Maybe all that鈥檚 needed to win the battle for AI regulation is to make real the threat of being choked out by a robot dressed like a Ralph Lauren model. Double that with the knowledge she鈥檇 whisper the cattiest little aside (something like 鈥渘ice haircut, slut鈥) to ensure we left this plane of existence with our ego bruised.
But we find thought leaders in the most unexpected of places, and if what feels timely to us now is the sequel to a 2022 horror-comedy known mostly for its viral dance routine, then let鈥檚 embrace it for what it is. M3GAN 2.0 is a hyper-camp, dumb-funny, unexpected mashup of Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Mission: Impossible.
Returning director Gerard Johnstone, here taking over scripting duties from Akela Cooper (although she retains a story credit), has taken the logical next step in the story. If somebody did accidentally build a robot skilled in murder, the US military would immediately come knocking. Here, they鈥檝e developed AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno, who nails the seemingly contradictory expression 鈥渂lank but intense鈥), otherwise known as an 鈥渁utonomous military engagement logistics and infiltration android鈥, in response. Their vision is of a machine that can strike quickly and efficiently, without attracting the attention of the international community.
Surprise, surprise, she goes full Frankenstein鈥檚 creature and violently rebels against her creators, which puts M3GAN鈥檚 own Dr Frankenstein, toy designer Gemma (Allison Williams) and her niece Cady (Violet McGraw), in the potential firing line.
M3GAN (voiced by Jenna Davis, brought to life through a combination of puppet work, VFX, and actor Amie Donald) was, as one might note, completely obliterated in the first film. But she, like Chucky before her, has crawled back into existence through marginally incomprehensible means. 鈥淲hat a shock, etc,鈥 she deadpans on her return.
What happens next is a kind of rapid oscillation between relatively sincere reflections on the nature of parenthood, an inter-android dialogue about autonomy and sentience, and extended martial arts fight scenes. Add to that Jemaine Clement as a Musk-like tech billionaire with heinous taste in dress, interior decor, and seductive dance moves, whose neural chip has landed 30 per cent of test subjects in hospital. There鈥檚 a follow-up punchline to the first film鈥檚 scene of M3GAN delivering a non-consensual performance of Sia鈥檚 鈥淭itanium鈥 as a kind of emotional robot-to-human outreach. But its choice of song is both surprising and so terminally online that it might just be crowned gag of the summer.
M3GAN 2.0 is, admittedly, a pretty bizarre conflagration of tones and ideas. But so were most of the Child鈥檚 Play films that this series owes so much of its conceit to, and the rollercoaster effect of never quite knowing what genre Johnstone might pull from next is a key part of the fun. Blumhouse, the horror titan studio behind this franchise, might have nailed down the genre鈥檚 next big icon in M3GAN. She鈥檚 a cutthroat bully who鈥檚 weirdly easy to root for. And the fact that she鈥檚 using her platform to advocate for a shift in how we view technology, not as a way to replace us, but to co-exist with us? Well, that puts her immediately ahead of most celebrities, doesn鈥檛 it?
Dir: Gerard Johnstone. Starring: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis, Ivanna Sakhno, Aristotle Athari, Timm Sharp, and Jemaine Clement. Cert 15, 120 minutes
鈥楳3GAN 2.0鈥 is in cinemas from 27 June