Not even sassy droid M3GAN could have warned us about the AI predicament we find ourselves in this year. Back in 2022, when M3GAN and her dance moves first graced our movie screens, it seemed all we had to fear from artificial intelligence was a killer robot or two. Now we face environmental destruction, ChatGPT-induced psychotic breaks, and a whole generation outsourcing their brains to the technology. M3GAN was a horror movie that now seems quaint compared to our AI reality.

But enough about current events: how’s the upgrade on our favorite girly bot? Good news: “M3GAN 2.0” sashays directly into the pantheon of sequels that just might be better than the original, like “The Empire Strikes Back,” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” “M3GAN 2.0” takes its cues from James Cameron’s AI cautionary tale “T2,” pivoting from techno-horror to sci-fi action killer robot movie.

Don’t worry, M3GAN’s system updates have left her humor firmly intact. The sequel still exhibits its dry, ditzy-smart humor that made the first film such a campy delight, due in no small part to co-star Allison Williams playing the straight man to a tween Terminator. Williams has carved out her own horror niche not as a scream queen or a final girl, but as a heroine that you’re never sure if you can trust. She weaponizes her icy WASP demeanor to terrifically unsettling ends, and most importantly, she’s always in on the joke.

Also in on the joke? “Saturday Night Live" alum Aristotle Athari, who plays Christian, the love interest to Williams’ disgraced doll designer Gemma. After her innovative doll robot M3GAN tried to kill her and her orphaned niece Cady (Violet McGraw), Gemma has turned scandal into opportunity, writing books and delivering keynote speeches about the importance of limiting children’s exposure to technology and becoming an involved parent.

Christian is Gemma’s new beau, a fellow tech activist who has been advocating for stronger AI regulation (that the Senate has voted to regulate AI in the film is laughably ironic given where we are now with tech legislation). Athari plays the perfect passive-aggressive tech bro, who is particular about the pretentious pronunciation of his name, and exhorts Gemma to “walk with me” while he condescends to her. The pairing of these two subtly sharp performances are the perfect ballast to the rest of the film, which is over-the-top outlandish, featuring murderous blonde droids fighting to the death.

That’s right, there are two of them now. M3GAN’s got a rival, AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno), whose arrival on the scene is the catalyst for M3GAN’s return. AMELIA first turns up as an experimental supersoldier in the employ of the U.S. Department of Defense, but almost immediately goes rogue. She stalks and seduces a lecherous tech mogul, Alton Appleton (Jemaine Clement), a self-described “philanthro-capitalist” billionaire who has developed a wearable neural chip that can control a wearer’s body and brain (that will come into play later).

After he’s dispatched by AMELIA, sending global stability careening, it becomes clear that she was built on a M3GAN prototype, casting suspicion on Gemma. Meanwhile, M3GAN has been inhabiting the smart home-enhanced walls of Gemma and Cady's house, and she begs to return to a body in order to stop AMELIA.

There’s more business intrigue, backstabbing, betrayal and belting of Kate Bush ballads, but this is essentially “T2” in that the evil robot from the first movie becomes the hero of the second, fighting a new evil robot while protecting a kid. Screenwriter Akela Cooper returns, as does director Gerald Johnstone, and they maintain the witty, wacky ethos they established in the first film. With a bigger budget and sandbox, this twirl with M3GAN is a thrill, even if the twisty plotting and thematic wrestling is often convoluted.

Now that our relationship with M3GAN is more complex, tangling with the ethical issues of AI is required. Can we work with it or will it always work against us? At a certain point in the third act, you wonder, “wait, is this a pro-AI movie?” and it’s not, not quite.

It does feel like "M3GAN 2.0” is already lagging behind our culture, which has ravenously embraced AI in order to churn out failing college term papers, questionable legislation and some of the most disturbing images you’ve ever seen. But the film ultimately makes the argument that in order to “co-evolve” with AI, humans need to put bumpers in place — like laws — to be better AI “parents,” to guide and shape AI rather than let it run roughshod over our collective psyches. That idea might seem cute, even Pollyanna-ish at this point, but we’ll take these arguments wherever we can get them. Even from M3GAN, who at least makes it fun.

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'M3GAN 2.0'

3 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG-13 (for strong violent content, bloody images, some strong language, sexual material, and brief drug references)

Running time: 1:59

How to watch: In theaters June 27

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