Amie Donald Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘M3GAN 2.0,’ starring Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ivanna Sakhno and Jemaine Clement

June 25, 2025

by Carla Hay

Amie Donald and Ivanna Sakhno in “M3GAN 2.0” (Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures)

Directed by Gerard Johnstone

Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in San Francisco, the action comedy film “M3GAN 2.0” (a sequel to 2023’s “M3GAN”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A roboticist/artificial intelligence expert and her 12-year-old niece rebuild an A.I.-operated doll to fight a nefarious A.I.-operated robot that is a rogue mercenary serial killer.

Culture Audience: “M3GAN 2.0” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the vastly superior “M3GAN,” but most viewers will be very disappointed at how drastically different these two movies are in genre and quality.

Violet McGraw and Allison Williams in “M3GAN 2.0” (Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures)

“M3GAN 2.0” should be subtitled “M3GAN’s Mishandled Identity Crisis.” In this messy and convoluted sequel, the titular robot doll has changed from being a campy horror villain to an action comedy hero. The villain is an uninteresting adult M3gan look-alike. M3gan (whose name is pronounced “Megan”) doesn’t appear as a dress-wearing, ass-kicking doll until halfway through the movie. Those are some of the major things wrong with this occasionally amusing but ultimately very disappointing sequel.

Although it’s obvious that the “M3GAN 2.0” filmmakers didn’t want to copy too much from 2023’s “M3GAN,” the results are unnecessary and baffling retoolings that have turned this sequel into an overstuffed caper involving spies and terrorists in the corporate technology industry. “M3GAN 2.0” was written and directed by Gerard Johnstone, who directed “M3GAN.” Akela Cooper wrote “M3GAN,” which was a very entertaining and hilarious movie about a robot doll named M3gan (an acronym for Model 3 Generative Android) that goes to deadly extremes to protect the girl who owns her.

Cooper was originally announced as a screenwriter for “M3GAN 2.0.” But somewhere along the way, Johnstone got the sole screenwriting credit for “M3GAN 2.0,” and Cooper is credited only with being one of the people who came up with the movie’s story concept. Therefore, it seems like Johnstone should get most of the blame for the final version of “M3GAN 2.0,” which is a misguided extreme makeover of the “M3GAN” franchise.

Is it necessary to see “M3GAN” before seeing “M3GAN 2.0”? Yes. “M3GAN 2.0” has so many inside jokes and oblique references to “M3GAN,” viewers won’t fully understand what’s going on in “M3GAN 2.0” without seeing “M3GAN” first. It’s also necessary to see “M3GAN” first to know how far the franchise has fallen in creative quality with “M3GAN 2.0.”

In “M3GAN” (which takes place in San Francisco), the titular doll was created by a toy company’s roboticist named Gemma Forrester (played by Allison Williams) so the doll could be a companion for Gemma’s lonely 8-year-old orphaned niece Cady (played by Violet McGraw), whose parents were killed in a car accident. Gemma is now Cady’s legal guardian. With good intentions, Gemma programmed M3gan (played by Amie Donald, voiced by Jenna Davis, who have the same roles in “M3GAN 2.0”) to be protective of Cady. However, M3gan becomes a serial killer of anyone who causes even the slightest of harm (such as being rude) to Cady.

“M3GAN 2.0” begins near the Iran-Pakistan border, by showing a life-sized female robot named Amelia (played by Ivanna Sakhno) killing a scientist named Naveen Parvathi (played by Mayen Mehta) and stealing a neurotoxin chemical from the scientist. Amelia had been programmed to steal the neurotoxin but not kill anyone to get it. It’s later explained that Amelia’s name is an acronym for Autonomous Military Engagement Logistics and Infiltration Android.

Amelia is a robot that was secretly created by the U.S. government with the same artificial intelligence (A.I.) that was implemented to create M3gan. And just like M3gan, Amelia has gone rogue and turned into a killing machine. It’s soon revealed that Amelia wants to kill every person who had anything to do with creating her. Gemma is one of Amelia’s targets. And, by extension, Cady is a target of Amelia too.

