M3GAN 2.0

In M3GAN 2.0, the female inventor of an android that went rogue must resurrect her murderous creation and give her some upgrades to stop an evil military-grade android that’s trying to merge with another, extremely powerful artificial intelligence placed under lock and key to protect the world. Despite some corny, campy humor, M3GAN 2.O has lots of entertaining thrills with positive redemptive messages about doing the right thing, sacrifice, saving the word, and depending on family, but it also has lots of intense and sometimes scary action violence, a few lewd jokes (mostly about the heroine’s attraction to a handsome cyber security expert), and gratuitous foul language.

Two years after her advanced android went rogue and almost killed her, robotics expert Gemma is warning the world about the dangers of artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, Gemma is having problems being the guardian of her orphaned niece, Cady, who’s now a teenager and is rebelling against Gemma’s rules. Also, Gemma and her two friends are using their robotics expertise to enhance human strength so that the world won’t have to rely so much on robots. Gemma refuses an offer to buy her company from a rich inventor who wants to take Gemma’s inventions and make brain-tech interfaces.

After turning down the offer, Gemma and Cady’s home is invaded that night by FBI and Army agents with a warrant for her arrest. Unknown to Gemma, someone has stolen the underlying tech for her android, M3GAN, and created a military-grade, weaponized android called Amelia. The Army officer in charge tells Gemma that the government thinks she sold her tech, but she denies it. They’re also suspicious because Gemma got such a good deal on the rent for the house where she and Cady are staying.

Eventually, it turns out that M3GAN is not really destroyed. She preserved her computerized intelligence and is the landlord behind the rental property. M3GAN has also imbedded her “mind” into the smart technology of the house. She predicts that Amelia is bound to come after Gemma and Cady. M3GAN tells them she still wants to fulfill her programming to protect Cady at all costs. In fact, she has even had an underground bunker system built into the property where Gemma and Cady can hide from the worldwide destruction Amelia is bound to create.

However, Cady convinces M3GAN and her Aunt Gemma that hiding would not be the right thing to do. She argues they must work together to stop Amelia. This plan becomes even more urgent when they learn that Amelia plans to merge with another, extremely powerful artificial intelligence created by a famous copying machine company (the company is Xerox, but under a different name in the movie).

Gemma doesn’t entirely trust M3GAN. However, she agrees to give M3GAN a new android body, but with a few upgrades to make her stronger, faster and more lethal. Gemma’s two friends, Tess and Cole help.

So, the question becomes, can they stop Amelia and prevent her from merging with the other artificial intelligence? The question is made even more complicated when Gemma and the others learn they have another enemy to overcome, an enemy that manages to kidnap Cady.

M3GAN 2.0 has some corny, campy, tongue-in-cheek humor. Some of the humor works, some of it doesn’t. However, the movie has lots of entertaining thrills to satisfy most moviegoers. It also has strong, positive moral, redemptive messages about doing the right thing, sacrifice and depending on family. M3GAN 2.0 also has lots of intense and sometimes scary action violence. For example, Amelia is a pretty scary villain, and she impales a few Army and FBI agents with a steel javelin in one of the movie’s big fight sequences. Sadly, M3GAN 2.0 also has a few lewd jokes, mostly about the heroine’s attraction to a handsome cyber security expert. There’s also gratuitous foul language. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises strong and extreme caution.