The killer robot is back, this time with competition
2022’s M3GAN was a self-aware, tongue-in-cheek outright thriller about a companion robot that went rogue and started killing. It followed a slasher formula, not attempting to invent anything too new, but still keeping things fresh. Viewers knew what to expect and the filmmakers delivered exactly that.
In 2025, writers Akela Cooper (Malignant), Gerard Johnstone (Housebound) , and James Wan (Saw) have their universe already created, and they have free reign to do with as they choose. M3GAN 2.0 takes the murderbot and places her at the center of the modern day debate on Artificial Intelligence (AI).
We won’t get into the merits, politics and dangers of AI here. (This site is for reviews, interviews, (and getting you all to buy my books, after all)). But, we will share that all the players are represented in this movie. There’s the anti-AI activist (Aristotle Athari), the tech “genius” who wants to make billions (Jemaine Clement), the militia man who wants to weaponize it (Timm Sharp), and those trying to use it for good (Jen Van Epps and Brian Jordan Alvarez).
Dragged into all of this is inventor Gemma (Allison Williams) and her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), three years removed from the events of the first film. M3GAN appears later, but she isn’t the only killer robot in this one. She’s not even the first we see. Nope, that honor is held by A.M.E.L.I.A. (Ivanna Sakhno), who is deployed on a mission to rescue a hostage from captivity. She goes rogue, killing the hostage (and his captors) and stealing bio-weapons.
This embarasses the colonel running the mission (Sharp playing an absolute doofus to the extreme), who drops in on Gemma and Cady, accusing Gemma of selling the original M3GAN technology to a state-sponsored attacker. Once Cady is asleep, Gemma gets a visit from M3GAN through the various smart home technologies in the house.
M3GAN hatches a plan to stop her counterpart, but after nearly being killed by her creation, Gemma is understandably hesitant. M3GAN gets her first body and she and Gemma are off to infiltrate the party held by tech giant Alton Appleton (Clement). A.M.E.L.I.A. beats them to the party, and begins the first of her tech takeover moves.
The story moves to a bunker, an AI conference, a tech headquarters and a vault, each act seeing a new iteration as M3GAN improves. The sets are incredible. The costumes are elaborate, and the tech designs are creative. Each iteration of both bots feel unique, but maintain a consistency throughout their designs. For instance, M3GAN never loses her slightly oversized eyes that give her charm and empathy.
Williams anchors the cast, moving with ease from stoicism to anger to the dry wit that represents Gemma. McGraw is a little older, a little wiser, more mature, and much stronger than when she was an innocent nine year old. The combination of Jenna Davis’ voice and Amie Donald’s movements bring back everything viewers loved when they first met M3GAN. Sakhno plays A.M.E.L.I.A. as calculating and strategic. Viewers will be kept guessing if she is controlling herself, or being controlled. She’s synthetic but not robotic. Alvarez and Sharp are the clear comic relief, embracing their characters’ ineptitude. Clement plays Alton as a man who believes his own hype.
M3GAN 2.0 is to M3GAN what Aliens was to Alien. It keeps some of the horror aspects, but this is an action movie. It felt at times like a Bruce Lee movie. It doesn’t preach or condemn the role of AI in the world. Instead, it asks the question “what would happen if we dropped a killer, singing, dancing girlbot in the middle of today’s AI landscape?” It’s a redemption story that maintains all the charm and comedy of the original, while greatly expanding the scope and the stakes.
M3GAN 2.0 hit theaters on June 27, 2025.