In “M3GAN 2.0,” Gemma still lives in San Francisco with Cady, who is now 12 years old. (“M3GAN 2.0” was actually filmed in New Zealand.) Cady is still a loner at school, but now Cady knows aikido, so she can defend herself against bullies. The movie has a short scene where Cady puts her aikido skills to use against a “mean girl” named Sapphire (played by Zara Nausbaum), who harasses Cady in a school hallway. In fact, Cady is seen spending so little time with kids her own age in “M3GAN 2.0,” she might as well be homeschooled.

Part of the charm of “M3GAN” was seeing how Cady emotionally bonded with M3gan. Because Cady is now 12 years old and presumably too old to play with dolls, you won’t see any of that type close “friendship” in “M3GAN 2.0.” Instead, “M3GAN 2.0” makes Cady a side character and puts the prickly and unlikable Gemma front and center as the main protagonist. It’s another bad decision on display in this substandard sequel. Cady (who was a central character in “M3GAN”) looks lost in M3GAN 2.0,” which makes Cady look like an out-of-place kid among the adults who make all the important decisions.

Gemma is ambitious and wants to present herself as a do-gooder because she feels guilty about all the mayhem that M3GAN caused. Gemma now works for the Center for Safe Technology, a non-profit foundation. The foundation’s purpose is to educate about the danger of irresponsibly applied A.I. and to advocate for A.I. to be used responsibly.

At the same time, Gemma also owns and operates a financially struggling scientific lab based out of her home. The lab is trying to get seed money for an invention called an exosuit. People who wear the exosuit can have superpowers that are generated by A.I., so that people can do superhuman tasks and won’t be replaced by robots. It’s at this point in “M3GAN 2.0” where you start to see that “M3GAN 2.0” isn’t going to be a horror movie at all but instead will be a weak imitation of a comedic superhero movie.

Two of Gemma’s lab employees are people she used to work with at the toy company where she worked in “M3GAN”: Tess (played by Jen Van Epps) is quick-thinking and logical, while Cole (played by Brian Jordan Alvarez) is awkward and insecure. At the Center for Safe Technology, Gemma works closely with a smooth-talking former cybersecurity executive named Christian Bradley (played by Aristotle Athari), who handles most of the public relations for the Center for Safe Technology. Christian is romantically attracted to Gemma, but the feeling isn’t mutual.

Shortly after Gemma and her colleagues find out that the lab’s computer system has been hacked, they get a business offer from a sleazy billionaire named Alton Appleton (played by Jemaine Clement), the owner of a technology company called Altwave. Alton wants to own the rights to the exosuit, but Gemma doesn’t want to sell the rights to him. She also refuses Alton’s offer to use an Altwave neurochip that Alton says is needed to improve the exosuit. Gemma tells Alton: “We’re not going to be part of a company that turns people into cyborgs.”

Alton brags that he has multiple Ph.D.s, but he acts like an ignorant buffoon. Clement’s comedic talents aren’t put to very good use because the screenplay is so lazy in making Alton such a generic cliché of a tech billionaire who hides his dorkiness behind a playboy persona. Meanwhile, the U.S. federal government has passed a bi-partisan bill that will allow more freedom for companies to use A.I. for use in human-like robots. Gemma believes this bill will leave room for more abuse of power.

What does all of this have to do with M3gan, the title character of this movie franchise? M3gan, as a computer program, still exists but she needs a physical body. M3gan reappears in Gemma’s life, and Gemma puts M3gan in the body of a green toy robot, which M3gan accurately describes as looking like a Teletubbie. Gemma doesn’t want Cady to know that M3gan has come back, so Gemma gives the name Moxie to the Teletubbie-looking robot body that M3gan has.

For the first half of the movie, M3gan is stuck in this Teletubbie body instead of looking like the iconic doll that she’s supposed to be. M3gan (as Moxie) does a lot of whining about being stuck in this Teletubbie body. There’s some time-wasting nonsense about Gemma trying to keep it a secret from Cady that M3gan has returned. Cady eventually finds out the truth, of course.

