GUT REACTIONS: M3GAN 2.0 (2025)
AI ethics comes up daily at work, so safe to say the M3GAN sequel was terrifying.
In my GUT REACTIONS series, I contextualize films with their cultural significance. I watch a lot of repertory films but look at that, a new release! The protocol for new releases will always be the following: This post is spoiler-free.
The critics’ rating aggregate for M3GAN 2.0 (2025) may be sitting at 58% on Rotten Tomatoes — a far cry from 93% final scoring of M3GAN (2023). The sequel
But it’s worth noting that audience approval is up. The Popcornmeter for M3GAN has now settled at 78% across more than 2,500 reviews and as audience reviews continue to trickle in, M3GAN 2.0 is sitting at 82% across more than 1,000 reviews.
Having seen M3GAN 2.0, I think there’s something to that. Following the tragedies of the first time, Gemma, played by Allison Williams, swings to the other end of the AI ethics pendulum and becomes an AI reform advocate. (Enter her ex-Silicon Valley, anti-AI lobbyist boyfriend, Christian.)
Meanwhile, Gemma’s headstrong niece Cady, played by Violet McGraw, doubles-down on her love of STEM, grieving not just the parents she lost in the first film but M3GAN as well.
The question of rebooting the toy-gone-wrong is complicated when AI assassin AMELIA starts putting the fear of God in American intelligence operatives.
The curse of “sophomore slump” plagues book series and musical discographies — film franchises, too. So I’m not surprised that critics are hating the second installment in the evil AI dollbaby series.
But I can’t say in good faith that the film is objectively worse than the first one.
In fact, I’d venture to say that M3GAN 2.0 was even better than M3GAN.
Sure, maybe the film was less horror in the traditional sense, trading in jump scares for general dystopian malaise. But y’all love it in David Cronenberg movies. Why the hate when it comes to M3GAN?
It’s not like this is the first sci-fi film that’s a popcorn movie aimed at young audiences — that niche carried the box office in the 80s and 90s, and was the most fun species of Disney Channel Original Movie.
And as soon as the trailer for M3GAN 2.0 dropped — ripe with cunty feminine aura, soundtracked by the synth-heavy sapphic anthem recorded by the patron saint of futuristic glam, moral greyness and bad attitudes — I knew it would be a winner.12
As always, I enter the theater with an open heart and the vow to reassess my viewing experience later — going over my take on the film with a fine-tooth comb before I bring it to you.
And as the span of a week has passed, I stand by the joy I felt watching M3GAN.
AI ethics comes up daily in my dayjob — so it’s safe to say the M3GAN sequel was both terrifying and moving.
I was terrified watching M3GAN 2.0 because I am constantly pouring over metrics about AI education, AI adoption, and the mismatched desires of employees, managers and C-suite leadership regarding the two.
I’ve reported about on ways to get AI buy-in from the top-down in corporate spaces. (Be honest, research shows!)
Right after the first M3GAN came out, I wrote about how the main U.S. governing body for fair treatment at work held a hearing where it announced its intentions to re-examine how AI reinforces bias in hiring.
I’ve also written at length about NYC’s crackdown on AI use in hiring — and how some tech advocates have said that, actually, AI can actually eliminate bias by eliminating the (fallible) human element.
Last year, while moderating a session at a tech conference, I also got to see firsthand how companies are deploying agentic AI for internal use. More and more corporate leaders are asking themselves, “How could an AI agent save us human time? What if it answered all the questions that us humans were tired of asking?”
Just a few months ago, I covered a report that shows — like many findings before that report and after it — that people are hungry for opportunities to develop their “digital fluency” skills.
Whether or not people are excited about what a future dominated by AI holds isn’t so much the topic of conversation here — lots of reports show that people fear being replaced by robots at work, as per usual. Moreover, the idea here is that: Feelings be damned, people want to learn as much as they can about AI’s utility so they don’t get left behind.
