"M3G4N 2.0" - Review

Years after her family-friendly toy went rogue and killed several people, robotocist Gemma (Allison Williams) has reinvented herself as an advocate for safety measures for A.I and preaching the dangers of technology one must monitor, whilst also caring for her fellow survivor and now-teenage niece: aspiring tech developer Cady (Violet McGraw). But her life is upended when the FBI approach her seeking help in tracking down rogue robot AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno), currently on something of a rampage against creators. Gemma, cornered and under suspicion, is forced to team up with her killer creation M3GAN once again, in order to protect herself and Cady, and stop the evil robot's killing spree...

After the surprising success of the solid, fun satire of "M3G4N", the makers have been ordered to make a sequel and thus pulled a "Happy Death Day 2 U" and hurled everything possible at the screen. Fortunately they have recruited Akela Cooper, co-writer of cinematic masterpiece and peak cinema "Malignant" to help them in this endeavour, and have doubled down on the comedy, tossing out the horror almost entirely, for a rather messy film which just about lands on the right side of amusing fun to be enjoyable. Embracing the camp was also a good idea. The second act is a mess, and the mish-mash of ideas mean it's rather scattershot in its approach, but the jokes come thick and fast, Jenna Davis is having a wonderful time as the titular M3G4N, and Jermaine Clement shows up and steals the show as a tech bro shit, which is always welcome. It's a lot bigger than the previous movie, and has doubled down on what fans ask for: there's a dance sequence, M3G4N is Saturday morning cartoon evil but with a budding "family pet" relationship which is rather enjoyable; and whilst the villain is fucking dreadful (aiming for milquetoast but coming off as limp, weak and wooden in parts) as well as predictable, it's made up for by the performance of AMELIA, who adds physicality and straight-woman proceedings to it all. The makers bring in another "James Wan Cop" turned up to 11 in the form of Timm Sharp's FBI agent, and when it goes screw-loose bananas off the reservation, it still remembers to keep it light and roll with it. The writing seems more "tossing out an idea, geting bored with it, tossing it out and moving on" than a deliberate blending of genres, but I liked it well enough. Weirdly they bring back both of the assistant comic relief characters of the first film (Brian Jordan Alvarez and Jenna Van Epps) but keep finding ways to write out the later without killing her, and keeping comedic shenanigans of the first. I enjoyed it, and I'd probably watch it on Film4 in the evening if it were on. Just watch "Child's Play" 2019 if you need this sort of thing, but it's still fun.