The plot gets even more complicated when Gemma is suspected of being the mastermind of Amelia’s deadly rampage. The U.S. government puts Gemma under investigation for treason and illegal arms trafficking. Gemma is interrogated and stalked by Tim Stattler (played by Timm Sharp), a U.S. Army colonel who tells Gemma that he has a warrant to put surveillance on her computer devices. Col. Stattler says he works in the Army’s “defensive innovation” division.

Amelia is on the loose and uses various disguises and aliases, acts like a femme fatale spy who tracks down Alton. When Gemma finds out about Amelia, M3gan convinces Gemma and her team to re-assemble M3gan to be look like the doll she was meant to be, except that M3GAN wants to taller, stronger and faster than she used to be in this doll body. And you can bet that the exosuit invention will be a part of these hijinks.

None of the above is spoiler information because it’s all revealed in the “M3GAN 2.0” trailers. Willliams is one of the producers of “M3GAN 2.0,” which is probably one of the reasons why Gemma gets much more screen time than Cady. Horror master James Wan (one of the creators of in the “Saw,” “Insidious” and “The Conjuring” franchises) is a producer of “M3GAN” and “M3GAN 2.0,” but it was major blunder to let Johnstone take over the screenwriting for “M3GAN 2.0.”

One of the problems with the Amelia character is that she looks too similar to M3gan: Amelia and M3gan have got the same pretty porcelain doll face, slender build and vacant stare. Unlike the lively M3gan, Amelia has a lifeless and boring personality. A better movie would’ve made Amelia devilishly snarky, with just as many quippy and sassy jokes as M3gan. It’s no fun to watch M3gan battle against a villain who might be a formidable physical opponent but who doesn’t snap back with cutting lines of dialogue.

“M3GAN 2.0” has some jokes and comedic situations that can generate some laughs. But much of the comedy is crude commentary about female anatomy. During one part of the part when M3gan says, “Hold on to your vaginas,” it might sound funny, but there’s nothing really clever or imaginative this type of joke. The serviceable acting performances in “M3GAN 2.0” are stifled by a bloated screenplay that tries to cram in too many ideas, most of which don’t work well when compared to the first “M3GAN” movie.

The action scenes in “M3GAN 2.0” are adequate, but horror fans will be severely let down that there is nothing scary about “M3GAN 2.0.” This movie’s marketing is very misleading because the truth is that it takes too long in “M3GAN 2.0” for M3gan to appear as a doll. Worst of all, “M3GAN 2.0” has lost much of the charisma and suspense of “M3GAN.” The characters have less-appealing personalities that more closely resemble the type of soulless artificial intelligence that is hated by the “heroes” in the movie.

Universal Pictures will release “M3GAN 2.0” in U.S. cinemas on June 27, 2025.

Review: ‘M3GAN,’ starring Allison Williams, Ronny Chieng and Violet McGraw

January 6, 2023

by Carla Hay

“M3GAN”

Directed by Gerard Johnstone

Culture Representation: Taking place in Seattle, the horror film “M3GAN” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Latinos and Asians ) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A robot doll with artificial intelligence goes on a rampage against anyone who harms the 8-year-old girl who thinks of the doll as her best friend.

Culture Audience: “M3GAN” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching predictable but entertaining horror movies about killer dolls.

Amie Donald, Allison Williams and Violet McGraw (pictured at right) in “M3GAN” (Photo by Geoffrey Short/Universal Pictures)

“M3GAN” (pronounced “megan”) can now join the 1988 “Child’s Play” movie (which introduced the murderous Chucky toy doll) as one of the all-time most memorable “killer doll” movies, gaining legions of fans and inspiring countless horror costumes. “M3GAN” is the type of movie that you know instantly is the start of a franchise. It’s a campy, creepy and comical horror romp that delivers more laughs than genuine scares. Audiences should be in on the joke, which loses its impact with a somewhat weak ending. However, the killer doll’s sinister sassiness is worth seeing.

