Judgment Day Is Messy Mayhem In This ‘Bad Straight Camp’ Sequel

When Blumhouse and Universal unleashed “M3GAN” onto the world in 2022, no one could have possibly predicted the sensation she would become. Well, no one straight, that is. Queer audiences took one look at that “Titanium”-singing murder doll and said, “Mother.” Her stellar box office performance made way for the inevitable sequel, and the House that Blum Built doubled, if not tripled down, on catering to M3GAN’s biggest fanbase leading up to the sequel’s release. An army of M3GAN dancers showed up for the West Hollywood Pride parade at the start of June, the trailer used Britney Spears’ “Oops!… I Did It Again” as a needle drop, and they teased M3GAN in disguise serving stealth couture and boasting a F.A.B. “M3GAN 2.0” was going to be for the girls, gays, and theys honeyyyyy.

But in an attempt to recapture the lightning in a bottle of the first film, going full-on “T2: Judgment Day” by upgrading M3GAN into the hero needed to save the day to face off against the Autonomous Military Engagement Logistics and Infiltration Android known as Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno) and shamelessly catering to queer audiences, “M3GAN 2.0” chucks horror tropes out the window and becomes a 1990s direct-to-video sci-fi action programmer. As a “M3GAN” sequel … I’m not sure it works. As a film deeply inspired by the insane action thrillers from the early ’90s that played ad nauseum on USA Network in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday? It rocks, but its dedication to the style will most certainly rub folks the wrong way. Couldn’t be me, though!

Where “M3GAN” fell into the world of unintentional camp, “M3GAN 2.0” inhabits the world of Bad Straight Camp. The film’s logic? Questionable at best. Performances? Vehicles for dialogue that exist solely to explain the plot louder. The moments meant to inspire snaps and “Yaaas queens” from the audience? So ham-fisted they could be honey-baked. Those hoping for a true-to-form horror sequel are surely going to be disappointed, but there’s plenty of fun to be found in M3GAN’s messy mayhem.

Set two years after the artificially intelligent companion robot M3GAN (Amie Donald, voice by Jenna Davis) went rogue and tried to destroy anyone who threatened her relationship with young Cady (Violet McGraw) — including Cady’s aunt Gemma (Allison Williams), the brilliant inventor who created M3GAN — Gemma learns that the underlying tech for M3GAN was stolen and used by a powerful defense contractor to create a military-grade weapon known as Amelia to be used as the ultimate killer infiltration spy. Unfortunately, Amelia’s AI advances faster than anyone imagined, and it’s up to Gemma, Cady, M3GAN, and Gemma’s business partners Tess (Jen Van Epps) and Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) to stop Amelia before she takes over the world.

Where the villain of “M3GAN” was the titular character, “M3GAN 2.0” is a clustercuss of technobabble and misdirected villainy. Should we fear Amelia? Should we fear the incompetent government? Should we fear Gemma’s new, pretentious, anti-AI pundit boyfriend Christian? Should we fear the hilariously skeevy tech billionaire with the least subtle name ever, Alton Appleton (Jemaine Clement)? Should we fear M3GAN herself? Should we fear the additional subplots I’m not even mentioning because it’s a massive spoiler? In trying to say everything about technology, war, capitalism, and trauma bonding with robots, the film ends up sounding like it’s buffering mid-sentence; but by making nothing but Choices™, the sequel inadvertently mimics our own relationship with AI — it’s moving too fast and it feels like an impossibility to feel the weight of every new bit of information fully. It throws so many ideas at the screen that even when the narrative doesn’t compute (like how a hiding-out M3GAN can design an underground bunker, complete with home decor and framed portraits, but somehow doesn’t have the power to build herself a new body?), you’re almost too dazzled by the chaos to care.

In Bruce LaBruce’s Notes on Camp, he acknowledged that the subversive, inherently counterculture artistic expression known as “camp” had been appropriated, fetishized, and commodified by the mainstream — the spirit of extravagance and the theatrical exaggeration of aesthetics, humor, and sensibilities are still very apparent, but the notion of esotericism has been watered down to appease the masses. These films, known as “Bad Straight Camp,” boast intentionally crafted camp artistry that can still appease general audiences. Movies like “Twilight,” the filmography of Baz Luhrmann, and any action movie starring someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Steven Seagal all reside in the same cinematic cul-de-sac as “M3GAN 2.0.” It’s knowingly extra, visually maximalist, and emotionally shallow — but that’s also kind of the point. Whether it’s brilliant satire or a hot mess depends entirely on your tolerance for action-packed nonsense, genre whiplash, and AI queens with vengeance in their motherboards.

The original “M3GAN” didn’t feel like it was designed for virality — it just was viral. But “M3GAN 2.0?” She knows she’s being watched. Cady’s school locker containing a poster of Steven Seagal, M3GAN dancing like a robot for an adoring crowd, the fact that she glides in a wingsuit from a tall cliff, singing Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work” (honestly, slay), and her spouting lines like “Hold on to your vaginas” all feel like they were included specifically to end up in a photo dump by an account named @cinephilememeslayer69 on opening weekend. As funny as those moments are, they feel mandated. Where the first film’s camp felt spontaneous, like it tripped and landed in a meme template, this sequel’s chaos feels more calculated. Not necessarily in a bad way, but you can sense the studio’s fingers on the pulse. And weirdly enough, the obvious trying only endeared the film to me more, like when my mom sends me photos from her local Pride parade with the caption, “I’m with your people!”

Still, credit where it’s due: writer-director Gerard Johnstone hasn’t given up on saying something about the dangers of AI, and the political narrative of the film has evolved to reflect the way real life is speedrunning its way toward the AI girlfriend robot uprising. Ivanna Sakhno plays Amelia with icy perfection, and I only wish we had gotten more screen time with her character. But instead of letting her cook, the movie gets caught over-explaining its own bonkers logic. Despite all of my pedantic complaints, I still found a hell of a lot of joy re-entering this world and giving myself over to this banana pants story of killer robots, corrupt governments, AI nightmare scenarios, and ’90s action movie tropes. There may not be any scares this go around, but there are some genuinely fun hand-to-hand combat sequences between M3GAN and Amelia (and one expected fight scene with Allison Williams), and you’ll never catch me complaining about that. It’s a ridiculous as hell movie that seriously swings for the fences, and like the other examples of Bad Straight Camp, I still gobbled it all up like the brainrotted little piggy I am.

The original “M3GAN” was a drag show. “M3GAN 2.0” is a drag show where a straight bachelorette hijacks the VIP table. But since she tips well, is a respectful ally, and has a non-ironic appreciation for “Above the Law,” she can stay.

/Film Rating: 6.5 out of 10

“M3GAN 2.0” opens in theaters on June 27, 2025.