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M3GAN 2.0… or just MEGAN 2, whichever floats your boat.
After 2023’s first film, This time round, M3GAN creator Gemma (Allison Williams – Get Out) has met a rich guy, Christian (Aristotle Athari, really giving it his best Christopher Walken impression, making me think he was related), who’s into AI, but who states his name is pronounced “Christi-AHN“. Prat!
Meanwhile, a new, stronger robot, AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno – The Reunion), breaks into terrorist facility, in Iran, but still rather goes off-script, so it’s not quite the successful mission the army and her creator, Tim Sattler (Timm Sharp), were hoping for.
Back in Americaland, Cady (Violet McGraw – Thunderbolts*) is still living with Auntie Gemma, while colleagues Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) and Tess (Jen Van Epps) are testing a rather less dangerous exoskeleton which can helps with tough tasks, such as lifting heavy weights with ease. Unfortunately, another AI lunatic, billionaire Alton Appleton (Conchords wanker Jemaine Clement – A Minecraft Movie), wants Gemma to work for him, but hey, who needs billions? Erm… (raises hand)
Either way, since the killer robot from the first film was destroyed, the answer might just be to create a new one to go after AMELIA, even if this one promises not to kill anyone… maybe.
As we verge into Terminator 2 territory, M3GAN still sounds like GLaDOS from the Portal games, and I was starting to lose a bit of patience with M3GAN 2.0 when it featured a scene with FBI Splinter Cell-types breaking into a house, but when they’re all brought down, it felt more like I was watching Home Alone, rather than a 15-certificate movie! One example being to issue a robot vacuum cleaner to send one of them flying.
That was because last time, director Gerard Johnstone and Blumhouse producer Jason Blum purposely made two versions of a lot of scenes, so in addition to a single f-word, a lot of the violence and gore was also heavily curtailed. This cut it down to a PG13 rating in the US, instead of an R, but they don’t bother to rate it for home viewing, and get to called it Unrated.
Since not rating a film is not an option over here, both versions were a 15-cert in the UK – since the tamer version was still too violent for a 12-certificate, so you pay for the cinema, and get a WORSE VERSION! That used to happen a lot, around ten years ago, and then went away, but it seems to have come back.
This time, overall, I’m not so sure. Yes, I only heard one f-word, and there was just one scene I spotted where it looked like it could’ve been more gory, but I know purposely, for M3GAN 2.0, they’ve gone more for action rather than horror.
It also plays things more for laughs, such as when there’s a car chase, it throws in the theme from Knight Rider as it begins. There’s also one scene where the basis for it crept up on me, so I’ll put that behind a spoiler header, in case you want to go in completely unspoiled. There’s no plot spoilers here, but the fact I wasn’t expecting it, is what made it even more special, and I was absolutely pissing myself laughing for a long time as it played out…
At two hours, thus around 20 minutes lengthier than the first film, M3GAN 2.0 does go on a bit too long, but at least it allows everyone in the cast to get a decent turn, and as a film, it’s actually an improvement over the first one, and better-paced. I would now like a third, but it appears the change in tone has led to disappointment from a lot of cinemagoers, and it’s not taken as much as was expected, even though it does have a similarly tight budget of up to $25m, compared to the first one’s $12m. That said, while that film took $181.8m at the box office, so far, the sequel has only taken $20m.
Interestingly, the trailer shows AMELIA getting out of one suitcase, while pulling her leg out of another suitcase. That is NOT in the film, but they do use a slightly different version where she exits completely out of the one suitcase, and using her arms to pull her second leg out.
NOTE: There are no mid- or post-credits scenes.
M3GAN 2.0 is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 120 minutes
Release date: June 30th 2025
Studio: Universal Pictures
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 (Anamorphic Hawk Scope)
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 7.5/10
Director: Gerard Johnstone
Producers: Jason Blum, James Wan, Allison Williams
Screenplay: Gerard Johnstone
Music: Chris Bacon
Cast:
Gemma: Allison Williams
M3GAN: Jenna Davis (voice)
M3GAN: Amie Donald
AMELIA: Ivanna Sakhno
Cady: Violet McGraw
Alton Appleton: Jemaine Clement
Cole: Brian Jordan Alvarez
Tess: Jen Van Epps
Christian: Aristotle Athari
Tim Sattler: Timm Sharp
Todd: Mike Edward
Naveen: Mayen Mehta
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.