Directed by Gerard Johnston and written by Akela Cooper, “M3GAN” doesn’t go down the usual supernatural route to explain why the killer doll is so evil. Instead, “M3GAN” is a tale of human-made technology run amok. In that sense, the story is grounded in a reality and a persistent fear that technology with artificial intelligence will develop a mind of its own and do widespread damage. In this case, the damage is done by a 4-foot-tall terror doll named M3GAN, an acronym for Model 3 Generative Android. “M3GAN” also has social commentary on the effects of relying heavily on technology instead of human interactions for handling child care, learning, and developing relationships with other people.

“M3GAN” begins by showing a commercial for automated, furry toy pets called Purrpetual Pets, which can receive commands from mobile devices. The Seattle-based company that makes these toys is named Funki, which considers Hasbro to be one of its biggest rivals. One of the kids who has a Purrpetual Pet is an 8-year-old girl named Cady (played by Violet McGraw), who is playing with a dog version of a Purrpetual Pet in the back seat of a car while her parents are in the front seat.

Cady, her father Ryan (played by Arlo Green) and her mother Nicole (played by Chelsie Preston Crayford) are traveling by car for a family ski trip. It’s snowing heavily outside. Nicole is slightly annoyed by how Cady is so preoccupied with her Purrpetual Pet toy because Cady would rather talk to the toy than talk to her parents. Nicole comments, “What is the purpose of the toy if you have to play it on an iPad?”

The show is coming down so thick that Ryan (who’s driving) temporarily stops the car and doesn’t see the snow truck that plows head-on into the car. Ryan and Nicole die in this accident, while Cady survives. Cady is sent to live with Nicole’s sister Gemma (played by Allison Williams), who lives in Seattle and becomes Cady’s legal guardian. (“M3GAN” was actually filmed in Montreal in Canada, and in the Auckland area of New Zealand.) Gemma, who is single with no biological kids, works as a roboticist at Funki, and was one of the chief creators of Purrpetual Pets. In fact, Cady’s Purrpetual Pet was a gift from Gemma.

It’s an awkward life transition for this aunt and niece. Gemma is a workaholic who has no experience in raising a child. Cady is still grieving over her parents’ death. The movie doesn’t show Gemma grieving too much because Gemma is portrayed as someone who buries her troubles by working at her job. Now that Gemma has become Cady’s guardian, Gemma has to figure out a way for them to adjust to their new living situation.

Cady was homeschooled when her parents were alive. Gemma has to work during the day, so she has to find a local school that will fit Cady’s needs. Later in the movie, Gemma and Cady have an orientation visit to an alternative school that likes to teach classes outdoors. In the meantime, Gemma has to partially work from home to look after Cady. Gemma doesn’t want Cady to feel bored or restless.

To help Cady with her grief and new life transition, Cady has counseling sessions with a therapist named Lydia (played by Amy Usherwood), who is kind and patient with Cady. There’s another reason why this therapist is working with Cady: The parents of Cady’s deceased father Ryan are thinking about taking full custody of Cady. Lydia is evaluating Cady and Gemma to determine if Gemma can be a better guardian than the grandparents.

Because Cady has lost her parents and doesn’t have any friends in Seattle, Cady is understandably a very mopey child. It just so happens that Gemma has been working on a prototype for the M3GAN doll, which she shows to her co-workers Cole (played by Brian Jordan Alvarez) and Tess (played by Jen Van Epps) in their work space. They are all under pressure to come up with a hot-selling new toy because a rival company has copied the Purrpetual Pets toys and selling them for half the price of Funki’s retail sale price.

The CEO of Funki is an egotistical, impatient and frequently rude taskmaster named David Lin (played by Ronny Chieng), who is often accompanied by his “yes man” assistant Kurt (played by Stephane Garneau-Monten), who is usually nervous and jumpy. Kurt’s resentment over being treated like a doormat comes out in later in the story. David and Kurt attend a demonstration of how M3GAN works in the office space of Gemma, Tess and Cole, but the demonstration is a disaster: Cole forgot to put in a polypropylene barrier in M3GAN, so the doll’s head catches on fire and explodes. (No one is hurt in this accident.)

