‘M3GAN 2.0’ movie review: The killer doll is back to slay it slowly-OxBig News Network

M3GAN, about a killer robot doll who believes it is only doing what it is programmed to, enlivened January 2023 with buckets of gore and grins. The sequel, M3GAN 2.0, switches the programming from straight-up slasher to a mix of Terminator and Mission: Impossible, to create a film that moves as jerkily as its protagonist, with markedly fewer laughs.

Director Gerard Johnstone and writer Akela Cooper return, as do horror specialist James Wan for producer duties. Returning cast includes Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis, Brian Jordan Alvarez and Jen Van Epps.

Two years after the events of the previous film, Gemma (Williams), the roboticist who created M3GAN, is now a writer and advocate for the ethical use of AI. Christian (Aristotle Athari), Gemma’s boyfriend, seems to be on board with her AI-with-responsibility principles. Her niece, Cady (McGraw), who came to stay with Gemma after the death of her parents, is equally interested in science and soccer and has a secret robotics project hidden under a photo frame of her parents.

After the M3GAN debacle, Gemma is working with Cole (Alvarez) and Tess (Epps) to create labour-saving devices to keep the company afloat. When an Autonomous Military Engagement Logistics and Infiltration Android, AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno), goes rogue and kills the scientist it was meant to rescue and steals the neurotoxin he was developing, Army colonel Tim Sattler (Timm Sharp) seeks Gemma’s help.

After a sticky start, where Cady attacks the military and FBI agents who come to their house in Home-Alone style, Gemma reluctantly agrees to get M3GAN (Donald, voiced by Davis) up and running. Since she does not fully trust M3GAN, she puts the robot’s operating software in a plastic Teletubby body with the promise of giving her a body upon good behaviour.

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After breaking into wicked tech bro Alton Appleton’s (Jemaine Clement) party, where AMELIA is already up to its dirty tricks, the stakes are raised as AMELIA is set to lay waste to the Earth in an effort to get back to its family—a self aware system from the ‘80s. The time has come to rebuild M3GAN with a “few” enhancements.

M3GAN 2.0 would have benefitted if it had been 30 minutes shorter. There are call backs to Terminator and Mission: Impossible from the use of air conditioning vents as a mode of ingress to a secure space and high altitude jumps to good versus bad terminators. The crazy spider walk is there briefly and M3GAN’s sarcastic comments are chuckle inducing. As it is, M3GAN 2.0 just about manages to keep one’s interest.

M3GAN 2.0 is currently running in theatres