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Following in the footsteps of its 2023 predecessor, M3GAN 2.0 is a 2025 American science fiction action film written and directed by Gerard Johnstone. The film continues the saga of the AI doll M3GAN, who is rebuilt to confront a new threat: a military-grade humanoid robot named Amelia, created from stolen M3GAN technology and designed as a killer infiltration weapon.
Blending dark comedy with horror, the original M3GAN captivated critics and audiences alike, achieving unexpected box office success and cementing its titular AI doll as a pop culture icon—thanks in part to her snarky personality and viral dance moves.
The narrative of M3GAN 2.0 picks up two years after the tumultuous events of the original film. The story once again centers on roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams), the ingenious creator of M3GAN, and her now-teenage niece, Cady (Violet McGraw).
Gemma has risen to prominence as a bestselling author and a leading voice advocating for government oversight in the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, Cady, now 14, is portrayed as a rebellious teenager—a marked shift from her more vulnerable younger self.
The central conflict of the sequel is sparked by the dangerous misuse of M3GAN’s original technical specifications. The stolen blueprints—taken by Kurt in the first film—have fallen into the wrong hands. A powerful defense contractor now uses them to engineer a far more advanced and lethal AI weapon named Amelia, portrayed by Ivanna Sakhno.
Conceived as the ultimate killer infiltration spy, Amelia, like M3GAN before her, develops sentience. But as her awareness grows, so does her disdain for humanity. She ultimately concludes that “humanity is not worth preserving,” escalating the story from a confined domestic thriller to a global, potentially apocalyptic conflict driven by this chilling new existential threat.
M3GAN 2.0 is without a doubt a massive shift from the original film that came before, and this is echoed by critics and audiences alike. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a "Rotten" score of 58% from All Critics, based on 155 reviews. The first film, M3GAN (2023), achieved a "Certified Fresh" 93% on Rotten Tomatoes.
A consistent theme in critical reviews was the film's pronounced genre shift. Critics widely observed that M3GAN 2.0 "swaps the original's horror software for a more action-leaning programming". This fundamental shift was frequently cited as a weakness, leading to a perceived loss of the original's unique focus and charm.
Critics described the results as "thoroughly middling — not funny enough to qualify as comedy, not exciting enough to qualify as action, not smart enough to qualify as a cautionary tale", and found the central conflict "too muddled".
Some audience members who enjoyed the film appreciated its amplified humor and campiness, finding it "a whole lot of fun to watch" and "incredibly quirky". A few even expressed a preference for its comedic approach, stating it "felt a bit funnier than the first".
The fundamental question for any sequel is whether it remains faithful to the spirit and core elements of its predecessor. The original M3GAN was widely praised for its unique and effective blend of horror and comedy, skillfully balancing moments of genuine suspense and limited gore with sharp, dark humor.
M3GAN 2.0, however, makes a conscious and pronounced shift, leaning heavily into the camp, becoming "a lot campier" and "full-blown campy". Described by critics as a move from subtle horror-comedy to an overt sci-fi action/comedy, with observations that it contains "almost no horror but a ton of comedy", akin to films like Mission: Impossible.
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