M3gan 2.0 - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

M3gan 2.0



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Alright, I'm not going to lie here; I saw M3gan 2.0 being made the second I left the theater after viewing the original film back in 2022. It wasn’t an amazing horror movie, but M3gan was solid enough of a hit for Blumhouse that I knew a sequel was inevitable. What I DIDN’T see coming was Blumhouse and Director/Writer Gerard Johnstone completely pulling an Aliens trick on the audience and switch up the entire genre in one fell swoop. It’s not like the original wasn’t following a tried and true classic Chucky trope that seemed to work well enough. M3gan was a solid “child killer doll” genre flick, and I guessed it would follow the same progression as Chucky would. Get a little sillier each time, but remake the movie over and over again until they decide to do M3gan in Space, or pair her up with a boy doll for a romantic killer combo (pun intended). But turning M3gan into a redeemed character and having her learn Kung-Fu was not something I predicted AT ALL, but ended up liking way more than I thought I would (much the same way I did with Alien and Aliens when I was a kid).

Our film picks up 3 years after the events of M3gan, with Gemma (Allison Williams) and Cady (Violet McGraw) having learned from the foibles of creating an intelligent AI robot and trying to move on. Instead of trying to create a super-intelligent replacement for humans, Gemma is using her company to move forward with non-AI-based electronic augmentations for humans to do the same thing as robots without the whole Skynet fear that her previous creation inspired. Buuuuuut, things get thrown out of whack when it turns out the government had somehow bought the M3gan design plans from an unknown source and created their own version named Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno, otherwise loved as Shin Hati from the live-action Ahsoka show), which has not gone rogue.

Desperate to try and find a way to stay alive and stop Amelica, Gemma has but one option left. Partner up with M3gan (who had backed herself up into cyberspace and has been waiting for a time to come back into the world of the living) and try to stop Amelia the old-fashioned way. With good ole violence and the powerful robotic body that she redesigns for M3gan. Now it’s a full-on blitz for the world as M3gan and Gemma hunt down the rogue Amelia, only to find out that Amelia is the least of their problems. Especially when the end goal switches over to stopping ANOTHER rogue tech nerd who has plans to utilize an even more powerful AI from the past to keep the rest of the world from being taken over by robots.

I honestly had a good time with M3gan back in 2022. It was silly, self-aware, and cheesy, but still a moderately fun Chucky knockoff whose saving grace was that it was self-aware JUST enough to allow the audience to stomach the silliness of it all. But M3gan 2.0 pulls the Aliens stunt of amping things up to 11 and switching tracks over to an action film. After the first 30 minutes, the entire production is one non-stop kung fu battle to the end, with M3gan kicking butt, making wisecracks, and the entire premise of her character is moved from “evil AI” to “personal growth”. M3gan is no longer an evil being who wants to murder, but is not treated as a heroine, learning from her past mistakes and growing in a similar way a human might. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but the action is fast-paced and exciting, so who cares? We want to see a teenage robot beat the snot out of dumb feds and evil mercenaries alike.

While the tonal shift from horror/comedy to action/suspense is quite wild, the humor is still there in spades. And it is actually amped up quite a bit from the original film. M3gan had just enough humor to keep the horror from being too silly. M3gan 2.0 pushes the comedy even higher, giving Colonel Sattler the brunt of it, but using 1980s “buddy cop” dialogue to Gemma and M3gan. It’s silly, and much more self-aware than it has any right to be. The quirky dance moves that we all got a chuckle over in the first film are back, but this time there’s a cheeky “musical” number I was in stitches over (it sounds stupid, but it works in the context of the film).




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for strong violent content, bloody images, some strong language, sexual material, and brief drug references / Unrated




Video:

Shot digitally and given a native 4K master for the home video release, the Blu-ray looks great, but not nearly as polished as its 4K brother. Colors are nicely saturated and richly done for the film’s neon color palette, and fine detail is very good. The first half of the movie is much more drab and dull, with a lot of time spent indoors and in an underground fallout shelter. It’s not till the film’s halfway point when Gemma and M3gan head out to Alton’s party that things pick up in a big way, with flashy costumes, deeply saturated purples and blues, and of course, the action comes out in a big way too. However, as M3gan 2.0 is a very dark film, the black levels suffer a bit, and I noticed that the highlights for the film were pushed a bit high. The end result is daylight sequence that look a bit over-brightened, and the rest of the movie can have a VERY slight milky color due to the black levels getting washed out slightly. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a huge deal, it’s just noticeable when you compare it side by side with the superior 4K disc. Otherwise, this is still a VERY good looking Blu-ray..





Audio:

As usual, Universal is one of the good guys here and puts the same Dolby Atmos track on both the 4K UHD disc AND the Blu-ray, so whichever format you get, you’ll have the same audio experience. The Atmos track found on the disc is a crowd pleaser for sure, with some great action bits that fill out the entire sound stage. The track isn’t always the most immersive mix as it switches between dynamic action sequences dialog dialog-driven, exposition-laden scenes. The first scene of the movie is a good banger, but then things settle down into a very talky experience for the next 30 minutes or so. However, once M3gan and Gemma head out to party crash while tracking down Amelia, things get amped up to 11 very quickly. Gunshots and the score add tons of LFE activity, and the surrounds are very rarely without any activity in those action-oriented scenes. Music isn’t always in the forefront of the mix, but when it does come out, the score does admirably. Dialog is above reproach, and except for some minor downtime in the activity, the Atmos track is top-notch.








Extras:

• Total Upgrade: Making M3GAN 2.0 – Equipped with some killer upgrades, the team that unleashed M3GAN returns. Cast and crew take you through the artistry and craftsmanship that went into building a bigger, badder, and bloodier sequel.
• Droid DNA – Unveil M3GAN 2.0 as she prepares to tackle rogue military asset Amelia. Go behind the scenes and see the puppetry, technology, and animatronics that brought these deadly droids to life.
• The Art of Slaying – The cast and stunt team discuss creating and executing the film's most explosive and gruesome action sequences. Special effects and prop teams go into the gory details that make up the guts of the film.
• Scene Breakdown: Embrace AI Convention – From a dance battle to a blood fest, this breakdown will show how each department worked together to create this epic and deadly sequence.

Final Score: ​

Is M3gan 2.0 a great film that will rival Aliens? (Yes, I know the pitchforks are out in droves comparing this franchise to the Alien/Aliens one, but it’s just a comparison in regards to the genre shift between the 1st and 2nd films in each franchise, not in regards to the actual quality of the movies. Easy, boy, put those pitchforks down. Of course not. But it’s fun silliness that strangely works way better than I thought it ever would. I actually had a ton of fun with my two viewings and actually like it a good bit better than the 1st film. Maybe it was because I’m an action junky, but this is just silly good fun, and the exquisite audio/video specs make for a delightful viewing. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but this was a fun watch.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Allison Williams, Violent McGraw, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis, Ivanna Sakhno,
Directed by: Gerard Johnstone
Written by: Gerard Johnstone
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), French, Spanish DD+ 7.1, English DVS
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
Studio: Universal
Rated: PG-13 (Theatrical) / Unrated (Unrated Cut)
Runtime: 120 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: September 23rd, 2025

Recommendation: Fun Watch

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