This article contains spoilers.

M3gan 2.0 is the sequel to the 2022 box office hit M3gan, which is about an artificially intelligent (AI) robot that goes rogue. Originally designed to give Cady, the films 8-year-old protagonist, a companion after her parents die, M3gan becomes dangerous as she goes to more extreme lengths to protect her.

Throughout the first film, we are told about the dangers of artificial intelligence and what can happen when we allow ourselves or our children to get too attached to technology. M3gan 2.0 picks up a few years after M3gan ends.

Now that M3gan has been destroyed and her files deleted, Cady’s aunt Gemma has redirected her focus from creating AI to making the dangers of unregulated AI known to the world. However, when a new military grade AI robot (Amelia) is discovered to be taking out anyone involved in her creation, Gemma and Cady return to their reliance on M3gan to protect them.

While the movie obviously takes an anti-AI stance, much of the point about unregulated technology is lost in translation amid the shallow plot and aimless messaging.

For example, M3gan is shown to be a danger to society. This was the entire point of the first movie, as well as emphasizing the danger of relying on electronics to parent children instead of proactively participating in their upbringing. This message feels like it was forsaken in the sequel, where the main characters now must rely on M3gan to destroy Amelia.

Even the way the actors discuss M3gan and Amelia blurs the line they are trying to draw regarding AI. Throughout the movie, M3gan and Amelia are referred to as “her,” despite both being robots with no soul or humanity. While there are some points in the movie where this makes sense (for example, there is a plot where Amelia seduces someone who does not know she is a robot) most of the time it just proves that the main characters see the robots as being far more human than they should, even to a dangerous level.

The hopeful aspect of the film conveys the dangers of getting attached to AI. It serves as a commentary about people who have turned to AI chatbots instead of humans, to the point that they see robots as their human replacements. If that is the case, then the result is shaky at best and downright counterproductive at worst.

In a worse turn of events, the plot twist at the end of the movie reveals that Amelia was not actually an AI robot, but a human who was being fully controlled by other humans the entire time. This pulls the rug out from under any potential warning message about AI this movie attempted to make.

If the film ended with M3gan being destroyed again, then perhaps the sum of the movie would be worth the error of some of its parts. Instead, at the end of the movie, we see that M3gan has backed up her files allowing her to continue existing even after she is deleted once again.

While this may just be an out the movie is using to leave room for possible sequels (although after this movie flopped at the box office, this is unlikely), it is a poor attempt at trying to correct the way it undermined the original message about the dangers of AI with Amelia’s reveal.

Overall, M3gan 2.0 is a fun watch if you are looking for a sci-fi, robot fighting movie. It will be much more enjoyable, however, if you just turn your brain off for the two-hour runtime.

Thinking about the plot for any more than five seconds will cause you to realize the many plot holes are in the script. While I enjoyed my first watch of the movie, a second watch made me realize how much is left to be desired.  If there is ever a third movie, I will be interested to see how they may choose to advance the storyline.