M3GAN 2.0 – Movie Review (3/5)

M3GAN 2.0 hits US theaters now. The protective AI robot is more mature and more kitsch, in the best possible way. Personally, I found this sequel both better and more entertaining than the original. Read our M3GAN 2.0 movie review below!

M3GAN 2.0 is now showing in theaters, and it’s well worth checking out. I’ll admit, I was pretty worried the movie trailer had given away too much, but I was pleasantly surprised. There’s so much more to the plot and the character dynamics than expected.

The storyline has almost Terminator vibes, with the AI robot M3GAN now more evolved and self-aware. The sequel leans further into kitsch elements and delivers more action. In other words, if you enjoyed the first film, chances are you’ll be thrilled with this one too!

Read on for our full M3GAN 2.0 review below. The film premieres in U.S. theaters on June 27, 2025.

M3GAN has grown up

Even though only two years have passed since the first movie, our AI robot has matured. It’s a grow-up and a glow-up story for M3GAN.

The same goes for the girl M3GAN was created to protect. Cady (Violet McGraw) is now a teenager with a growing interest in coding and robotics, much like her aunt, who isn’t crazy about the amount of screentime Cady has.

Her aunt and legal guardian, Gemma (Allison Williams), has spent the past few years warning the world about the dangers of giving AI too much freedom. She’s not anti-AI, but she strongly advocates for keeping it under human control.

This is her way of making amends after her own AI creation, M3GAN, ended up killing several people in the first movie. All, of course, in an attempt to protect Cady, as this was M3GAN’s core directive.

What Gemma doesn’t know is that the U.S. military has created a knockoff version called “Amelia” (Ivanna Sakhno). Amelia is a sleek, combat-grade AI with serious Black Widow vibes and skills.

Unfortunately, they didn’t learn from Gemma’s mistakes, and things went haywire. Fast. Now, Amelia needs to be stopped—and the only thing that can stop an unstoppable AI is another AI.

Enter M3GAN, who has been reduced to code without a useful body for years.

To battle Amelia, we now get M3GAN in her upgraded form. We see a more mature version with a few “inhibitor tweaks”. In other words, M3GAN 2.0 is ready for round two. But is the world?!

Bigger, better, and more stylish

While M3GAN 2.0 may match the original in many ways, this one is still the better of the two for me. From the gore to the overall body count, this is bigger, better, and more stylish. Even elegant in the most brutal ways. 

Most of what didn’t quite work for me in the first film has been fine-tuned here to suit my taste much better. A big reason is the film’s unapologetically kitschy vibe and its clever spin on our obsession with AI and smartphones.

Importantly, this is not an anti-tech film. It’s a story about how humans need to maintain control, especially when it comes to powerful AI like M3GAN.

Jermaine Clement (from What We Do in the Shadows) plays a brilliant character who’s basically a pop culture hybrid of tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

In the first film, we came to know M3GAN as a violent psycho-robot with a twisted sense of loyalty. But this time around, she’s more refined, more intelligent, and more capable of learning from her past errors.

She’s also no longer a child-sized doll—which, to me, makes a lot more sense.

Watch M3GAN 2.0 in theaters now!

Director Gerard Johnstone returns to helm the sequel to his 2023 horror hit. This time, he also wrote the screenplay, which is a definite improvement.

Akela Cooper is still involved in the story development, and James Wan receives credit for helping create the characters. Since I have not been impressed with James Wan’s recent work as a filmmaker (the first M3GAN included), I think it helped that he stepped aside.

On the other hand, I was already a fan of Gerard Johnstone thanks to his 2014 horror-comedy Housebound. And in M3GAN 2.0, I can actually sense his unique tone and style, which is a major plus.

My Heaven of Horror partner joked that I was “just mad at James Wan,” and that it colored my view of the first M3GAN film. I’d say “not mad—just disappointed,” since James Wan used to be one of my genre favorites.

Now that he’s “just” a producer and has stepped back from the writing, I think the movie works much better overall. I’m genuinely happy with M3GAN 2.0, and honestly, I’m already looking forward to watching it again. I’d even be up for a third installment!

M3GAN 2.0 premieres in U.S. theaters on June 27, 2025.

Details

Director: Gerard Johnstone
Cast: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis, Ivanna Sakhno, Aristotle Athari, Timm Sharp, Jemaine Clement

📺 Watch trailer