Does ‘M3GAN 2.0’ Live Up To Its Unorthodox Marketing Strategy?

(Photo: Universal
Pictures)

M3GAN
2.0 is promising to be something very different from its
predecessor. Through its trailers, posters, and interviews, M3GAN 2.0 is
attempting to preemptively become a cult classic by marketing
directly to LGBTQ+ audiences. The film was released one June 27, so
now we can finally find out if it lives up to the hype it’s worked
so hard for. Or, to put it simply, is M3GAN “still that B”?

Many horror
movies are deemed “camp” in retrospect, but few have set out to
claim that title for themselves quite like M3GAN 2.0.
Produced by Blumhouse and directed by Gerard
Johnstone, M3GAN 2.0 is the sequel to 2022’s M3GAN, a horror film with comedy elements that was
released to mixed reviews. While the horror frequently fell flat,
the funnier (mostly unintentionally so) elements went viral, and
the film made a place for itself on the outskirts of queer culture
(it was even parodied on “RuPaul’s Drag Race”). The
marketing for the sequel has taken this into account, using a
blindingly pink aesthetic and a trailer chock-full of one liners in
an effort to infuse everything that went well in the first film
into a full 90 minutes of sequel. The trailers alone use both Chappell Roan’s “Femininomenon” and Britney Spears‘s “Oops…I Did It Again”, two
anthems in the LGBTQ+ community. 

The character
of M3GAN herself, a bloodthirsty AI doll whose only objective is
keeping 8-(now 12)-year-old Cady safe, has taken on a life of her
own, even participating in interviews with internet celebrities
such as Trisha Paytas. Every aspect of M3GAN’s
characterization in the sequel is an obvious attempt to align her
with other iconic “divas”, from her no-nonsense attitude and
feminine style to her sassy quips and superhuman dance moves.

But the
question remains: does M3GAN 2.0 deliver on its ambitious
promise to be an instant classic among the queer community? Yes and
no. The film certainly delivers on its genre shift from
horror-comedy to full action-comedy, bringing in brighter visuals
and stronger self-awareness. M3GAN 2.0 easily gets a few
laughs out of its audience and is thoroughly engaging in theaters,
moving quickly through its plot and fitting in wild dialogue and
jokes at every turn. However, the 2-hour runtime brings a level of
complexity to the narrative and emotional arcs to the characters
that end up feeling misplaced and perhaps too ambitious.
Additionally, while stories about the dangers of Artificial
Intelligence are more necessary than ever, perhaps fitting such
heavy themes into the fabric of a movie like M3GAN 2.0 isn’t the right move when it’s been so thoroughly marketed as
nothing more than a “good time”, and AI is a more serious topic
than ever. 

In the end, M3GAN 2.0 rose from messy beginnings and took the best
direction it could, ending up a perfectly fun and ironic
action-comedy that can’t help but create a few more viral moments
before it’s inevitably lost to time.

M3GAN
2.0 is in theatres now!