Ty Watches "M3GAN 2.0"

In my quest to see a bunch of movies I wanted to see last year, I finally saw "Megan 2.0".

I loved the first "Megan". I thought it was a great idea for a movie and they executed it pretty well. I liked how eerie it was. I appreciated how, with a limited budget, they were able to do suspense and horror and even a little comedy. The concept of the movie was solid too, especially in this day and age. I am a little fearful of AI and the firm grip it has on some people already. I think there are good uses for AI, but most people use it for not so good things. That's the scary part to me. "Megan" does a good job telling that story. The main kid's parents die in a horrific car accident and she is sent to live with her aunt, who's a big wig in the world of computers. She has created a robot companion and she decides to see if it works by pairing it with her niece. Things go awry, as they do in movies like these, and the companion is overprotective of the child. The robot companion, Megan, decides that anyone who does so much as raise their voice at her is deemed a threat and the robot needs to take them out. This is where the first "Megan" movie really achieves its goal. It is violent and sinister and they even manage to sneak a few jokes in here and there. I thought about the movie a lot after seeing it. I really enjoyed my viewing experience. So when a sequel was announced,  I was pumped. It felt like the first movie was the little engine that could type movies, and it more than earned its sequel. I'm not always a fan of sequels, but when a movie surprises me as much as this one did, I'm all here for a sequel. And when it was announced that they would have most of the same people back, that made me even more excited. I never had the chance to see it in theaters. It felt like it kind of came and went pretty quickly, which should have been a sign to me. But it is streaming on Peacock, which we subscribe to at my home, and I had some free time to watch.

Right off the bat I got a bad feeling. First off, the sequel is rated PG13. I know the first one is also PG13, but the sequel felt much more like an actual PG13 movie. It felt subdued and like a bunch of stuff got cut, stuff that may have been deemed too violent. The kills in this one just didn't bring the same oomph. I felt like they showed much more in the first movie than they did here. "Megan 2.0" seemed to cut away from every kill right before it happened. I'm not a violent person by any means, but movies are where we all escape. I love the "John Wick" franchise. I'm all in on the "Alien" movies. I loved "Weapons" and "Sinners" from last year. Those are violent movies that show you pretty much everything. "Megan 2.0" showed almost nothing. I also felt like they tried to make the Megan doll too quippy in the sequel. It felt like they wanted to make the robot like Deadpool, but without looking directly into the camera when making a joke. Megan seemed to have a one liner for every single thing that was said. I don't care for that unless I know that is what is coming, like the "Deadpool" movies. I also wasn't crazy about the new robot they introduced in this movie. This robot could have been so much more badass, but they subdued this one as much as they did with Megan. And when they have their big fight in the end, that whole scene felt kind of hollow and unfinished. And as much as I don't want to rag on children actors, the kid in this one was too preachy and too much of a teenager. I'm raising a teenager who has big feelings and lets us know about them. I don't want to watch that when I turn on a movie. I thought the kid did an okay job, she was just very moody and very much a teenager, which was frustrating to watch. I do want to point out Allison Williams, who returns as the aunt. She was all in and did her best to make this a solid movie. My favorite part was when she and Megan were paired via Williams' brain and she had to fight some bad guys. That part reminded me of the first movie.

All in all this sequel did not deliver for me. It didn't have the same juice as the first one and they tried to do too much here. This is the problem when a bunch of money is thrown at a movie that should feel more like a low budget project. I'd say just watch the original and skip this sequel. You'll thank me in the long run. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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