Films about dementated dolls aren’t a new thing, Childs Play (1988) and
Annabelle (2014) and their many sequels are just a few.
In 2022 producer James Wan brought the genre into the 21 st
century, with some success both critically and at the box-office, by
turning his doll into a killer robot doll called M3GAN (Model 3 Generative
Android).
Flushed by the success of M3GAN, Wan brings back the M3GAN but bizarrely,
and not with much success, turns her into an ass kicking robot that’s a
cross between Mission Impossible’s Ethan Hunt and John Wick. Honestly you
couldn’t make this up.
The plot sees M3GAN having to go up against a better version of her self
called AMELIA (Model 3 generative android) played by Ivanna Sakhno (who is
easily the best thing in the film).
AMELIA has been designed by the military to carry out covert ops but on one
mission she goes rogue and is attempting to create some superpower AI that
will bring about the destruction of the world.
If the worlds in danger, who do you call? No superheroes here I’m afraid,
instead the savour of the world is M3GANS creator (Allison Williams), her
extremely annoying niece (Violet McGraw)’ her even more annoying co-workers
(Brian Jordan Alvarez and Jen Van Epps reprising their roles from the
original) and of course M3GAN, who has apparently been hiding out in lamps,
TV and just about ever electrical appliance known to man since she was torn
to bits in the original film.
M3GANS original director Gerard Johnstone returns to helm a sequel that as
more in common with the likes of The Terminator and Spy Kids than it does
the original film. The script, for most of the time, involves techno mumbo
jumbo about capacitors and Wi-Fi and doesn’t make a lot of sense. If you
can believe that M3GAN, whilst she was living in a lamp, managed to build
some sort of back cave that she has called the layer then M3GAN 2.0 might be
for you.
M3GAN 2.0 is not without its plus points, the actions decent and the plot
moves along at a fair speed however if you’re a fan of the original the
change in direction might be something that you’ll find hard to stomach.
