M3GAN 2.0 review: Cinematic tonal whiplash may divide fans

Because, while it’s been made by pretty much the same team – both in front of and behind the camera – it feels wildly different in tone. The first film was a high-tech stalker flick, while this sequel feels more like a comedy version of Alita: Battle Angel, with incrementally more gore. And few filmgoers ever had that on their wish list.

A quick refresher: M3GAN is a prototype AI doll, originally created by a roboticist, Gemma (Allison Williams), for a hi-tech toy company. In the first film, M3GAN bonded with Gemma’s orphaned niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), but took her programming – to protect the girl at all costs – to bloody extremes, and ended up being destroyed. Apparently.

She wasn’t, of course. She managed to secretly download her digital soul into Gemma’s connected smart house system, and she’s been waiting for an opportunity to re-emerge.

Meanwhile, the US military has been developing a new defence system based on a killer bot called Amelia (Autonomous Military Engagement Logistics and Infiltration Android).

But when Amelia goes rogue and embarks on a mission that could destroy civilisation as we know it, M3GAN convinces Gemma that she’s the only thing that can stop her, but she’s going to need a new body to do it.

Sounds ludicrous? That’s not even the half of it. This film is mad bonkers and an utterly breathless, gonzo action thriller from the opening scenes.

Gone is the slow-burn, tense, unsettling build-up of horror in the original, to be replaced by ruthlessly plot-led hokum, with a surprisingly rationed amount of designer gore.

The carefully developed human (or human/AI) relationships of the first film are largely absent, replaced by a few clumsy heart-to-hearts heavily signposted "LOOK! EMOTIONAL STUFF!" in big flashing neon lights.

M3GAN is clearly supposed to have a character arc, but her conversion into the T2: Judgment Day’s T800 isn’t massively convincing.

Having said all that, the film’s certainly not without its entertaining moments. M3GAN spends part of the movie trapped in the body of what looks like a baby Teletubby (much to her indignation) and murders a Kate Bush classic in one exquisitely cringey moment.

There are some genuinely laugh-out-loud lines and Gemma’s back-up geeks from the first film – Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) and Tess (Jen Van Epps) – get in on the action in some unexpectedly loony ways.

Cady is now martial arts expert, so expect from little-girl-kicking-ass daftness. Gemma’s become an AI regulation advocate with a loony-lefty activist boyfriend whom everyone else loathes, and Jemaine Clement plays Matt Berry playing the most odious Dragon’s Den investor ever.

And, of course, there’s another M3GAN dance scene designed for social media meme-generating purposes, although it feels a little too calculated this time (and contains at least one head-turning move that TikTik imitators would be advised not to try at home).

M3GAN 2.0 is not a disaster by any means. It’s really very funny in places, there are some great action set pieces and the cast gamely give it everything they’ve got.

It’s simply a severe disappointment after the first film. It’s a cinematic tonal whiplash not seen since Vin Diesel morphed the claustrophobic horror thrills of Pitch Black into the pompous space opera of The Chronicles of Riddick.

If you like the first film, you may well enjoy this sequel. You just won’t enjoy it for the same reasons.

M3GAN 2.0 is in cinemas from Friday 27th June.

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