The age of artificial intelligence is upon us, and more so, in a fascinating albeit concerning manner that has us pundits skeptical of where A.I. will take humanity. Perhaps it’s a necessity of regulation; maybe we need to downsize the grander prospects before they break out and control or harm us. Gah, get the Terminator bandwagon out of here!
M3GAN is the epitome of the “new modern horror murder being” with some dry, ditzy humor. She evokes a powerful sensation with her presence, as folks are uncertain how the future will progress with robots taking over the country and developing an evil mind of their own. It’s what made the first film so tantalizing: a take on a realistic work in progress, but devolving into a corrupt, crude murder bot. The sequel, this time around, focuses on this aspect, exploring the contemplations of artificial intelligence and introducing new ideas to the party. However, some errors creep into the code, turning this into a Frankenstein film.
A definitive modulation of this genre by swapping out the horror kinks (mostly) in favor of a Bond-esque plot is somewhat refreshing. While roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams) and her niece Cady (Violet McGraw) continue to expand on their AI skills (and hash out their relationship toward one another), a new killer robot named AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno) goes rogue on her creators to acquire a connection with a Motherboard to have total control over the cloud computing in the entire country. M3GAN (Amie Donald; voiced by Jenna Davis) reveals that she survived the events of the previous film by downloading her backups into the bits of Gemma’s smart home, and tells her purpose this time is to assist with stopping AMELIA. Uneasy, Gemma works with M3GAN, Cady, Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez), and Tess (Jen Van Epps) to stop AMELIA from an AI takeover.
Less focus on domestic dysfunctions and more on duplicitous tech folks and chaotic action leads this to be an all-too-familiar tale. Yes, you can deviate and assess with different values in the horror realm (see Happy Death Day 2U), but this is a whole lot of mumbo jumbo about AI visions, takeovers, and provoking questions that get tossed aside because another killer robot is on the loose. M3GAN remains the big talking point here, charming with her menace and humor, while getting a dose of humility this time around to understand what her actual creation was.
Williams and McGraw keep worthwhile performances on the human front, as Jenna Davis/Amie Donald act their butts off to keep M3GAN a serious bit of fun. Letting loose with the genre is all good and dandy, even if you’re probably feeling that there are some derivatives in the script.
