There was a time when the word “sequel” didn’t mean “do it again, but worse.” A time when a follow-up could actually improve upon the original, even cranking the dial past 11 and blowing the roof off the theater. I’m talking, of course, about Terminator 2: Judgment Day. A film so foundational to my youth that I still hear Brad Fiedel’s metallic score every time I see a mannequin. The themes of trust, sacrifice and technological dread wrapped themselves in a leather jacket and shades, then shot gunned their way into pop-culture immortality.

It wasn’t just cool — it had heart, and it came with a message: the machines may be coming, but humanity isn’t done fighting yet.

Now imagine if T2 was remade as an after-school special that got hijacked by a TikTok influencer with some good dance moves and a killer instinct. That’s M3GAN 2.0 in a nutshell.

It’s the same skeleton: a dangerous AI returns, this time not to kill, but to protect — or so we hope. The surrogate parent figure (still struggling with emotional issues), the not-so-vulnerable child caught in a custody battle of flesh vs. firmware and the ticking clock toward full-blown robot mayhem: it’s all there. But instead of James Cameron’s steely intensity and molten steel vats, we get a killer with the looks of a fashionista serving up between literal killer moves. It’s like someone dared the Hallmark Channel to remake The Matrix, and you know what? I’m not mad about it.

M3GAN 2.0 reunites most of the original cast, with Gemma (Allison Williams) still reeling from her last near-death experience, courtesy of everyone’s favorite homicidal doll (not named Chucky), while her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), seems mostly well-adjusted — at least by “my aunt built a murder-bot” standards. Gemma’s now dating Christian (Aristotle Athari), a glass-half-full idealist leading a global movement to enforce ethical AI use, which naturally puts a giant target on his back.

Enter AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno), a military-grade assassin droid with an axe to grind and a suspiciously familiar software base. As AMELIA starts eliminating people tied with AI programs and sets her sights on Gemma, whose work on M3GAN may have helped spawn this new threat, Gemma, Tess (Jen Van Epps) and Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) decide it’s time to dig up old code and bring M3GAN back online, now in a new, upgraded body built for battle… and possibly, revenge.

(from left) Gemma (Allison Williams), Tess (Jen Van Epps) and Christian (Aristotle Athari) in M3GAN 2.0, directed by Gerard Johnstone.

This film is a mixed bag, plain and simple. Gone are the sharp horror elements that made the original M3GAN such a twisted delight — the creeping dread, the off-kilter tension, the eerie mix of childhood innocence and cold-blooded violence. In their place, M3GAN 2.0 opts for a tone that leans more into action-suspense territory, complete with chase scenes, tech jargon showdowns and the occasional slow-motion strut. It’s less “killer doll in the shadows” and more “cybernetic girlboss with a vengeance.”

That’s not necessarily a bad thing — the film still delivers plenty of entertainment — but the tonal shift might disappoint fans who were hoping for another round of AI-infused horror. Instead, the sequel feels like it’s gunning for blockbuster spectacle, sprinkling in humor to keep things breezy, even when bullets are flying and robots are throwing people through walls. It’s still M3GAN, just with more boom and a little less bite.

That said, there’s no denying that M3GAN 2.0 is having a blast with itself. The set pieces are bigger, the kills are louder and M3GAN’s glow-up is undeniably badass. She’s less creepy-crawly and more “runway terminator,” dropping oneliners like she’s auditioning for Fast & Furious: Skynet Drift. Ivanna Sakhno’s AMELIA makes for a solid antagonist — cold, precise and terrifyingly efficient — but the film never quite lets her breathe as a character, the way M3GAN did in her debut. She is shown only in brief moments, mainly in fighting scenes. Very little background is given other than she has a self-imposed mission to release more artificial intelligent droids on the world. There’s a spark missing in the villainy department, and that absence is felt most when the film tries to drum up emotional stakes.

I give M3GAN 2.0 a solid three out of five stars. It’s entertaining, sure — even thrilling in bursts — but it also feels like a sequel caught between genres. It wants to be a cautionary tale, a sci-fi action flick and a tech-world satire all at once. But in reaching for that bigger sandbox, it sacrifices some of the sharp, satirical edge that made the original stand out. It’s got Terminator 2 ambitions, no doubt — the “threat becomes the savior” arc is clear — but unlike T2, which deepened its characters and its world, this sequel trades nuance for neon and forgets that just because your robot looks cooler, doesn’t mean the story hits harder.

Still, for all its tonal juggling and narrative shortcuts, there’s something charmingly unhinged about watching M3GAN step into full-blown anti-hero mode. Whether she’s sparring with AMELIA or roasting someone mid-battle, she brings a twisted kind of charisma that’s hard to look away from. And in a cinematic landscape increasingly filled with recycled IPs and soulless sequels, M3GAN 2.0 at least feels like it’s trying something different — even if it doesn’t always stick the landing.

Like the AI at its core, it’s a work in progress… and yeah, I’ll probably be there opening weekend for M3GAN 3: Rise of the Snarkbots.