Predator: Badlands (2025) Film Review

Cast out from its clan, an alien hunter and an unlikely ally embark on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary.

Predator: Badlands is directed by Dan Trachtenberg director of 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016), Prey (2022) and Predator: Killer Of Killers (2025). The film serves as the seventh installment in the Predator franchise.

When Prey (2022) revived interest in the Predator films I was very excited to see what he had in store next. To everyone’s surprised he had not one but TWO films planned out. Earlier this year Predator: Killer Of Killers released and as I said in my review it was excellent and that trend continues with Predator: Badlands, watching all three of these films it’s very clear that Trachtenberg loves the Predator franchise and that is especially clear here. Badlands has excellent performances, satisfying action scenes, this large in scale exploration and beautiful yet simple character writing that really goes a long way.

The performances are excellent, the center focus is Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi and Elle Fanning both of who give some of the best performances of the year. The two also dive quite deep into their characters and really bring out some truly fun and beautiful moments. Koloamatangi plays Dek a young Yautja outcast, while his character may seem like the typical warrior who needs to prove himself. The film goes a lot further than that, as he goes on his journey we get to see his character slowly but surely build over time, Koloamatangi’s performance really puts in the work as well. We can hear tons of emotion even through the Yautja speech, it gets to the point where you want to root for him and hope he accomplishes his mission. There’s a surprising amount of depth here that you do not see very often with these films, it might be a bit simple yes but it’s there and it helps build Dek into this quite interesting character we follow.

Elle Fanning plays a dual performance, Thia a damaged Weyland-Yutani Corporation synthetic who travels with Dek and Tessa a Weyland-Yutani synthetic and Thia’s sister, she serves as the antagonist of the film. What Elle Fanning captures the excellent balance of good and evil masterfully here, in one corner you have Thia who is hilarious, fun and a person who just wants to see the good in people. Then you have Tessa the cold, evil and whose only goal is to complete her mission. She puts up this fake act of caring for Thia all for taking advantage of her to get what she wants. Elle Fanning does such a brilliant job of bringing depth to both these characters, she’s able to show off just how wonderful she is as an actress while having so much fun with the performances. The trope of clone/evil versions of characters can be a bit on the lame side, however it absolutely works here due to just how much personality and power Fanning puts into both her performances.

The world building is quite fantastic, it’s definitely one of those films where the visuals of the film’s world as well as the large in scale nature does all of the talking. The film feels like an open world video game, that you lose yourself in and never want to leave. This large in scale nature lets the viewer explore all the different landscapes and creatures on the planet, even if some of the creatures are on screen for a few minutes it still feels like we know a lot about them simply due to the detail and how large in scale the film really is.

The film’s writing has this depth to it that really adds on as the film progresses, the underdog story that may have started as something simple evolves into a bigger beast. The film’s depth also has plenty of fun moments of dialogue, the humor works surprisingly well which is mainly due to the bond of Dek and Thia. The two characters have this fun and surprisingly wholesome bond that we slowly get to see form throughout the film. Which makes later scenes a bit more devastating when future events unfold.

Overall Predator: Badlands is yet another fantastic installment to the Predator franchise. It’s not known yet if Trachtenberg will be directing another Predator film, but I sure do hope we get to see even more of his love for this franchise.

Predator: Badlands is available in Theaters!

10/10 A+

Quick Review: All Of You (2025)

When a new test matching soulmates together comes between two best friends, they spend the next twelve years trying to resist the urge to disrupt the paths their lives have taken despite the undeniable feeling they belong together.

All Of You is directed by William Bridges which is his directorial debut.

Not a whole lot to report on here, All Of You is a romance movie that starts out promising enough but then quickly runs into a lot of the exact same problems that a lot of modern romance movies do. The main one being that the chemistry between the leads is about the only part going for it.

