M3gan 2.0 Revue: a hard science fiction pivot that feels too self-aware of self

Universal and the first of Blumhouse M3gan The feature was out of nowhere with such a ridiculous premise and Campy that it was difficult not to be at least a little intrigued. Equal Child game And Amazing,, M3gan was undeniably silly with his story on a doll fueled by the AI ​​that sang SIA’s “titanium” and dancing by haunting people’s heads. But the film found an almost perfect balance between the right horror and the comedy that made it a pleasure to see in a crowded theater.

M3gan Also killed at the box office, up to $ 180 million compared to a modest budget of $ 12 million. It made too easy for Universal in Greenlight and accelerate a larger and more expensive suite, but it was not clear where, exactly, the new franchise could then happen. There is a sharp intelligence to the way the director of Return Gerard Johnstone and the writer Akela Cooper evolve the history of their murderous doll with M3GAN 2.0. And you can see in the science fiction of the action of the film, namely how much money has been invested in its production.

Like many horror suites, however, M3GAN 2.0 Has difficulty living in his predecessor because he brings the original cast to face some new threats from AI. This is by no means a terrible film, but it becomes a little too caught up trying to wax philosophical on the dangers of an uprising of the robot when it should be more focused on being a good scary moment.

Although most of the world has evolved two years after M3gan (expressed by Jenna Davis, and physically portrayed by Amie Donald), to kill for the first time, memories of what had happened always haunt the teenager Cady (MCGRAW Violet) and her robotics that became aunt Gemma (Allison Williams). While Gemma’s involvement in the creation of M3GAN has tarnished his reputation as a inventor, she has become a well -known defender of stronger controls of artificial intelligence.

At the new Gemma foundation, his longtime friends Tess (Jen Van Epps) and Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) are now working to develop different types of technologies, such as propelled exoskeletons which are intended to help humans remain competitive as simple and effective robots become a wider part of the labor market. The last thing that Gemma – which insists on minimal screen time in their new house – wants is that Cady follows its traces of stem. But Cady has the talent for the programming of things in its own right, and it is very good to keep everything hidden.

Like Gemma, Cady is always very traumatized by his latest experience with M3gan. She knows how fast the imperative of the hard cod of M3gan to love him can become violent. Cady would not dream of trying to bring M3gan, who was destroyed, “better”. But the same thing cannot be said for some people in the American army. Although almost everyone remembers the quantity of disaster that M3gan was, technically, the logistics and infiltration of the autonomous military engagement known as “Amelia” (Ivanna Sakhno) is a different type of machine. Amelia has all the same bells, whistles and skills of killers of her older sister, but none of the emotional code, the emotional code of M3gan. Amelia seems to be the next generation of war without a pilot until she becomes a thug and begins to assassinate people that her managers do not mean for her.

While the first M3gan was a fairly simple horror film, 2.0 changes things by leading with strong science fiction energy that looks like a cross between Terminator 2: Judgment Day And Alita: Battle Angel. Amelia is not the future, but she is really a terrifler who switches to the neck and launches people’s jaws with a cold brutality that feels more vicious than the first M3gan‘SKILLS. Despite their blood, Amelia’s action sequences are deliciously electric and fun to look while she goes hunting to find innovators in the field of AI. But they often have no suspense quality due to the way most of its victims have no reliable way to defend themselves.

M3GAN 2.0 This seems to know that there is only little violence-robot on the human that can be looked before the SCUTK becomes a little boring, and therefore it telegraph Amelia and M3GAN, essentially of the jump. Because the film must bring back M3gan and cannot rush headlong into the confrontation of the machines, however, it spends a good part of its execution time by trying to fill the arcs of Gemma and Cady with ideas of Milquetoast on the parenting in the era of the AI. Once the back of M3gan and in a difficult alliance with humans, history becomes heavy in its messages on emotional rockets that technology can cause within family units. These beats – many of which play as direct comments on the proliferation of generative AI in the real world – could work a little better if the human characters in the film did not feel so stiff. But the most convincing performance here comes from Davis, who played M3gan as a slightly more sophisticated and complicated version of herself.

While M3GAN 2.0 At his times, the novelty of the original seems to be lacking here because of the concern of the aings elements of greater characteristics of science fiction of the blockbuster type. And despite the increase in scale and ambition – and 2.0 In the title – The rest does not end up feeling like a big upgrade.

M3GAN 2.0 Also put Aristotle Athari, Timm Sharp and Jemaine Clement. The film is now in theaters.