Meanwhile, at Gemma’s home, Cady is curious about the boxed toys that Gemma has on display, but Gemma tells Cady that Cady can’t play with the toys because they are collectibles. Cady is dejected until Gemma shows Cady a robot named Bruce that Gemma keeps in her garage. The robot can walk and talk. Cady is immediately entranced and tells Gemma: “If I had a toy like Bruce, I don’t think I’d ever need another toy again.”

And you know what that means: Gemma and her co-workers fast-track making M3GAN into a toy that will be sold as Funki’s most technologically advanced toy so far. The timing couldn’t come soon enough, because a worried Tess tells Gemma that David can’t find out they spent $100,000 on research and development money on M3GAN before M3GAN was approved. It should come as no surprise that Cady is chosen as the first child who gets to test out M3GAN before the Funki does an official launch of this new toy.

M3GAN, who looks like a girl but acts like an adult, has encyclopedic knowledge of facts and knows all the right things to say in dealing with people’s feelings. M3GAN also has an ability to record and mimic voices. This robotic doll appears to be the perfect combination of a tutor, babysitter and best friend for lonely Cady. In what seems to be a pattern for Cady, she becomes instantly attached to M3GAN, just like Cady was attached to her Purrpetual Pet.

M3GAN also sings pop songs to comfort Cady. These singing scenes are some of the funniest in the movie. If you waited your whole life to see an evil robotic doll sing David Guetta’s “Titanium” to cheer up a girl, and then the doll unleashes some murderous mayhem just minutes later to “protect” the girl, then “M3GAN” is the movie for you.

Why is M3GAN overly protective of Cady? During the testing process, Gemma gave this programming order to M3GAN: Protect Cady from all physical and emotional harm. Of course, this order backfires in the worst ways. Gemma finds out too late that M3GAN has superhuman physical strength along with superhuman intelligence.

Cady also becomes overly attached to M3GAN and doesn’t want to go anywhere without this doll. Cady is so fixated on M3GAN being her “friend,” Cady throws nasty temper tantrums if M3GAN can’t be with Cady at all times. If Cady is separated from M3GAN, Cady acts like an addict being told that the addict can’t have whatever is causing their addiction.

And because this is a horror movie, some of the characters get caught in the crossfire of the havoc that M3GAN wreaks. Gemma’s next-door neighbor Celia (played by Lori Dungey) gets on Gemma’s nerves because Celia has a problematic dog and has a habit of spraying unwanted pesticide on Gemma’s front lawn. At the alternative school, it doesn’t take long for a child bully named Brandon (played by Jack Cassidy) to target Cady.

Williams and McGraw are perfectly fine in their performances as Gemma and Cady, but they have both done versions of these characters in other horror movies. Chieng looks like he’s having fun hamming it up as David, the boss from hell. All the other supporting characters are adequate in their roles.

The real star of the movie, of course, is the character of M3GAN. The M3GAN character is a combination of work from actresses Amie Donald (who does the live-action work) and Jenna Davis (who does the voice work), as well as the work of the movie’s visual effects team. The facial expressions, body language and sarcastic comments of M3GAN show that this dangerous doll has a mind of its own. It’s often hilarious to watch other characters react to M3GAN when they figure out this that M3GAN is not a harmless toy.

One of the biggest flaws of “M3GAN” is that M3GAN doesn’t make her debut as a fully designed talking toy until about 30 minutes into 102-minute movie. And if you’ve seen the trailers for “M3GAN,” you’ve already seen some of the best parts of the movie. All of this might diminish viewer enjoyment of “M3GAN,” but these flaws don’t ruin the movie. “M3GAN” is by no means the best horror movie you can see in a year, but it’s the type of horror movie where people will get hooked enough to want to see the chief villain in other movies.

Universal Pictures released “M3GAN” in U.S. cinemas on January 6, 2023. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on January 24, 2023. Peacock will premiere “M3GAN” (including an unrated version of the movie) on February 24, 2023. The movie (including the unrated version) will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 21, 2023.