Brett Goldstein is incredibly charming and Imogen Poots is gives a pretty touching performance that has a lot of beautiful moments. Unfortunately the side characters only serve the story and have very little going on which takes away a lot of the power this movie was building up. The side characters ultimately feel disposable which in turn hurts the movie quite a bit.

The dialogue starts out decent enough but quickly gets tangled in its own web, the idea of time wasted is such a heartbreaking premise that it’s genuinely surprising the movie wastes a lot of time doing way too many time jumps. The sci-fi elements feel incredibly wasted and were begging for a much better script.

All Of You is available on Apple TV+

5/10 C

The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) Film Review

Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and the Thing face their most daunting challenge yet as they defend Earth from Galactus and Silver Surfer.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is directed by Matt Shakman director of Cut Bank (2014) and WandaVision (2021). The film serves as the 37th installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the second reboot of the Fantastic Four movies.

For years Hollywood has been trying to get The Fantastic Four to work. First there was an unreleased film in 1994, then the Tim Story movies which much like a lot of the Fox Marvel movies that were releasing at the time weren’t good, finally there was Fantastic Four (2015)….there is a reason why a lot of people consider this to be one of the worst superhero movies ever made.

Luckily Matt Shakman stepped up to the plate because this is far more in line with what to expect from a Fantastic Four film. The characters mesh well together, each actor brings something exciting to the table and it’s clear that this time around this was handled with so much care to the source material. Combine that with a surprisingly captivating retro look to the film and you have yourself a quite strong film.

The performances all around were very well done, Pedro Pascal is fun and plays the whole scientist type of character incredibly well. There’s some moments where this plays into the film’s humor which works due to the lively atmosphere. Pascal’s chemistry with the rest of the cast is charming especially with Vanessa Kirby which leads to some genuinely cute and beautiful moments. The balance of being incredibly smart yet not knowing how to interact with other people makes for some compelling moments that actually do feel very real.

Vanessa Kirby is definitely the standout here, right from the beginning she completely makes the role of Sue Storm her’s. She’s the driving force of the story, the whole plot line of her trying to protect her son adds this family theme into the film. While it’s not done in any way that would be considered new, it still feels earnest and makes you care for the characters. Vanessa Kirby starts out with a more calm performance but quickly morphs into this powerhouse performance during the film’s third act. She’s an incredible actress who always gives it her all and here is no exception.

Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm and Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm are both incredibly fun, the two work perfectly with each other as well as Pascal and Kirby. The humor the two create feels genuine, it’s shared among the group which almost feels like organic conversations that a real family would have with each other. While the two don’t get these huge character writing moments, what we are presented with is more than enough to feel connected with their characters at the very least they are involved with the story and unlike some of the last Fantastic Four films we get this sense of teamwork and how they feel connected as a team. Maybe that’s due to the actors having such great chemistry whatever the case might be it’s very much present here.

Galactus is a very well done villain who is incredibly menacing as soon as his voice is heard. Ralph Ineson does such a fantastic job of bringing this character life as well as capturing the scale, fear and the menacing atmosphere of the character. The shadow that looms over the environment is more than enough to give the viewer chills, the build up to see his entrance to the film is well worth it and the final act of him taking action is truly large and powerful in scale.

The writing is quite excellent, the film combines its humor that feels much more natural than a lot of other MCU films and is able to capture the more dramatic moments well. As I said before the family element isn’t done in this brand new way, but it has this honesty that comes with it in this charming way that you can’t help but love. The fun banter between our heroes feels like the type of banter and dialogue you would hear from a family.

The film absolutely knocks it out of the park with the cinematography which has this blend of futuristic and 60s retro style. It makes the film standout a lot more and the color pops making this appealing to the eye, it helps that the cinematography from Jess Hall is large in scale, detailed and incredibly striking. There is this sense of wonder and exploration that you feel as the film goes on, which is fitting since a plot point of this film is space and that’s typically the feel and atmosphere you get when you think about space exploration in general.

