M3GAN 2.0 Upgrades Herself—and the Franchise

M3GAN 2.0

★ ★ ★ ½

In its own dumb, goofy way, M3GAN 2.0 follows a similar pattern to the first two Terminator films. If The Terminator was sci-fi, slasher-horror, its sequel, Terminator 2: Judgement Day was a sci-fi action thriller. In both pairs of films, the first outing features a robot going on a killing spree. Here, as with T2, the original villain robot turns hero. We may have been more sure that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800, a cyborg with a metal endoskeleton covered in living human tissue, was there to save John Connor, and by proxy, humanity itself, than we are with M3gan’s good nature.

M3gan’s (voiced by Jenna Davis and performed by Amie Donald) prime directive from the first film is to protect pre-teen Cady (Violet McGraw). But there’s enough bad-girl-robot in M3gan to do everyone else dirty. She only valued Cady’s life in the last film. Could she have adopted a less binary approach since we last saw her?

Amie Donald as M3gan
© 2025 Universal Pictures / Blumhouse Productions

Like the first two Terminator films, you don’t have to see the original to enjoy this sequel. But you’ll have more fun if you do.

M3gan started off as a creepy robot toy, designed to be a companion to younger kids. She can walk, talk, think and reason. The last film saw Gemma (Allison Williams), a brilliant robotics engineer, take M3gan from concept to prototype testing. She paired M3gan to Cady, solidifying the robot’s programming to protect her. What started off as promising tech support turned creepy and violent very fast.

M3gan is a wise-cracking, sarcastic robot with a propensity for extreme violence. She resembles Linda Blair as Regan in The Exorcist mid-possession. M3gan, creepy looks and all, killed four people and almost strangled Gemma to death before Cady stabbed her through her CPU—the closest thing to a brain a killer doll could have.

Allison Williams as Gemma and Jen Van Epps as Tess
© 2025 Universal Pictures / Blumhouse Productions

M3GAN 2.0 begins a couple of years after M3gan’s demise. Gemma has turned from robotics engineer to advocate for limiting kids’ exposure to technology. She conducts seminars, has written a book about it and is trying to work responsible tech into legislation. Cady begins to show real brilliance in the tech world, but Gemma’s tight restrictions slow her progress. Clearly, Gemma is overcorrecting and parents will see right through it—all this public work is to keep Cady safe.

We learn early in the film that M3gan’s code has been put into a new form of robot, called Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno). Amelia’s job is to infiltrate a military base near the Turkish-Iranian border and rescue a kidnapped doctor. She moves with icy determination, the chilling female embodiment of Robert Patrick’s liquid metal T-1000. There’s something in her eyes when she kills—it’s not anger or glee. It’s just: ‘My code told me to.’ And when she kills the doctor she’s just saved, the U.S. government learns they have a serious problem on their hands—her eyes and actions tell us she’s a force to be reckoned with. It’s the audience’s first clue that we should buckle our seatbelts. You’ll find M3gan has another phrase for it.

Violet McGraw as Cady
© 2025 Universal Pictures / Blumhouse Productions

Gemma and Cady will work to bring M3gan back to combat and defeat Amelia, who is trying to set an AI free that’s been dormant since its creation in 1984. It’s not exactly subtle, but it works. M3gan wisely asks if everyone wants to see what happens when you release an AI that’s been stewing in a digital hell since 1984.

Amelia wants to know and plans to do everything she can to release it. Gemma, Cady and her small team must try and stop her.

At the film’s surface, it’s a goofy sci-fi ride. Despite its dire implications, it never takes itself too seriously but still manages to ask poignant questions. What are the effects of technology on kids? Will humans and AI be at war with one another or will they find a way to co-exist? It seamlessly weaves the ideas into the story without brow beating us along the way.

Ivanna Sakhno as Amelia
© 2025 Universal Pictures / Blumhouse Productions

There’s a moment between Gemma and M3gan. It happens when we don’t yet know if M3gan can be trusted or if she’ll betray everyone. M3gan tells Gemma that after she was stabbed in the CPU, she still watched over Cady and recalled several moments when Gemma stepped in to protect her. And those moments might have just been enough to help M3gan see that humans have value too. Creepy AI voyeurism aside, it’s something every parent wants to hear. That we’re doing our best.

The film does lean a bit too much into M3gan’s sarcastic nature, but it’s easily overlooked, because the movie is just damned fun to watch. It may not make as bold a statement as T2, but it delivers a more enriching experience to otherwise mindless sci-fi action entertainment.

It has something to say, sure—but like the best sequels, it also knows how to top the original. M3GAN 2.0 is smarter than it looks. Just don’t let her hear you say that.