The bet­ter moments are in the fric­tion between M3GAN and her human com­pan­ions; the eccen­tric­i­ties of her being pro­grammed for chil­dren clash­ing with sim­mer­ing anger from the first film. It​’s bet­ter (and fun­nier) in build­ing on the adver­sar­i­al rela­tion­ships made in the first film; the best call­back sees her phys­i­cal­ly forc­ing Gem­ma to sit and lis­ten to her belt­ing out an insuf­fer­able radio song after a pep talk. 

It​’s bet­ter still when the com­e­dy cross­es with sin­cere ques­tions about M3GAN​’s per­son­hood, and that she phy­i­cal­ly feels this believ­able is a cred­it to the film​’s ani­ma­tron­ics team. It’s less charm­ing, how­ev­er, when M3GAN speaks like Ben­der from Futu­ra­ma (​“Alright, meat sacks”), or worse, a Dead­pool-esque fig­ure who yells things like, ​“Hold on to your vagi­nas!” before reck­less­ly dri­ving a supercar.

When John­stone​’s not aggres­sive­ly expand­ing M3GAN lore, there​’s some align­ment between M3GAN​’s (mis­guid­ed and amus­ing­ly mor­bid) attempts at win­ning over her human com­pan­ions, and M3GAN 2.0​’s own charm offen­sive. In all of its quips and sur­pris­ing­ly ener­getic action, it​’s riff­ing on Mis­sion Impos­si­ble and Ter­mi­na­tor 2 plot­ting and it​’s active­ly try­ing to be a crowd pleas­er. But the film­mak­er some­times overex­tends: some of the fights do become a lit­tle numb­ing after a while. 

Sim­i­lar­ly, for a sequel where the main char­ac­ter is hound­ed by the mis­takes of the their past, M3GAN 2.0 runs back a few of the same stick­ing points — name­ly some labo­ri­ous pac­ing which, here, is exac­er­bat­ed by the sheer amount of sto­ry there is. It​’s hard not to wish for a lit­tle more econ­o­my, espe­cial­ly when there are so many moments where the appeal of a sil­li­er fol­low-up feel clear­er. Despite occa­sion­al­ly indulging its worse instincts, there’s still a sur­pris­ing amount of fun to be had with M3GAN 2.0 – a big­ger and fun­nier sequel which could stand to pull back on both of those elements.