M3GAN 2.0 abandons any pretense of being a horror sequel and commits fully to being a straight-up comedy—a decision that works about half the time. When the film leans into its absurdist tendencies, channeling the self-aware cheekiness of classics like Naked Gun, Austin Powers, or Hot Shots, it genuinely shines. 

Two years after her violent rampage, M3gan returns to help take down Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno), a military bot built with the same tech. M3gan’s creator, Gemma (Allison Williams), has joined forces with Christian (Aristotle Athari), a former tech bro turned anti-AI crusader, to urge the world to curb their reliance on tech. Of course, her adopted daughter Cady (Violet McGraw, who returns as the tween version of the character) is still attached to M3gan and longs for the return of her robot friend.

Meanwhile, shady government agents (Timm Sharp) and other eccentric tech billionaires (Jemaine Clement) want to use this powerful technological tool for their own gains.

Clement brings the laughs in a small role, delivering a pitch-perfect performance embodying everything a certain CEO who shall not be named thinks he represents. His delivery and satirical bite shift the tone toward full comedy, something the movie frequently embraces.

Williams feels underutilized in a role that’s frustratingly bland and basic—something the actress gets saddled with far too often. Cady exists to spout generic cliche after generic cliche, which grows increasingly grating as the film progresses, especially when the movie had previously been more self-aware.

M3GAN 2.0 struggles to keep the jokes coming while still balancing the need to be a PG-13 action movie, but it’s not a complete misfire.

There’s a straight-out-of-DOGE deadpan declaration, “I’m gonna kill them because, to be honest, I don’t really know what they do here,” that feels perfectly biting. Another joke rescues what could have been a very generic sentimental beat and shows the kind of subversive humor that suggests the movie knows what it could be at its best. It understands the camp and memes, and it thrives when it embraces those things.

The film also includes an AI-generated video joke, but in a rare instance of appropriateness, the artificial nature serves the story’s themes. It might be one of the few perfect uses of AI video in a major Hollywood production because it directly relates to the film’s central joke about artificial intelligence.

The script does suffer from what feels like “second-screen syndrome”—the assumption that audiences will be half-watching while scrolling their phones. This leads to excessive exposition, repeated information, and dialogue that tells us what we’re already seeing. 

Pacing becomes an issue in the third act, where the film overstays its welcome by 20-30 minutes. I couldn’t help but think there was a tight, fun 80-90-minute PG-13 comedy somewhere in this 2-hour film.

Much like the first movie, the PG-13 rating is where the movie stumbles, and M3GAN 2.0 can be a bit confused about tone. Fans who embraced the first film as meme-worthy camp will likely find this sequel too safe and basic. Meanwhile, viewers who wanted the original to push horror boundaries beyond its family-friendly rating will be disappointed by this action-over-horror turn. 

The result feels like a movie designed for young teenagers during summer vacation—which, given its release timing, seems to be exactly the target audience.

M3GAN 2.0 works best when it stops trying to be anything other than a self-aware comedy about killer robots and tech industry satire. When it commits to this vision, it achieves genuine laughs and clever social commentary. Unfortunately, these moments seem to be scattered throughout a film that often falls back on generic plot points and a safer storyline.