June 26, 2025 • 25 mins
In this episode of The Moviegoers Society We dive into M3GAN 2.0, the wild and chaotic sequel to the viral horror hit that took pop culture by storm.
We break down our mixed reactions to this upgraded chapter in A.I. mayhem, discussing the film’s bigger budget, sharper satire, and bonkers final act, while calling out its slower pacing, too much Gemma, and not nearly enough M3GAN. From Ivanna Sakhno’s killer new android to the epic doll vs. doll showdown, we ask the question: Is this sequel an improvement or just another glitch in the system?
Is M3GAN 2.0 the start of a full-blown cinematic universe or a stylish mess that could’ve used fewer emotions and more slay?
📽 Follow us on Letterboxd:
📲 Stay connected for more movie news and updates:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Well, hello and welcome to the Movie Goer Society podcast
brought to you by Nurtropolis. I'm your host, Sean Tajburg, the
mayor of Nurtropolis. And joining me, as always is my
Co host, the professional media movie mastermind Drumenhausen.
And let me know what you thoughtabout that intro.
It's perfect, it's great and be jamming.
(00:30):
Yes, today we're talking about probably one of the wireless
sequels we've probably seen making 2.0, and we'll dive into
that in a little bit. But finally got to have Date
night Drew. We had date night last night.
We did. It was nice you had your new
popcorn bucket that you had freshly purchased.
(00:51):
You know your Jurassic World popcorn bucket.
Man, you're supposed to keep that a secret till Jurassic
World comes out. Oh.
No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry to spoil.
No, you're just spoiling that. We have a lot of episodes coming
everyone's way. Got a lot of interviews, a lot
of reviews, tons of stuff happening at Neutropolis.
But we do want to dive right into this movie just because
(01:11):
it's so fresh in our mind. My full review is up on
neutropolis.com, but I'm just going to be honest, right off
the gate, the first Megan film, I did not vibe vibe with that
all. I felt that film was super
cringy, not really horror, and not saying this one's horror,
(01:33):
but like I was expecting more horrific stuff in that one.
So my expectations were actuallypretty low for the first Megan
film and I just didn't like it. I.
Remember that too, because I think that because that was
before you and I were doing thisshow and on my other podcast,
fresh out the podcast, I remember you came on as a guest
around that time. I can't remember what we
(01:56):
reviewed, maybe like Ant Man andthe Wasp or something like that.
And Megan was like still kind offresh on the mind.
And I remember you and Gary and Johan on that showed like not
being a huge fan of the first Megan that I was the one kind of
defending it a little bit. And not even, I'm not saying
it's like amazing by any means, but I was, I liked it more than
all of you did. Well, right off the bat,
(02:17):
Emmanuel was saying Megan greater than Megan 2 point O,
And I'm just going to say real quick, I beg to differ on that
one. Yeah, I'd, I also, you know,
I'll come out and say I disagree, but we'll get into it.
Was this we're going to get intoit, But my expectations were a
little awesome for this one. I saw maybe some of the trailer
for the sequel way more intense those trailers were they seem
(02:38):
more fun. And after watching this film,
I'm kind of on board with the Megan train.
Honestly, I'm kind of sold on this and I I feel like this is a
movie that really just sucked inthe craziness of it went off the
rails and not to compliment honestly, like just was bonkers,
super self aware, hilarious, creepy when it wants to be.
(03:02):
But also, you know, Drew, we'll get into it, but it had its
issues with pacing and being super long, not enough Megan and
maybe too much Gemma drama. So First off, I'm gonna ask you
Drew your first thoughts walkingout of the film and did it grab
you more than the original? Yes, it did.
And I think my first thought wasthat while this is definitely an
(03:24):
imperfect movie, which I think is the same thing I said about
28 years later, which is a moviethat I I liked a lot more than
this one. But still, like, I, I feel like
they took the right lessons fromthe first Megan in this movie.
If you remember, the first Megankind of had this viral marketing
campaign that I don't know if they even could have planned
(03:47):
for. But like, the scenes from Megan
in the trailer dancing and fighting down the hallway went
viral. And like, that was a TikTok clip
and a trend that was, you know, shown everywhere.
And so I think that they got lucky with the campaign for that
one. So the first Megan movie, you
know, did really well and the $12 million budget and made
(04:07):
almost $200 million. Like, of course they made a
sequel and they're expanding theworld.
And this one has a lot of those same kind of viral moments.
Not that you can create a viral moment, but I'm saying like
tonally the same, right? Like they took those things,
like, oh, these things that wentviral from the first movie,
we're going to have more of it, make it bigger.
(04:30):
I'm surprised that this movie, The budget that's listed here is
not significantly higher than the first one, despite this one
feeling way bigger than the first one.
That all that to say, a lot of the plot, like didn't all
necessarily make sense. Or, you know, you kind of lose
the thread at times of like the true intricacies of it.
(04:51):
But at the end of the day, you understand, like who the
protagonists are, who the you know who the villain is and what
they're trying to do. And and that's what it works.
Spoiler. No spoilers.
