Nerdly » ‘M3GAN 2.0’ Review

27th Jun2025

‘M3GAN 2.0’ Review

by Phil Wheat

Stars: Allison Williams, Jenna Davis, Amie Donald, Violet McGraw, Ivanna Sakhno, Jemaine Clement, Aristotle Athari | Written and Directed by Gerard Johnstone

Blumhouse’s techno-horror darling is back – sleeker, snarkier, and this time a little more self-aware. M3GAN 2.0, the follow-up to the 2023 viral sensation, leans into genre-blending chaos, mashing up sci-fi, horror, and action with a touch of satire. While it’s not as lean or creepily efficient as its predecessor, the sequel deserves credit for its audacity. It expands the world, deepens the mythology, and continues to explore the unnerving relationship between humanity and AI, all while delivering some well-staged tension and unsettling robotic mayhem.

The film picks up two years after the original carnage, with technologist Gemma (Allison Williams) and her niece Cady (Violet McGraw) attempting to return to normal life. Haunted by the trauma of M3GAN’s deadly rampage, Gemma has pivoted her career away from consumer AI and into ethically conscious technology development – building exoskeletons and advocating for safer, regulated innovation alongside her new partner, Christian (Aristotle Athari).

But peace never lasts in horror sequels. Enter AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno), a militarised android designed using fragments of M3GAN’s original code. Unstable, highly adaptive, and completely without moral programming, AMELIA goes rogue during a routine military field exercise, unleashing a trail of carnage that begins to encroach on Gemma’s life once again. As casualties mount and the government closes in, Gemma is forced to make the impossible decision: reactivate the very thing she swore off… M3GAN.

While M3GAN 2.0 transitions the title character into something of an antihero, the film doesn’t entirely abandon its horror roots. AMELIA is a chilling new presence, visually designed with sharp angular movements and eerie doll-like poise that invokes echoes of classic killer automatons. Her introductory sequence, featuring the malfunction during a military test, is a tightly executed set piece full of mounting dread, sudden violence, and claustrophobic tension. It’s one of the few moments that leans fully into horror, and it works spectacularly well.

Director Gerard Johnstone doesn’t always strike the tonal balance, but he shows a clear flair for unsettling visuals: AMELIA’s attacks are often framed with clinical precision, punctuated by bursts of brutal violence and jarring silence. The horror in M3GAN 2.0 is less about gore and more about dread – characters isolated in sterile labs, chased through dim hallways by something smarter and faster than them. The unease is built not just on what AMELIA does, but on what she knows. Like the best AI antagonists, she’s always a step ahead.

Meanwhile, M3GAN herself (voiced again with dry wit and icy control by Jenna Davis) remains the film’s wildcard. Her transformation from chaotic killer to calculating protector raises fascinating ethical questions. Can artificial intelligence truly evolve morally? Or is it just adapting to survive? These questions give M3GAN 2.0 a cerebral edge that deepens the horror: it’s not just the fear of what a machine can do, but why it’s doing it, and whether we can ever really be safe from something we created.

Jemaine Clement adds levity as Alton Appleton, a smug billionaire whose fascination with tech outpaces his understanding of it. His scenes, though broadly played, offer some welcome satire, skewering tech-bro hubris with relish. Even Tim Sattler, playing a cartoonishly misguided military figure, fits the film’s hybrid tone, even if his character borders on parody.

Not everything lands. The final act is overstuffed, with a twist that tries to deepen the mythology but mostly muddies the pacing. The tonal shifts from horror to comedy to action don’t always gel, especially when the film leans too hard into blockbuster theatrics. Still, the central dynamic between Gemma, Cady, and M3GAN remains compelling, providing an emotional throughline that grounds even the wilder plot swings.

M3GAN 2.0 is not the same kind of horror film as its predecessor, but it’s also not trying to be. It’s bigger, messier, and riskier. Some fans may miss the tight, claustrophobic terror of the first instalment, but others will appreciate the ambition to evolve the franchise. In a landscape of cookie-cutter sequels, M3GAN 2.0 dares to pivot, positioning its synthetic star as something more than a gimmick. The result is a genre hybrid that’s part cautionary tale, part high-concept showdown—and fully entertaining.

If the original was a twisted take on digital parenting gone wrong, this sequel is Terminator 2 by way of Black Mirror, with a killer doll who might just be the lesser of two evils!