MEGAN 2.0 Has A Lot In Common With One Of The Best Sci-Fi Sequels

This article contains major spoilers For “M3gan 2.0”.

The consequences are a delicate perspective, a truism of which most moviegoers are well aware of these days. Even if the franchises have become such a bastion of the film industry in the past two decades, the same basic problems with the serialization of a history continue to arise. Namely, how to deliver a story that is both a continuation of what is before and something that seems exciting new? The films cannot (and should not) be television, in which this problem does not barely exist thanks to having much lower issues for a single episode of a series in progress. With a film, the public is invited to return physically to a theater and spend more money to see their favorite characters (and / or the universe they live in), and filmmakers must therefore find a way to simultaneously provide a new and traditional experience.

Fortunately, franchise filmmakers have something of a northern star in the form of the writer / director James Cameron. During his 43 -year career, Cameron was either partially or involved in six suites, starting with his first “Piranha II: The Spawning” and pursuing “Avatar: Fire and Ash” this winter. Among these, he is responsible for what could be asserted is the quintessence of the form: “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” of 1991. Although “Aliens” and “Rambo: First Blood Part II” also use the structure “Flip The Script” that Cameron uses in “T2”, this last film has absolutely perfected it (after be cast By a bad initial idea), demonstrating how a suite can both honor and exceed its predecessor in many ways.

“T2” has helped give subsequent filmmakers the confidence necessary to take their consequences in a completely new direction, which can be seen in films as diverse as “the chronicles of Riddick” and “Happy Death Day 2u”. The latest example, “M3gan 2.0” this month, is a little more obvious than most in its tribute to “T2”. However, the writer / director Gerard Johnstone (working from a story by himself and Akela Cooper, who Co-written the original “M3gan”) clearly learned all the good lessons from one of the best science fiction suites ever made, as demonstrated “M3gan 2.0”.

Most obvious “T2” Tribute in “M3gan 2.0” is also the simplest: the two suites realize the neat thing to make the villain of the first film in the hero. Ironically, even if the two series concern sensitive humanoid robots, this switch has not arrived in the same way. In the original “The Terminator”, the T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) sent to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) is entirely destroyed at the end of the film, which means that the T-800 sent to protect John Connor (Edward Furlong) from another new breed of Terminator, the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), is essentially a new character. However, because he is the same model of Terminator as the first film, and has only been reprogrammed by a future John to be returned in time as a protector of his youngest, this T-800 looks sufficiently like the original Terminator so that the Switcharooo has an emotional weight.

Meanwhile, “M3gan 2.0” clearly indicates from the start that M3gan of this film (played by friend Donald and Jenna Davis) is the same character. Although M3gan was considered destroyed after the first film, it turns out that it found a way to keep its source code in life, without its creator, Gemma (Allison Williams), or the girl with whom she was twinned, Cady (McGraw Violet). The first film saw M3gan go through an evolution of murderous self -conscience similar to Hal 9000 (or The other “child game”), but “M3gan 2.0” continues and deepens the theme of the responsibility of the first film in parenting by posing that M3gan is not intrinsically bad, just “high” by Gemma, who realized too late that she built M3gan to be a replacement parent. Thus, the M3gan of the suite is a more mature individual, his growth parallel to the way CADY is now a more independent young adolescent.

Thus, when Gemma and Cady discover that the Android assassin of the secret government named Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno) (which was created thanks to someone who steals the research of Gemma) is on a mission to eliminate all those responsible for his existence, M3gan decides to make it more than one family member in Gemma and Cady rather than a crushing protector, which makes him more heroine. Although this change is more based on characters, he has reverberations for the whole film. Similar to the way in which “T2” has transformed the horror of action of “The Terminator” into a purer science fiction action “, M3gan 2.0” is moving away from the horror “Living Doll” of the first film in a more inspired action of science fiction and anime.

M3gan is not the only character who undergoes further development in the future, however. In addition to Cady grow and become more independent and stronger (both literally and figuratively), Gemma finds a certain reconciliation with his former sworn enemy M3gan when the latter is temporarily established in the brain of the first. It is a dynamic that recalls that Sarah Connor learns to respect the reprogrammed T-800. In addition, just as Sarah turns out to turn almost into a terminator when she tries to assassinate the architect of Skynet, Miles Dyson (Joe Morton), Gemma finds herself improved with m3gan type powers at a given moment, more blurring the line between the ancient enemies of nemes.

This concept fuels a main thematic interest presented both in “T2” and “M3GAN 2.0”, which is a more nuanced look at the problems of uncontrolled artificial intelligence. In the “Judgment Day”, although the machines created in the future in the name of the Rogue Ai Skynet program are always considered as antagonists, morality is less cut and dried when the continuous nature of humanity, as well as its blindness during the application of new technologies, are taken into account. With the first “M3GAN” attacking certain preliminary questions about the rise of AI as a daily assistant, “2.0” plunges even more into the debate on its unregulated use compared to its creeping proliferation. Although its conclusion is not satisfactory for everyone, it corresponds to the theme of humanity in the series which must be a parent responsible for its creations, which is as much Mary Shelley as James Cameron.

Although “M3gan 2.0” has a little more things about the intrigue and tone than “T2” – this article does not even affect the continuous elements of camp and satire that continue from the original – It nevertheless proves that the use of Cameron’s film as a model for an inventive suite is even more than viable. In an industry obsessed with IP still so liable for the source of the equipment, “M3gan 2.0” intelligently reiterates The mantra of “Terminator 2”, “ Is that there is really no spell but what we can do for ourselves.