And yet, I was moved watching M3GAN 2.0 because, although heavy-handed at times, the film made a compelling argument for an odious, embarrassing, currently socially unacceptable stance on artificial intelligence: That engaging with AI can be as comforting, nurturing and fulfilling as human connection.
I am ideologically opposed to this. If you’re on Substack — a utopia for print-lovers, slow fashion-istas, mindfulness gurus, off-grid apologists and Luddites who use social media to flex that they are Luddites — you’re probably opposed to enthusiastic AI adoption as well.3
I can see this in something like
’s post “Scamming Substack?” Storr’s popular theorizing of how some Substackers may be leveraging AI to go viral was posted in May 2025 and continues to have legs into July. Seeing the (human!) engagement on Storr’s post and how people continue to share it both indicate that the anti-AI sentiment — at least on Substack — is alive and well.
But the uncomfortable truth — not condonable, but still true — is that a lot of people are reliant on AI. And they’re not just relying on artificial intelligence to meal prep for their kiddo’s lunches or finding the best keywords for their OOTD Reel.
People are replacing therapists with agentic AI. People are falling in love with chatbots…
And in lust. As incel culture continues to have Gen Z men and Gen Alpha boys in a chokehold — I’ve heard about the series Adolescence on Netflix, but also watch I Am Andrew Tate (2024) if you have doubts — I’m not surprised that guys want a girl who can’t talk back, who can’t possibly undermine their will, who can’t do anything to threaten their masculinity.
Paired with the fact that Silicon Valley continues to be dominated by men, I’m also unsurprised that developers are following the entrepreneurial edict of “fulfill an unmet need with your product.”
It’s why Business Insider Africa has enough fodder to capitalize on the SEO of “AI + girlfriend” and publish an article like “The 5 best AI girlfriend apps to try in 2025.” Entrepreneur Magazine India also just published “Top 10 AI Girlfriend Apps for Unfiltered NSFW AI Chat in 2025.”
And I find M3GAN 2.0 to be nuanced here — both embracing the idea of a robot finding a way to replicate the messy beauty of human intimacy, and criticizing cisgender-heterosexual men’s sneaky obsession with AI girlfriends and brainless sexbots.
Ivanna Sakhno, who plays new-AI-baddie-in-town AMELIA, is a perfect choice here. Her acting skills are apparent: She mimics the slightly jerky movements and overly attentive gaze of those humanoid robots we see on the floor of tech expos expertly.
But also, Sakhno’s fine and delicate features, blonde hair, blue eyes, cutesy pinched nose, plush-but-not-too-big lips, her size 00 figure and even her European blood make her the male gaze dream.
Casting did their big one, because Sakhno looks like the real-life version of a lot of the White sex doll prototypes in circulation right now.
No spoilers here, but it’s a delight to see AMELIA seduce and bamboozle the tech giant antagonist — between the character’s accent, wheelchair use, all-black wardrobe and arrogance, he’s a mashup of every real and fictional tech genius that has been center stage over the past few decades.
Seeing him get his just desserts is cathartic, but that catharsis is short-lived — which is what makes M3GAN ultimately brilliant to me.
It’s not just topical, but it’s morally complicated. It’s not just a fun sociological thought exercise, but it’s well-shot, the dialogue is punchy and fun, and most importantly: It’s unpredictable.
The best kind of horror movie, pacing- and plot-wise, is one that makes you ask, “Will the horrors ever end?”
Regardless of M3GAN’s critical legacy, including whatever undeniable third installment will surface two years from now, M3GAN 2.0 is a fun, spot-on snapshot of where we are in this current Industrial Revolution.
Chappell Roan’s banger may be the official promo song for M3GAN 2.0, but on Instagram, I suggested an even more bombastic anthem.
M3GAN 2.0 is inherently gay and I will stand by this. That’s why the film came out in June, duh!
If you want to explore another (fictional) AI girlfriend, the first two books in Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers series are really good. That is a wildly reductive explanation of them because the whole series is phenomenal but it’s the best I can do at 6 am PT lol