Overall The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a very strong addition to the MCU, the story might not be anything grand. But it’s filled to the brim with passion, style and charm that you can’t help but fall in love with it.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is available on all VOD platforms.

8/10 B+

Ick (2025) Film Review

a high school science teacher who must confront a parasitic alien invasion and his personal life, which gets complicated by a new student who may be his daughter.

Ick is directed by Joseph Khan director of Torque (2004), Detention (2011) and Bodied (2017).

Ick is sort of noteworthy due to the soundtrack consisting of several pop-punk hits you probably heard in the 2000s, Yellowcard, Creed, blink-182, Paramore, The Killers and many others have at least one of their songs appear throughout the movie and I would be lying if I said I was not feeling at least bit nostalgic.

Ick is also a throwback to some of the monster/creature horror films of the 2000s such as Slither (2006), which there are points the movie does a decent job of capturing the spirit of those movies. Even if Ick is admittedly not as good as the movies were.

The performances are decent enough here, Brandon Routh plays the leading role and he actually does a solid job here. He’s able to blend in with Joseph Khan’s messy style decently well and his interactions with the rest of the cast result in a few laughs, the rest of the cast unfortunately don’t leave a mark on the viewer. So much of it is due to cliche character types and very little development all around, while yes at the end of the day Ick is a monster movie so I wasn’t expecting any grand character writing. But lazily written characters who spout just a bunch of one liners are a huge distraction that completely takes you out of the movie.

The writing is what really holds the movie back, within the first 10-15 minutes it’s very clear that “The Ick” is supposed to be a COVID-19 allegory and it’s not subtle at all. I wouldn’t say that the allegory is done poorly here as it does result in some of the movie’s few laughs. With that being said it’s not exactly breaking any new ground either, at this point we have seen the conspiracy theorists, the Alex Jones type of characters and such get the parody treatment in a lot of different media. What Ick does here isn’t any different and if you have already seen these types of jokes before then you are not going to get anything different here.

Lastly there’s the editing which is a mess and is sort of to be expected when it comes to Joseph Khan’s films. Detention (2011) had a similar style, but at the very least it did not feel like overkill and ultimately fit the atmosphere of the movie. With Ick it very much goes into the forgettable territory and much like the rest of the movie fails to leave an impression on the viewer.

Overall Ick has a really solid soundtrack, a decent performance from Brandon Routh and a few good jokes but not much else.

Ick is available on all VOD platforms.

4/10 D+

Elio (2025) Film Review

Elio, an underdog with an active imagination, finds himself inadvertently beamed up to the Communiverse, an interplanetary organization with representatives from galaxies far and wide. Mistakenly identified as Earth’s ambassador to the rest of the universe, he starts to form new bonds with eccentric aliens while discovering who he’s truly meant to be.

Elio is directed by Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi which is the former’s directorial debut with the latter previously directing Turning Red (2022).

Elio is a pretty solid addition to the Pixar library, while there might not be anything new thematically or even story wise going on here, the huge amount of charm is undeniable and it all adds up to make an incredibly fun and adventurous experience for the viewer.

First and foremost the voice cast does a pretty solid job here, Yonas Kibreab plays Elio a character that the viewer can quickly relate to as soon as the film starts. Losing both his parents at a very young age, Elio’s imagination roams free which leads to some genuinely raw moments that, he’s obsessed with communicating with the outside world. Something a lot of kids did when I was growing up and I’m sure the viewer will have the same sort of feeling. The film portrays all of this in such a beautiful way that makes Elio feel like a very real character, yes the film does take liberties in throwing in fantasy elements when it gets to the aliens. But throughout the film the raw feeling of Elio as a character never goes away.

Zoe Saldaña as Olga Solís (Elio’s aunt) is a very important part in this story, there’s sort of an emotional separation between Olga and Elio. Olga gave up on her dreams of becoming an astronaut so she can raise her nephew. Elio’s obsession nearly costs Olga’s job which causes a distance between them. The film explores the pain of both sides incredibly well, it’s done in this thoughtful and genuinely touching way that really makes the viewer immediately care for Elio and Olga.

