‘M3GAN 2.0’ review: The killer doll meets her match in self-aware Universal sequel

Dir/scr: Gerard Johnstone. US. 2025. 119mins

Two years on from the events of megahit M3GAN, robotics engineer Gemma (Allison Williams) has moved on from designing homicidal dolls to become an advocate for responsible technology. But when it emerges her AI programme has been used to create the ultimate weapon – which has, of course, gone rogue – Gemma and niece Cady (Violet McGraw) are drawn into another round of woman vs machine. Returning director Gerard Johnstone does not feel the need to rewrite the code, delivering a tried-and-tested mix of action, effects and comedy. Yet the whole thing now feels overly self-aware, resulting in a lumbering actioner that lacks the novelty value of its predecessor.

Lacks the novelty value of its predecessor

M3GAN was always going to be a tough act to follow, making a surprise $180m (against a reported $12m budget) at the global box office in 2023 before enjoying a strong life on streaming and spawning a million memes. There is certainly a healthy built-in audience for M3GAN 2.0, which should help the film to strong returns as it rolls out globally from June 25, despite competition from summer tentpoles including F1, which opens in the same week, and Jurassic World: Rebirth, which bows internationally from July 2.

A brisk newsreel montage recalls the events of the first film, which resulted in M3GAN – the life-size artificially intelligent doll built by Gemma as a companion for the orphaned Cady – killing several humans before being destroyed. Gemma has now turned her back on AI, becoming a campaigner for technology being used for the greater good. Here, Johnstone – who also takes over screenwriting duties from the original’s Akela Cooper and James Wan – draws on current concerns about the evolution of artificial intelligence, lacklustre government legislation and the detrimental effects of technology on children.

The film does not linger too long in such existential territory before rebooting both M3GAN – who has been rebuilding herself in the background and initially makes herself felt through the gadgets in Gemma’s coolly impersonal smart home – and a familiar plot involving unprepared humans going up against ‘malfunctioning’ robots. This time, however, the threat has been upgraded, in the form of Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno), a military-grade, indestructible soldier built using Gemma’s original code. Amelia is so advanced that she is completely indistinguishable from a human – other than her ability to knock off a man’s head with one punch. That is an impressive skill in a controllable asset, less so in a machine that has overridden its human controls and is intent on world domination.

Part of the original film’s fun was watching M3GAN (played by Amie Donald, enhanced with CGI and voiced by Jenna Davis) evolve from creepy plaything to murderbot, subverting her code and defying human expectation to follow her directive to protect Cady to its absolute limit. Her uncanny-valley nature was also entertaining; her robotic movements and speech at odds with her cosy domestic setting. As M3GAN persuades Gemma to rebuild her – she is, she asserts, their best hope of taking down Amelia – the film’s design team, headed by animatronics lead Mark Setrakian, retains her artificial aesthetic, albeit making her slightly taller, updating her hands and eyes and giving her a full wardrobe of costumes.

This both appeases M3GAN’s legion of fans and puts her at odds with slick humanoid Amelia (played by both Sakhno and a life-size animatronic version). The fact there is only two years between these two versions of the same artificial intelligence is a chilling acknowledgement of the fact AI is evolving constantly, and is creating a permanent new reality that humans need to manage responsibly and, ultimately, learn to live with.

As such, the film’s major dramatic hook is whether or not Gemma and fellow engineers Cole and Tess (Brian Jordan Alvarez and Jen Van Epps, both returning from the first film) can learn to trust M3GAN to do the right thing: help them and save humanity. It also feeds into the overwhelming guilt and responsibility Gemma feels as both creator and parent. Williams (who also produces here) manages to find moments of  emotional vulnerability amid the mayhem; she questions her motivations in the lab and at home, and wonders if she has set the best example for either Cady or M3GAN. Elsewhere, Williams showcases some real action-hero prowess, particularly in a memorable sequence where she dons an augmented external skeleton suit.

Indeed, there is plenty of high-octane stuntwork throughout, together with some impressive effects, fast cars, espionage, a dastardly tech-villain and an AI that started life in a 1980s photocopier but is now so powerful that it resembles “a god”. That is a lot to compute and, as M3GAN 2.0 morphs into a bold, brash actioner, it begins to lose its sense of self. Any nuanced ideas surrounding AI and the march of technology are overwhelmed by a mélange of clunky dialogue – “If you put an AI inside a human brain, it’s not going to ride shotgun!” – and bombastic showdowns that could have been lifted from a million other films. Ultimately, it plays as if ChatGPT were asked to write a surefire, mass-market summer hit: by-the-book, enjoyable and instantly forgettable.