Review by C.J. Bunce
Let’s run down just a few sci-fi classics that M3GAN 2.0 updates: Frankenstein, Metropolis, Pinocchio, The Terminator, RoboCop, Tron, Weird Science –– and every other Philip K. Dick short story. The biggest surprise is powerhouse horror studio Blumhouse’s latest isn’t so much a horror movie as a major league action blockbuster, a triumph for the sophomore outing of director Gerard Johnstone and writers Akela Cooper (Grimm, Luke Cage, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Tron: Uprising) and James Wan (Archive 81, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Swamp Thing, Annabelle), moving from the first film’s focus on Robots Behaving Badly to the latest cautionary tale for the real world.
Classic science fiction themes come together in M3GAN 2.0, a candidate for the year’s best science fiction movie and (surprise!) best superhero movie, now streaming on Peacock.
Yes, this is a superhero origin story improving on character origins found most recently in Marvel’s Black Widow movies. M3GAN (played again by Amie Donald and Jenna Davis) is back and some of the time she’s a digital mind floating from tech to tech. Think Iron Man’s JARVIS, Spider-Man’s E.D.I.T.H., or even 2001: A Space Odyssey’s HAL. Allison Williams (Get Out) is back now as the scorned but rehabilitated “smart toy” designer (and whiz artificial intelligence/robotics programmer) Gemma. Now having seen the error of her ways, she’s more about rejecting all the new technologies. Violet McGraw (The Haunting of Hill House, Black Widow) is back as Gemma’s niece Cady, grown into a kickass young sleuth.
But the superhero story comes via the story’s antagonist, a government designed M3GAN upgrade called AMELIA, for Autonomous Military Engagement Logistics and Infiltration Android. Played exquisitely at her most cold-hearted and psychotic by Star Wars – Ahsoka’s Ivanna Sakhno, AMELIA is part Olga Kurylenko’s Taskmaster and even more of the Terminatrix a la Kristanna Loken in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
It’s also funny–clever writing incorporating the Knight Rider theme as M3GAN takes over in the ultimate self-driving car (an update to Total Recall?), M3GAN sings some Kate Bush and becomes a Teletubby robot, and the writers poke fun at Steven Segal and his movies (Cady has his photo in her locker, and a climactic moment includes a coded message between Gemma and Cady). A MacGyver montage is a marvel of sci-fi tech fun, much of it thanks to Weta Digital Workshop. Weta is also responsible for M3GAN’s upgrades–she’s an improvement on Alita: Battle Angel’s blend of human performance and CGI. She even gets to play along in a robot dance scene. Adding to the fun is Brian Jordan Alvarez, a ringer for Jimmy Fallon, along with military honcho Sattler, a mix of Will Arnett in Murderville and Bill Paxton in True Lies, played by Timm Sharp. On the strange side is Aristotle Athari as an odd tech mogul from the Elon Musk mold, and another tech billionaire Bond villain type played by Jemaine Clement.
Allison Williams gets in on the action when she wears one of her company’s armor prototypes to face AMELIA in battle (fighting even while unconscious). The badass women factor dials up to eleven with M3GAN, AMELIA, Gemma, and Cady. It’s all about the military trying to make a better battle drone, a superhero construct we’ve seen with the origins of Captain America, Luke Cage, and Deadpool. M3GAN 2.0‘s take is closer to the Kate Mara and Anya-Taylor Joy sci-fi assassin story Morgan, plus Black Widow, and it even conjures the assassin in The Accountant 2.
The science fiction in the story continues the pursuit of man trying to be God, to create life, and ask what it means to be alive, especially when you’re a robot seeking to be something more. It’s supported by some sweet CGI, choreographed action sequences, but also quick bits so good you hardly notice the moviemaking magic, like AMELIA building herself from inside a suitcase.
The seamless way director Gerard Johnstone steps away from the influences for his first M3GAN film: Bad Seed to Big, from D.A.R.Y.L. to The Six Million Dollar Man’s Fembots, to The Stepford Wives and Alita: Battle Angel into something entirely different is a marvel itself. Blumhouse has done this before with Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2U, successfully switching from horror to sci-fi. M3GAN 2.0 is a great film looking at the sci-fi from a clever new angle. And it never misses a beat. The new ways the people at Blumhouse can play in their toybox of franchises is why viewers come back for more.
Don’t miss one of the year’s best sci-fi, action, superhero, and borg movies. M3GAN 2.0 is now streaming on Peacock.