The animation is stunning, the use of color is very top notch, when the film reaches the space portion of the film it really does feel like you are in another world. While yes the space theme does feel a bit familiar in a lot of ways, what Sharafian and Shi are able to do with it is what makes it so fun, they are able to bring this fun aesthetic and a silly atmosphere that it’s enjoyable. You have your heartwarming moments as well to even things out. It’s some nice world building that while may not going into very deep territory, is still solid enough to capture the main mood of the film’s world.

The writing has many themes going on here such as feeling out of place, loss and loneliness all of which the film does a pretty solid job of exploring. The theme of feeling out of place in particular is beautifully done, combining it with the whole space theme is a smart move as well. Elio is in this spot where he doesn’t know where he belongs due to the loss of his parents, his connection to the outside world can only help him so much. This all leads to beautiful moments that are captured quite well and really are striking in their own ways.

The main criticism here comes from most of the aliens, outside of Gordon who does get quite a bit of development. The rest of the aliens don’t really get a huge amount of development, sure they have a few key differences from on another but there really is not anything that stands out. The antagonist Lord Grigon is just kind of there, he’s fine and he gets the job done but that’s really about it. I do find it interesting that the world itself has a lot more personality and gets more development than most of its inhabitants.

But as it stands Elio is a very strong addition to Pixar’s library, it’s touching, heartwarming and such a sweet film that you can’t help but smile after watching.

Elio is available on all VOD platforms.

8/10 B+

Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025) Film Review

Zora Bennett leads a team of skilled operatives to the most dangerous place on Earth, an island research facility for the original Jurassic Park. Their mission is to secure genetic material from dinosaurs whose DNA can provide life-saving benefits to mankind. As the top-secret expedition becomes more and more risky, they soon make a sinister, shocking discovery that’s been hidden from the world for decades.

Jurassic World: Rebirth is directed by Gareth Edwards director of Monsters (2010), Godzilla (2014), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and The Creator (2023). The film takes place three years after Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) and serves as the fourth installment in the Jurassic World series as well as being the seventh installment overall in the Jurassic Park series.

I had some sort of hope that Gareth Edwards could turn the ship around with the Jurassic Park franchise, a franchise that has been struggling in terms of quality for years now. While this movie is a lot better than Fallen Kingdom and Dominion that’s hardly anything worth celebrating, as Rebirth has a ton of issues of its own that completely stop this movie from being any good.

The cast does the best they can with such a bland script that gives them characters who are about as interesting as cardboard cutouts. Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey are all very talented actors who do have a few scenes here that work. But unfortunately most of them are heavily affected by the script that does not give them anything investing to do. I get the audience of these films mostly care about the dinosaurs but when you have your characters reduced to flip notes that are instantly forgettable after watching that becomes a huge problem.

The only real positives here are some of the dinosaurs, solid visuals and the camerawork. The camerawork does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to moving the story along mainly due to the lack of an investing script, the dinosaurs are admittedly pretty neat and it’s nice to see them in action during some of the movie’s surprisingly decent action scenes. But those can only get you so far because soon after you are reminded of how bland everything else really is.

The movie tries to recapture what made the first Jurassic Park so magical and large in scale, they even try to flat out recreate these scenes but of course they don’t match the original. Instead they feel like half baked attempts of trying to recreate it only because they will get people pointing their finger at the screen and saying “Oh I know that scene it’s like from the very first film!” it’s painfully obvious what they were doing here and as you probably have guessed it completely misses. When it comes to scale there’s moments where Gareth Edwards works his magic, even in Edwards’s weaker films he is always bring this large in scale feel which is present throughout this movie. But like most of the movie, the writing really holds it back from potentially having these beautiful moments.

