Directed By Gerard Johnstone

Starring – Allison Williams, Jemaine Clement, Violet McGraw

The Plot – Two years after M3GAN’s rampage, her creator, Gemma (Williams), resorts to resurrecting her infamous creation in order to take down Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno), the military-grade weapon who was built by a defense contractor who stole M3GAN’s (Jenna Davis) underlying tech.

Rated PG-13 for strong violent content, bloody images, some strong adult language, sexual material, and brief drug references.

M3GAN 2.0 | Official Trailer

POSITIVES

Being that the first movie surprisingly attained positive notoriety for a horror film that dropped in the month of January, you would expect the producers and Johnstone to practically run back repetition, in order to capitalize further on audience needs, but “Megan 2.0” is both a creative and tonal upgrade that deviates exponentially from its predecessor, making this feel like an entirely unique film all together, and one that subverts audience expectations ambitiously. Similar to James Cameron’s path with the Terminator franchise, this sequel becomes a science fiction/action hybrid that also sees its titular antagonist now serving as civilization’s only hope against a far more advanced cyborg with its own darkly devastating history. The comparisons to “Terminator 2” certainly don’t stop there, but the evolution to action gives the franchise a fresh indulgence that maximizes its durability as a rumored five-film franchise, with swiftly executed action sequences, particularly during those involving Megan and Amelia squaring off, that seemingly play all the more complimentary to the movie’s PG-13 rating than those bloodless kills to the original’s horror that left so much more to be desired. The action certainly isn’t anything groundbreaking, but it is executed with smoothly crisp and cerebral fight choreography and deviated motions of the lens that seamlessly follows the responses and intensity of the cyborgs alike, appraising an overwhelming element of resiliency for each of them that is at least fun to watch with all of its scenery destroying devastation. In addition to the deviation to action, Johnstone’s return in the director’s chair is also responsible for the movie’s consistent success, particularly in how he maintains the self-aware silliness in atmosphere that keeps the material ultimately from taking itself too seriously. This aspect helps to give Megan the unapologetic attitude that has made her a cultural icon for LGBTQ audiences, but beyond that helps to maintain the fun factor for a movie that indulges a little too incessantly in an unnecessary two hour runtime, and while the gags are probably 50/50 at best, in terms of effectiveness, Megan gives the film a much-needed shot of adrenaline when she finally does materialize, at almost an hour into the movie, feeling like one of the only evidential similarities to its predecessor, that will likely cement the experience for anyone who enjoyed that original effort. As for the screenplay, you don’t exactly watch a Megan movie for cunning social commentary, but there are a couple of compelling conversations about the responsibilities of artificial intelligence that seem to speak directly to our very own conflicts with these devices, helping to cement range for a movie that can otherwise be fairly labeled as just serviceably entertaining. While the script only approaches these observations disappointingly at a surface level, I do appreciate any movie that conscientiously mirrors the best and worst of our own world, crafting a narrative that simply lays out all of the facts, instead of articulating A.I as the menacing evil that literally every film before it has made it out to be. Finally, in terms of improvements from its predecessor, I found the production design to emulate a far more expansive budget that is fully realized within the movie’s imagery, as well as the performances from its returning ensemble to once again step seamlessly into their respective roles that breathe life back into these characters. On the former, everything from the lighting, to the editing, to even the shot composition feels far more stylistically alluring than the drab color scheme present during its first chapter, and on the latter, Alison Williams once again gives meaningfully layered work as the story’s protagonist, while juggling familial and career adversity, but it’s ultimately Jenna Davis and newcomer Ivanna Sakhno that captivate the strongest screen presence to their droid encompassing’s. Davis’ impeccable timing with observational humor is among her strongest qualities to Megan’s personality, with an intentionally dry and monotonous delivery that slices those she zeroes in on, while tenderly tickling the audience who adore her depiction, and Sakhno’s physicality and imposing facial registries do more than enough to cement her as the next big action star, allowing her dominating actions to do all of the talking as this unstoppable force of nature.

NEGATIVES

While I definitely enjoyed “Megan 2.0” more than its predecessor, it’s still a very conflicting and testing engagement, as a result of a screenplay that makes it very difficult to remain faithfully focused in so much convoluted storytelling that certainly strained my patience throughout two hours of the engagement. The opening act without Megan is painfully dry and excruciatingly expositional, not only in bridging the gap between films with where our human protagonists are at since we last left them, but also with zeroing in on certain aspects to these newfound characters that predictably telegraph eventual twists, long before they come to fruition, and with prolonged unnecessary padding like those involving Megan singing to Gemma taking so much time away from the important dynamic of Katie and Megan, or the dwindling focus on Amelia during the movie’s second half, the pacing of the product never finds a comfortable momentum to constantly push forward, leaving its consistency a bit choppy and individualized from feeling like one cohesive product. On those aforementioned twists, there are quite a few of them that overcomplicate what should be an otherwise effortless execution, and while I patiently waited for the promised confrontation between androids to manifest, I found myself further losing interest in a story requiring so many plot holes and contrivances to committedly tell it, with some of the dumbest and most irresponsible character decisions that I have seen in a film, this year. On top of this, even with the pleasantries unloaded at the movie’s production, there are still an abundance of issues with the computer-generated special effects that stand out glaringly through some of the film’s most entrancing action set pieces, keeping it from still finding a nuance to Megan’s anabolic motions that feel seamlessly effortless. Part of the problem is certainly that the technology still isn’t there to breed believability to the choppy motions of a character crawling down a wall or contorting their body in ways the human actresses embodying them can’t possibly attain, but I found just as much hinderance in the speed of these motions that made them stand out like a sore thumb during long lingering shots that focused intently on them, creating glaring distractions to some of the movie’s biggest payoffs, and far more than the forgivable first few instances that served during the movie’s opening ten minutes. On top of this, while it pains me to point out a terrible performance, the work of former Saturday Night Live cast member Aristotle Athari simply can’t be overlooked, especially considering he plays such a prominent role to the dynamic of the movie’s conflict the longer that it persists into the second hour. Athari is a solidly realistic casting for what the movie eventually asks of him, but emotionally falls flat at every single opportunity of his most memorable scenes, with line reads that feel like questions instead of observations, taking all of the wind and momentum out of the confrontations that he’s involved with, while incapably balancing conflicts away from the Megan versus Amelia showdown that served as my only reason to want to see the film.

OVERALL
“Megan 2.0” slays a much-needed creative upgrade as a science fiction/action hybrid that delivers just enough campy fun and confrontational thrills to cement an evidential improvement for this popular franchise, despite a scatterbrained script that tests the patience of the audience throughout an overly long two hour engagement. Problems aside, the sequel captivates with a chaotic cat fight that entertainingly delivers during a third act climax, all the while pushing us to debate the responsibilities of artificial intelligence as a means of convenience, rather than annihilating Armageddon.

My Grade: 6.3 or C-