‘M3GAN 2.0’ 4K UHD Blu-ray (review)

Universal Studios

Three years after her debut, the overprotective guardian doll with a killer operating system is back, being resurrected by a reluctant Gemma (Allison Williams) when her tech is stolen and used as the blueprint for the lethal, military-grade infiltration unit AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno).

Much to the dismay of her niece Cady (Violet McGraw), Gemma has no choice but to upgrade M3GAN substantially in order to be able to fight fire with fire, which raises the obvious question; can M3GAN be trusted?

What made M3GAN a pleasant surprise was how well-developed the script was, giving Williams and McGraw sufficient material to work with as their dynamic was imbued with more nuance than most would have predicted.

The horror aspect of the film was modest at best, with campiness playing a bigger role since killer dolls are a rather niche pocket of horror after all, thus leaving too much wriggle room to be anything but menacing, something even Chucky, the king of killer dolls, has seen plenty of, as his franchise increasingly embraced camp horror comedy over the more conventional horror of the original.

Another thing that kept M3GAN from fully embracing its prospects to horrify was how it was hampered by the restrictions imposed by its PG-13 rating, a rating that is still in place for her second outing, albeit a restrictive rating need not be the end all and be all of a horror film.

For those who were hoping to see M3GAN get up to more unnerving antics the second time around after her mild-mannered introduction, M3GAN 2.0 will likely disappoint, as the filmmakers have gone all in on the camp factor with cheesy gusto seldom seen outside of over-conceptualized family adventure flicks of the late 90s and early 2000s.

As such, for those who enjoyed the more humorous aspects of the first film, there is much entertainment value to be found in the sequel, where M3GAN becomes a walking, talking, yassified meme version of herself.

While there is indeed superficial amusement in the quipping of M3GAN 2.0 from time to time, this comes at the cost of any meaningful sense of peril being built and sustained in favor of jokes, gags and set pieces, detracting from the compelling capabilities that were present the first time around due to its ability to balance emotional themes and dynamics with campy horror.

This over-reliance on camp also drowns out Sakhno’s impressive physical performance, which loses most of the menace it would have had in a different setting, as she would have made a formidable Terminator indeed.

Additionally, a runtime of two hours feels needlessly long for a film of this type, with the pacing often dragging as M3GAN & Co. moves from one set piece to another without much narrative intrigue along the way.

Horror is generally alive and well in 2025, however, calling M3GAN 2.0 a horror film is virtually a miscategorization, as the sequel displays more aspects associated with science fiction and adventure than horror, and while it is not necessarily a bad thing for sequels to examine different genres, it comes with a built-in risk of alienating its target audience, as some will undoubtedly find it too far removed from its predecessor.

Extras include featurettes.

Verdict: 5 out of 10.