Finally there’s the writing which is the main culprit of why this movie just doesn’t come together, it’s very much a below average adventure movie with dinosaurs. If the Jurassic Park or World name wasn’t on it this would have been ignored. The characters are cliched with very little going on development wise, the story is generic and has no stakes at all. The movie wants to brand itself as this new experience for the franchise yet it desperately tries to do what the first Jurassic Park did.

Overall there really isn’t much more to say about Jurassic World: Rebirth this might entertain some viewers and I guess it’s an improvement over the last two films but is that really anything worth celebrating?

Jurassic World: Rebirth is available on all VOD platforms.

4/10 D+

War Of The Worlds (2025) Film Review

A computer security analyst working for the U.S. government finds his daily life disrupted by an alien attack. Accustomed to dealing with virtual threats, his struggle extends to secrets the government may be hiding.

War Of The Worlds is directed by Rich Lee which is directorial debut. The film is based on H.G. Wells’s 1989 novel The War Of The Worlds.

We all know what The War Of The Worlds is, it’s a classic story when it comes to science fiction. There’s been plenty of film and TV adaptations ranging from varying degrees of quality, I have not seen all of them (and quite frankly don’t plan on it) but War Of The Worlds (2025) is a very special case. It’s one of those films that is so bafflingly bad that you start to ask yourself “is this movie even real?” You know a film is going to be terrible when 6 days before release the trailer gets sent out and is met with so much laughter due to how terrible it looks, the tagline for the movie is “it’s worse than you think” and wow that is incredibly accurate…

For starters Ice Cube gives one of the most bafflingly bad performances in recent memory, Ice Cube is normally pretty okay as an actor but with this movie there is not one single moment where his acting connects with the viewer or even himself. For a large majority of the movie it seems like Ice Cube is confused and lost, maybe that’s due to the terrible screenplay that completely misunderstands the whole screenlife genre that the movie is going for. The conversations that Ice Cube has with the rest of the cast are about as good as when the teacher in your early morning english or reading class would ask you to read a part of the book you are reading for the class. It’s some of the worst line reading you could imagine, there were moments where my jaw was on the floor due to how much of not caring there really is here.

I mentioned this earlier but this movie goes for a screenlife approach, you know films like Searching (2018), Host (2020), Unfriended: Dark Web (2018) and a few others? Making a screenlife War Of The Worlds adaption is not a bad idea. In fact that’s a pretty interesting concept that combined with the science fiction elements could actually make for a decent movie….unfortunately the movie does not do any of that well at all. A large problem here is that there’s heavy Amazon product placement which almost immediately takes you out of the movie (if you were even invested to begin with) and it really sticks out like a sore thumb. The whole screenlife element while may look cool really does not get used in any unique ways, it really seems like screenwriters Kenneth A. Golde and Marc Hyman had absolutely no idea how to make the concept work despite having a lot of the right material in front of their faces.

Finally the movie itself is just painfully hard to sit through, a majority of the characters are terrible and are only there to be killed off hence why I haven’t really mentioned the rest of the case besides Ice Cube. The story itself goes in a very predictable direction that if you watch the first 10 minutes you can easily tell what happens and the CGI is laughably terrible some of the worst you will ever see from a movie this year.

I’m not sure what else there is to be said about War Of The Worlds it completely fails both as an adaption and as its own film, this is definitely one of those movies where it kind of must be seen to be believed. If you like terrible films that are so bafflingly bad then this might be for you.

War Of The Worlds is available on Amazon Prime Video.

No good qualities just absolute garbage F

Daniela Forever (2025) Film Review

After his girlfriend dies in an accident, a grieving man joins a sleep trial that allows him to rebuild his life with her through the use of lucid dreams.

Daniela Forever is directed by Nacho Vigalondo director of Timecrimes (2007), Extraterrestrial (2011), Open Windows (2014) and Colossal (2016).

