A wise man once said, “You can never predict popularity”. (@Copyright: Me. Just now) In other words, something expected to be popular might flunk it in a major fashion, and something unexpected might capture the zeitgeist and go viral for the most bizarre reasons. With that last description, you need only look at 2022’s M3gan (and her funky corridor dance). A minor-but-fun entry from Blumhouse, this PG-13 sci-fi horror became something much more, mostly due to the depiction of the snarky girl-droid who was quite happy to pull the ears off bully boys and slash open disposable characters. Winningly voiced with droll inflexions by You-Tuber Jenna Davis and bodily represented by the talented (then) 12-year-old dancer Amie Donald, the littlest villain somehow caught the imagination of a wider audience and with more than just the Blumhouse appreciation society, with some of the audience responding enthusiastically to the deliberately cartoonish violence and camp aesthetic. And this was the year before the “Barbie” movie made dolls hip again with tongue-in-cheek humour and under-the-counter references to missing genitalia. So, a sequel was naturally expected. What probably wasn’t expected until the first footage confirmed it was that the Terminator 2 switcheroo was going to be pulled, and the camp element was going to become CAMP AF!! With the two M3gan actresses returning, Alison Williams, Violet McGraw, and other survivors of the first film join them again. Now on global release (ahead of some heavy hitters in July), let’s tech a look.

 

Taking place two years after the first film, roboticist Gemma (Williams) is still (poorly) parenting her niece Cady (McGraw). Shocked by the actions of the defeated AI-driven M3gan robot, she writes books advocating the control of artificial intelligence and works with her old (surviving) colleagues, making smart exosuits. She is unaware that the US Government surreptitiously got its hands on M3gan’s schematics, created a warbot called Amelia (Autonomous Military Engagement Logistics and Infiltration Android… yeah, I know, they’re stretching), and have just sent it on its first mission. In a hugely predictable twist, Amelia goes rogue and starts to act autonomously, hunting down and killing those involved in her creation for some unknown purpose. This puts Gemma and Cady in her crosshairs, but (as we know from the stinger in the first film), M3gan’s AI programme had downloaded itself into their home’s security software and has managed to hop around online and continue to protect Cady in a limited fashion. When she reveals herself, she appears to have “matured” and outgrown her wildly homicidal tendencies… at least to some extent. However trustworthy she now is, Gemma and Cady will have to rely on her “particular set of skills” to save them from Amelia.

 

On seeing the premise and snippets of bot-battling, most people assume that “M 2.0” is the Terminator 2 of the franchise. In other words, the villain of the first film is somehow transformed into the hero of the second film, in order to fight a bigger “bad”. And that’s sort of what happens here. But rather than the “tough love” and ruggedness of “T2”, the tone of this film is more like Mission: Impossible Vs Austin Powers, with a touch of Bond and Upgrade thrown in. If that sounds exceedingly messy and unfocused, well, that’s because it absolutely is. Gone are the tips of the hat to the horror genre and any creepy vibes. The best you’re gonna get here is brief blood-spatter and a fake-looking severed arm. To give you an idea of the aesthetics in this respect: A character has his head punched off, but only the shadow is seen; Amelia snaps a man’s neck, but before it’s shown, the scene quickly changes to a “Breaking News” spot (Geddit?!). That’s the level of maturity being dealt out. It’s disappointing because there are a couple of fine wasted scenes that could have been majorly creepy and continued the tone of the original. Amelia’s disembodied… err… body parts peek out of luggage, and her limbs start to crawl about, but it’s played out with no sense of suspense or ghoulishness. A headless exosuit comes alive and tries to strangle a character, but this too is shot as just another action sequence when it had so much more genre potential.

