When the robots finally rise up, it would be just great if they started with Elon Musk; that guy f***ed the US royally, DOGiE-style. It would serve him right to be done in by “MechaHitler.” Jus’ sayin’. And with that in mind, welcome to M3GAN 2.0, the little bot with the kill-do attitude.
I didn’t like the original M3GAN. I wasn’t terribly intimidated by a murderous plush toy and I couldn’t figure out where it got the orders to start killin’ folks. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t in the source code … or the “machine washable” tag. But I wasn’t the target audience. Maybe I am this time! No. I’m not. But I’m closer, I think. M3GAN 2.0 showed some serious ‘tude, which begs the question, “How much shit would you take from a prototype sex doll?”
Oh, I’m sorry. NOT a sex doll. A companion. Or that’s how it started. But, of course, now M3GAN is just a killing machine. Yeah, that’s a huge improvement.
The fun begins here when AMELIA, a knockoff sex doll, goes rogue in the Middle East. Uh oh. Is the AI revolution upon us already? The trace leads directly back to the original M3GAN, who was destroyed in the first film. I suppose it is no longer so far fetched to imagine the greatest robotics engineer in the world unable to destroy completely the world’s most-advanced robot. What is hard to imagine is that when get the inevitable M3GAN return, the bot doesn’t already have a body; it just “lives” in cyberspace. This is the most advanced AI intelligent bot on the planet; it is self-sustaining and independent from any human need, except for the part where it can’t get a body? And this matters to the bot? And the bot didn’t just commandeer one or get some weak-minded sap to do it?
OK, fine. I suppose a sequel has gotta sequel.
Gemma (Allison Williams) discovers she’s needed when army intelligence breaks into her house with the intend to kidnap. The smarthouse defends itself pretty well, tbh. Except that it’s all … M3GAN? Of course it is. Long story short: M3GAN offers to stop AMELIA, but needs a body to do so. This doesn’t make a while lot of sense. M3GAN is actually much more powerful as a cyber being; once you confine the intelligence to a single bot, M3GAN can only be where the bot can be. Hey, not my movie.
Until we get to the Robot Wars portion of the film, M3GAN 2.0 is much funnier than the original. And, by that, I mean the bot is funnier; it got an upgrade on putdowns and sarcasm, which is exactly what you want in robot, right? It doesn’t matter. We know where 
this is going and it’s going to get silly.
I can’t say I ever wanted to like M3GAN 2.0, but -against my better judgment- I did … for a while, at least. But the film couldn’t keep up the energy that made me appreciated the Mean Girls M3GAN cyber experience. I won’t say, “sass can only get you so far,” because I liked the film as long as M3GAN dissed her handlers or acted pissed off (which is a very odd trait to program into a a robot). But, as well all know, eventually Robot Rumble had to break out, and the movie slides into ho-hum material afterwards. It’s funny, right? While the movie is entirely focused on Short Circuit 3: Johnny 5 Is a Little Bitch, I liked it just fine. But when it got into the nitty gritty of world politics and James Bond scenarios, I found it a bore, Maybe M3GAN 3.0 will finally make a believer of me.
There once was a murderous doll
From grace, it had a great fall
In the blink of an eye
It returned to AI
Proceeding to destroy one and all
Rated PG-13, 120 Minutes
Director: Gerard Johnstone
Writer: Gerard Johnstone, Akela Cooper, James Wan
Genre: Our screwed future
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: M3GAN?
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: AI phobes
