M3GAN 2.0

If nothing else, the two M3GAN films are at least more efficient in capturing the dangers and urgency of a conflict between AI and humans than the last two Mission: Impossible mega-budget outings. After the surprise success of the first M3GAN—released in the “dispose content” month of January and returning roughly 15x its investment—the doll became something of a pop culture icon. She even showed up in the latest Funko video game. Now she’s back in the cleverly titled M3GAN 2.0, and she’s bigger in every way: with double the budget, a much larger scope, and a summer release date that signals clear franchise intentions. (There’s even a spin-off already announced.)

As we saw with Smile 2 last year, these second installments of surprise hits often mark the jump from clever gimmick to full-blown studio-backed movie. That’s exactly the leap returning director Gerard Johnstone embraces here—M3GAN being his true breakout. We now get robot fights, elaborate sets, and plenty of visual spectacle. What the film gets most right is how it justifies the expansion—not just in scale, but in narrative logic. The return of M3GAN actually makes sense, and her motivation is well integrated into the story. From there, the film has great fun with her character: the jokes land, the action is satisfying, and yes, there’s more dancing.

The human characters still aren’t the most compelling, but they serve the story well enough. Fans of the first might miss the horror elements—there are a few tense scenes early on, especially involving the new antagonist AMELIA, but those get dialed down as the movie shifts into more of an action-spy thriller, mixing Terminator 2 with Mission: Impossible. It works best when focused on the robots—the new model, AMELIA, is a blast, made all the more fun and frightening thanks to Ivanna Sakhno’s performance—and loses momentum when it pivots to human drama, especially with a third-act twist that falls flat. Just as frustrating is Chris Bacon’s anonymous score, which squanders the chance to give the film a few memorable themes.

There are glimpses of more interesting ideas—some Westworld-like questions about robot autonomy and AI ethics—but they’re only lightly touched on. Had the film gone even slightly deeper into those themes and leaned harder into the robot-versus-robot dynamic, it could’ve been a real winner. As it stands, it runs about 15 minutes too long and drags a bit in the second half, but it still delivers enough fun sequences to work as a solid summer blockbuster—and makes a third M3GAN feel like an exciting, inevitable next step.

At a glance

3/5

Worth your time

Where to watch

Prime VideoPrime Video

Trailer

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