 

The whole thing is camp. Maybe not as camp as you would think from the trailer. The bearded and bewigged individual from that footage (“She is a red-hot smoking princess!”) is notable for their absence. However, it still manages (at certain times) to be as camp as Campy McCampface camping in Camptown. Case in point being an excruciating scene where an apologetic M3gan serenades Gemma with “This Woman’s Work” by Kate Bush. I am not making that up! And it goes on for far too long to be funny. And of course, everything stops for a contrived set piece where a K-Pop-suited M3gan performs a robot dance to a delighted crowd. But at least that has a funny payoff (“Shit”). And that’s the main source of positivity to be found with this extremely chaotic sequel that never really finds its feet. It is very entertaining in parts, has some decent fight scenes, and has some genuinely hilarious moments. The best example of this is the moment where M3gan performs a lip-reading of a disliked male character from across the room, deliberately mistranslating the sentence, “I have the greatest of respect for China”, as “I have a yeast infection in my vagina”. Yes, it’s puerile, but funny in the moment, due to always-on-point delivery from voice actor Davis.

 

You can probably judge the inherent goofiness of the film from that childish example, but other moments can either hit or miss in that respect. When M3gan hijacks a sleek sports car, the theme from “Knight Rider” plays, almost in its entirety!  Often, it goes too far, making that earlier comparison to Austin Powers accurate. A seduction scene plays out in pure AP style (with an overacting Jemaine Clement being bitch-slapped by Amelia as he bares his chest). In another scene, a character knocks himself out at a crucial moment by blowing his nose on a chloroformed tissue. On top of all this, the narrative has several twists, which include the revelation of a villain's plot that makes not one iota of sense. And that’s not to mention M3gan’s secret lair in the basement and the base holding a MacGuffin that is impregnable. What kind of film does this want to be? You’re never quite sure.

 

To be fair, amidst the camp, cod-Bond missions, and endless exposition dumps (there are at least three of those that go on forever), there are some quite decent fight sequences, although they do shamelessly rip off Leigh Whannell’s Upgrade from 2018, both visually and thematically. But it’s still kind of cool seeing the title character engage in Bruce Lee-inspired fisticuffs or an unconscious character still kick butt with the aid of AI. It does seem overly rushed and disjointed in many respects, but at least it means that when a scene is giving you the ick and falling flat, there’s probably a cracking put-down from an auto-tuned Davis on the way. The antagonism between Gemma and the AI is still amusing, but the original messages about “easy parenting” and dealing with grief are lost in the noise of everything else. If there is a message here, it seems to be “All we are saying is give AI a chance.”

 

The character of M3gan herself does still have value, mostly due to the good work of Davis and Donald. Ivanna Sakhno doesn’t have as much joy with Amelia, playing her through most of the film as if one of those Fembots from Austin Powers (yes, that again) had wandered onto the set and was written into the scene. William’s Gemma seems to be annoyed with everybody all the time for no real reason, until she gets a chance to punch somebody (and M3gan makes a pithy comment about that). McGraw fares a bit better, with her character showing some strength (and Aikido moves!), being well removed from the “whiny” persona that the trailer suggested. But overall, and apart from the torturous and obvious path given to M3gan to turn her into “one of the good guys”, there are no real standout character moments. The messy plot moves much too quickly to allow anything like that. Come the end, you would probably struggle to explain the nuances of the “story” to someone who hadn’t seen it and end up confusing yourself. Never a good sign. And can we have a rest from homicidal AIs now for a while? If M3gan has to come back, can she fight a Kaiju, a Predator, or something? I dunno…  

 

So, it’s not great. It’s more Short Circuit 2 than Terminator 2. Yes, it is mindless entertainment that will pass two hours of your time fairly painlessly (apart from that bloody Kate Bush song…). But you can’t help thinking that the total snubbing of the horror influences from the first film is a mistake. In a bid to (presumably) create more memes and clout, most of the emphasis has been put on ridiculous plot contrivances, easy humour, and a willingness to succumb to PG-13 sensibilities (Spot the single use of the F-bomb again). And that may be reflected in some of the mixed reviews and a tepid opening in the States (4th place behind “F1” and two out-for-a-while family films). We don’t have to worry about the future of the franchise, as the Soulm8te spinoff is due in Winter ('Fatal attraction with robots', their words, not mine). But as to whether M3gan will (*sigh*) “slay” once again… that remains to be seen. But this may well have been a misstep for the intended franchise and is very unlikely to have the same longevity and support that its predecessor enjoyed.