120 min | PG-13 | June 27, 2025 | Universal Pictures
Gerard Johnstone trades horror for action-comedy and the shift destroys what made M3GAN work. The killer doll becomes a superhero and the satire becomes noise.
The first M3GAN was a tight horror-comedy about AI parenting and consumer technology run amok. The doll was creepy and the kills were brutal and the satire was sharp. M3GAN 2.0 abandons all of that for louder, dumber spectacle. Someone steals the M3GAN technology and creates a military weapon called AMELIA. Gemma has to resurrect M3GAN and upgrade her to fight back. The premise is tired. The execution is scattered.
Allison Williams returns as Gemma and tries to find emotional stakes in a story that has none. Violet McGraw plays Cady and gets almost nothing to do. The relationship between them was the heart of the first film. This one sidelines it for action sequences and universe-building. Ivanna Sakhno plays the villain behind AMELIA with generic corporate menace. The film introduces too many new characters and gives none of them depth.
Johnstone directed the first film with control and precision. This one feels like studio notes won. The tone shifts wildly. The film cannot decide if it wants to be horror, action, comedy, or satire. The PG-13 rating neuters the violence that gave the original teeth. M3GAN and AMELIA fight in sequences that are loud and incomprehensible. The satirical edge about technology and capitalism gets buried under CGI chaos.
The first film worked because it was small and specific. This one tries to be a franchise-launching blockbuster and forgets why anyone cared about M3GAN in the first place. The film trades horror for spectacle and satire for setup. What made the original special gets sacrificed for what’s profitable.