Daniela Forever suffers from having some really great ideas but just not executing them all that well, which is quite unfortunate because I do think the movie has some bright spots towards the end.

The acting is a mixed bag, Henry Golding gives a solid performance…during the last 20 minutes before that however is a bit painful to watch. There’s absolutely no subtlety with his performance or how his character Nicholas is feeling, that’s partly due to how messy the script really is. As I said Golding eventually recovers during the last 20 minutes but by then it’s too little and the viewer has more than likely checked out due to how chaotic and sloppy the movie really is. Beatrice Granno’s performance is serviceable but unfortunately the lack of chemistry with Golding is not doing the movie any favors.

There are some admittedly neat shots with some decent use of visual effects, it matches the sci-fi romance feel the movie is going for. The visuals actually do a better job at moving the story along than the writing in this case (which isn’t saying much given that the visuals are just fine.)

The writing has a lot of genuinely interesting ideas, there’s a somewhat intriguing middle portion but that’s really where it ends. The movie focuses way too much on explanations rather than letting a scene sit with the viewer, there’s even more explanations about obvious rules about dreams in general. This takes away a lot of the intrigue the movie might have had previously and instead leaves the viewer more confused as to why this needed to be explained.

The chemistry between Golding and Granno is just not there at all, the dialogue has very little going for it as well. Outside of a few moments that are genuinely sweet, it feels very bare bones with nothing for the viewer to chew on about these characters.

Overall there really is not much else to say about Daniela Forever, but the execution is incredibly lacking and leaves the viewer wanting more.

Daniela Forever releases in theaters Friday and on all VOD platforms July 22nd

4/10 D+

40 Acres (2025) Film Review

Surviving on an isolated farm after a series of plagues and wars, a former soldier and her family make one last stand against a vicious militia that wants to take their land.

40 Acres is directed by R.T. Thorne which is his directorial debut!

All I knew going into 40 Acres was that Danielle Deadwyler was in the cast which was a sign that I needed to check this one out. Deadwyler has quickly become one of my favorite actresses working today, a major part is due to how consistently she delivers fantastic performances and here is no exception. I also have to say for a directorial debut it’s a very interesting swing this film took, including some cannibalistic militia, family bonding and some pretty brutal action. All of this combined together makes for quite an interesting little movie.

As I said before Danielle Deadwyler is a fantastic actress so there is no surprise that she ends up being the best part of the film, there’s something about her tone of voice that is truly effective and that’s really present here. Her interactions with the rest of the cast are raw and lead to some quite effective family dynamic bits that make you care for these characters. Deadwyler does such a great job of keeping each scene interesting, she leads this film to success the whole way through. A mother character wanting to protect their family isn’t anything new but the way Deadwyler portrays Hailey Freeman is effective, raw and absolutely fun to watch.

The rest of the cast are great, Kataem O’Connor, Michael Greyeyes and Leenah Robinson get time to shine in certain scenes. The main focus is very much on Deadwyler, but the rest of the cast do get to be involved and are quite great at moving the plot along at this solid and focused pace. There just isn’t any heavy character writing going on with them.

When it comes to world building 40 Acres does a pretty solid job of giving the viewer the basic rundown, Thorne keeps things grounded by telling us background details of what led to a lack of resources. He tells us this through the grounded script that he and Glenn Taylor wrote, it’s a post apocalyptic story that has much more realism to it than a lot of others one do, yes it does have some traditional genre beats but that does not stop the film from being genuinely powerful with its family dynamics at times.

The cinematography combined with the location is beautiful and fits the film incredibly well, right from the beginning you can feel the thrilling atmosphere in the air. It does take some time to get going again but once the action kicks back in the film keeps building up from there. The cinematography from Jeremy Benning is detailed, and with the help of Thorne’s knowledge of music video directing he’s able to combine the cinematography and music together to make so very well done scenes. There’s one scene in particular that may feel a bit out of place, which there is definitely an argument to be made that it is. However I think Thorne combined with Benning’s cinematography makes it work in the long run.

