give away “M3gan 2.0” as an amateur effort made by a talented horror filmmaker who has not yet mastered action’s specific visual language or skill set. That said, when Blumhouse makes the risky step to get back to “M3gan” with its spinoff “soulmate” (already scheduled for next year), the series should try a hybrid experiment that mixes nightmares and nunchucks. Only then will the true “m3gan” be dedicated to see Queen of the bear creep properly released.
From Universal Pictures is “M3gan 2.0” in theaters Friday 27 June
Rating: c
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