M3GAN 2.0
Rating: 3/5
By: Nathaniel Simpson
It's hard to craft a sequel to a horror flick. Many horror movies, especially slashers, end with the final girl or the hero besting the killer, either killing them or locking them away for good. That is the case with M3GAN in her first film, with the humans being able to overpower and switch off the killer robot. However, with her being a robot and with it being proven in films that robot rarely ever stay dead or powered off, it was no surprise M3GAN was returning for a sequel. However, what we got was not necessarily a horror movie, but rather an action-comedy with the humans teaming up with the killer robot to stop a rogue killing machine with more human-like features about her. While this movie is genuinely fun for the most part, there is no doubt that I would have preferred the more horror and gory side of this killer robot than the comedic action side.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first M3GAN film. I thought it was a lot of fun, even if it wasn't on the scarier side. There were great comedic moments and it had a fun story that follows the basic formula of a slasher movie, but it was just pure fun. Since then, M3GAN has become an icon for slasher movies in the modern age, with Blumhouse using her to market their production company and tease more projects in the future involving M3GAN. However, to turn this into a completely full-blown action film is definitely not what I was expecting, or in this case, hoping for.
I had my doubts, and when I was done watching this sequel, my doubts had been confirmed in a way. This was a very fun movie with some great comedic moments, such as M3GAN (voiced by Jenna Davis with Amie Donald doing the motion capture) being put into a sort of more-advanced, ferbie-looking robot. I also think the dialogue that Davis delivers as the titular character is written quite well, and Davis does such a fantastic job of her vocal delivery. She's hilarious, and I would say this character is more enjoyable here than the first film.
But, as a whole, the story of this movie is very simple, predictable, and just not very exciting. The movie takes place over about a couple of long segments, and none of them really draw you in or keep you incredibly entertained. It all plays out before us, but it feels much more dull than the filmmakers would have liked. The characters of Cady (Violet McGraw) and her aunt Gemma (Allison Williams) are honestly quite awful here, with no fault of the actresses'. Their characters are written to be very hypocritical and straight-up annoying at times, totally ruining the intriguing character development the first picture set up. None of the characters here besides M3GAN are quite likable, and antagonists such as AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno) and Alton Appleton (Jemaine Clement) are not very fun or unique.
However, when we do get into the action sequences or into segments focusing on M3GAN being hilariously fun to watch, that's when the movie truly starts to excel. There is even some character development for M3GAN that is predictable, but it is quite intriguing and fun to watch. There is no doubt that M3GAN is the absolute best thing about this picture, and I think that might be a good thing based on how they promised much more of her in this installment. The action sequences, on the other hand, are fun to watch and are the most entertaining moments of the film.
It was a very interesting choice to turn this film into an action-comedy rather than another horror/thriller, and I'm not sure if it benefits the franchise going forward. This movie is quite enjoyable and is no doubt a fun watch, but the story and the characters here simply don't work that well. Many horror movies go down the wrong path when trying to craft a horror sequel, and while I don't think they went down the wrong path in every aspect here, this just feels like a very middle-of-the-road movie that just wants to set up a franchise.
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