Finally there’s the action which does actually get brutal towards the end, the film very much focuses on the family dynamics however the action is still incredibly effective when it pops up. There’s this sense of thrills that makes you want to root for the family to make it out of this situation.

Overall 40 Acres is a solid thriller that has this big in scale feel that is quite striking, Danielle Deadwyler’s performance alone warrants a watch but if you are also looking for a thrilling ride with some strong action and family dynamics I recommend giving this one a go.

40 Acres releases July 2nd in theaters.

7/10 B

M3GAN 2.0 (2025) Film Review

Two years after M3GAN’s rampage, her creator, Gemma, resorts to resurrecting her infamous creation in order to take down Amelia, the military-grade weapon who was built by a defense contractor who stole M3GAN’s underlying tech.

M3GAN 2.0 is directed by Gerard Johnstone director of Housebound (2014) and M3GAN (2022). M3GAN 2.0 is a serves as a sequel to M3GAN (2022).

M3GAN 2.0 is one of those sequels where they go in a completely different direction genre wise, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just something you have to make sure you execute it well, where as the first film was a campy horror movie that I actually quite like (I am not as high on it as I was back when it first released but still a solid movie.) M3GAN 2.0 is an action sci-fi film that goes for this Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) type of feel, which although the movie mostly lands there are some glaring issues.

The performances are fine enough, with the exception of Jenna Davis who once again does a really great job as the voice of M3GAN. Plus Ivanna Sakhno does great as AMELIA although the lines she is given are a bit basic she makes them work quite well, the action scenes involving Sakhno work mainly due to AMELIA as a character actually being quite interesting and fun. M3GAN as a character gets some nice development here, there’s this light theme of redemption going on here which I do think is actually some of the movie’s best moments. There’s some decent dialogue between M3GAN and Gemma (played by Allison Williams), it’s not anything special but it is admittedly quite fun.

Allison Williams and Violet McGraw unfortunately aren’t as good here as they were in the previous film and I honestly can’t exactly pinpoint why, maybe it’s because their characters worked a lot better in a traditional horror film or they never really match up to the chaos the script is asking for. Brian Jordan Alvarez and Jen Van Epps are given a lot more to do this time around, it’s nice to see them more involved but this still does not push their characters in the interesting territory. They fill their roles fine enough but that’s really where it ends.

As I said before this movie goes for a completely different direction from the first movie, if you loved the horror and the tension from the first movie you are going to be incredibly disappointed with this one. Because the horror just isn’t here with the tension being nonexistent, instead we have an action sci-fi film that has very light horror elements. The action scenes are actually pretty fun, there is not anything super impressive here but the fun factor is there. It’s quite neat to see M3GAN and AMELIA fight and I do like the use of the environments while these action scenes are occurring. The choreography is also quite well done which also helps these action scenes stand on their legs.

The writing is a mixed bag, while there is some commentary about AI it’s very surface level. The character writing unfortunately really does not go anywhere (M3GAN is the only one who actually gets some real meat from the writing) and the jokes are the definition of a hit or miss type of situation. There’s some jokes that I found decently funny while others just make you roll your eyes, there’s a lot of ideas that are interesting such as the commentary on AI and the theme of redemption. But they are done in this very surface level way that you ultimately forget about by the end.

Finally there’s the pacing combined with the runtime, this is one of those cases where you can really feel that the movie is dragging out and unfortunately it ends up costing the movie, which is a shame because I do think for the most part it’s a fun little ride.

Despite my problems with M3GAN 2.0 I do not think it’s necessarily a terrible movie, there’s a lot of fun to be had here and I do think M3GAN is a fun character. This is just a sequel that is a step down from the previous movie and not something that I think I will ever revisit, if you like action sci-fi movies you may like this one.

M3GAN 2.0 is currently in theaters.

6/10 C+