M3gan 2.0 Requires Very Few Bug Fixes
M3gan 2.0 surprised me. Blumhouse (who I still don’t totally trust if I’m being honest) has diverged from their roots and made an actually very solid action-comedy-thriller. The cold open involves a man getting his head punched clean off. The main action of the film picks up shortly after the first movie with narration from Cady. Gemma has become a lobbyist for tech regulation, an author, a hands-on parenting advocate and is still maintaining her inventor roots (supposedly). Immediately this is exposed as a tough (nay, impossible) balancing act that has left Cady somewhat in the balance. Cady wishes to be a computer science major; Gemma is heavily restricting her screen time. Cady wishes to connect with Gemma about M3gan, her parents or just growing up and Gemma is just too busy saving the world.
From the jump, though, this film is actually hilarious. There is a ton of commentary about government inadequacy, AI overreach, the public’s lack of critical thinking, tech companies and more. I do think my stint as a tech salesperson made some jokes funnier but there was no shortage of laughter throughout this film. The plot is insane. It’s campy. The climax goes on 20 minutes too long. It still has some Blumhouse fingerprints even in this new genre. The returning cast is great. It feels as if they’ve grown alongside their characters (especially Violet McGraw as Cady and Allison Williams as Gemma) but there are also a lot of excellent new faces. Jemaine Clement chews every piece of scenery he comes near and is a total delight and Molly and Max in The Future alum Aristotle Athari rocks as AI-regulation tech bro Cristian.
Is it perfect? No. Does it feel like a fever dream that was mad with my sensibilities in mind? Kinda. Is there a giant The Thing poster in many shots that made me compare the two films against my will? Yes. Did M3gan 2.0 win that comparison? No. But in a bleak, dark year this film was able to deliver slightly socially conscious fun, and I have to applaud that.
At the end of the day, though, this film feels somewhat reactionary. My first experience with M3gan was seeing it in a theater full of very flamboyant adults and youths who acted as if M3gan was one of them. She was the mirror for their childhood hopes and dreams, the person(?) who would stand up for them in school or at work. So it absolutely makes sense to me that she has a new dance now, new outfits and backflips as often as she walks. She has insecurities about the version of herself she made out of spare parts to present to Cady, the person she cares for most in the world. There is a vulnerability in this AI bot that is heartfelt while simultaneously undermining the “moral” of the film. That said, I have to tip my hat. M3gan 2.0 really stood up with its whole chest and said “AI (machine learning, if I want to be a semantic asshole about it, which I do) is coming, and while we don’t like it, we best learn how to grow with it before it grows over us.”
I give M3gan 2.0 (Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions; PG-13; 1 hr 59 mins) a 4 out of 5.