But do you though? I thought it was pretty
telegraphed personally. For those not really familiar
(05:12):
with the plot of this movie, youknow it takes place two years
after the first Megan, and it follows a new military grade
weapon robot named Amelia who isbuilt by a defense contractor
who stole Megan's underlying tech.
And it's kind of a cat and mousegame That's pretty fun and we'd
like to tease it and call it it's the Megan Judgement Day A.
(05:34):
Film it is. Yeah, exactly.
This is the Terminator 2 ification of Megan, right?
You know the difference being the in the original Megan, Megan
was created not for nefarious means, right?
Like Megan was created to be a companion for our friend robot,
you know, for a child. And then in the need to protect
(05:56):
the child takes a turn that becomes deadly, right.
And then you have this one whereMegan has since been destroyed.
You know, there is no more Megan.
Oh, in comes bigger batter robot.
We need Megan back to fight thisrobot.
So like you know very much Terminator 2.
Megan on her last legs or no legs?
(06:16):
Yes. I do want to talk about the
human side before we dive into all the robotics.
I I'm glad the cast is back. They're they're, they're good.
But like the characters, Gemma and Katie, I actually like Katie
more than Gemma and we see Katieand her I I like her a lot.
(06:36):
Gemma who was if I can find thisone.
I'm not a fan of Gemma for a lotof reasons.
I can't really explain them, butshe's not that likable and comes
off as very weak and needs the help of others.
Even though she's supposed to bebrilliant, she doesn't come off
as brilliant to me. There's a lot of Gemma, maybe
too much Gemma, and then obviously we do get a new
(06:59):
villain that we'll get into. But what do you think about the
Gem scene? Or is it an Allison Williams
thing for you? I think it's a Gemma thing.
I have nothing. I I like the actress.
It's the character, honestly. I haven't really seen her in
that. I mean, obviously in the Megan
movies and I've seen Get Out, but she is, you know, villainous
character in so that works, but I haven't seen I know that she
(07:19):
really got her start like the the TV show girls really kick
started her career and that's a show I didn't watch.
So no, I like, I just haven't seen her in that much.
I, I like her as an actress, I just think that character is
pretty bland in my eyes, just just as someone that created
Megan, but really doesn't show off the intellect or the
(07:40):
strength and seems pretty weak. But especially when you put her
against Katie. I think I would rather follow
Katie's story instead of Gemma'sstory.
And I think it's more about Katie, but like he kind of
doesn't feel that way at times. So what did you feel about the
human side of things? Did you enjoy the human elements
and some of the characters? I mean they do make some funny
scenes, but I I could do withoutthem.
(08:01):
Honestly. There's too many of them.
Yeah, I I agree. I like Katie a lot and for a
young actress she does pretty well and I'm glad that the cast
returned. I even like the the 2.
I don't know the the names. I guess it's Tess and Cole who
are like basically Gemma's Co workers.
(08:21):
Like I like them and I remembered them from the first
movie and so, you know, I'm gladthat they were here.
But I think the the big issue isthere's so much setting up the
plot in this movie and getting to a point where we can even
bring Megan back. Don't get me wrong, Megan is a
presence throughout the entire movie, which is good.
But like there's just a lot of the humans when like we're here
(08:44):
for Megan, right? Like it's it's Megan 2 point O
that she's on the posters, she'sin the trailers, she's dancing,
she's singing like we want Megan.
And it really kind of takes a while to get there.
And I feel like there's a version of this movie that maybe
could have been cut down to makeit a little bit more compact.
So yes, like, I like the human characters.
(09:05):
There's just too much of them inthis one.
Right and and you know, we meet Megan like this pretty much
leads to this type of Megan you see man in the back and then
this is the final form Megan pretty much right here.
I don't know as far as robotics,but Megan seems similar to Elita
Battle Angel. Yeah, they're similar vibes
(09:26):
there for sure. No, I dig it.
And then we obviously have there's this new villain Amelia.
Total Terminator vibes, slick, creepy, I mean honestly one of
the best parts of the sequel. But I also think it's she gets
the short end of the stick too. It would been fun to seeing her
(09:46):
do more at the same time or evenfollow her point of view.
Would have been awesome. The the villain Amelia, played
by. I'm probably going to butcher
the pronunciation, but Ivana, somaybe Sakno.
I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing it right, but who looks
strikingly like Elizabeth Olsen?I thought like it's, you know,
(10:08):
it's not her, but it's kind of uncanny valley because they, you
know, she very much resembles Elizabeth Olsen.
Scarlet Witch. Herself, yeah, but I, I thought
she was really great. I wanted to see.
She's pretty awesome, like pretty strong.
The we we laughed at the beginning sequence for many
reasons because of the politicalclimate as well.
I thought it was oddly timed andwild coincidence.
(10:32):
I would say that but I liked having her in this.
I will go back to my biggest issue at Megan 2 point O is we
don't get enough Megan in the first half.
We do get some Amelia but not enough too much of that human
element. Building up the emotional arc
too between Gemma and Katie. Again, I was like, let's get
over this, have them battle it out or something because I'm
tired of them having these issues since the first film.
(10:55):
I really came here for this. Like dull robotic chaos that we
see later on that takes forever to get to look at the runtime.
Because we talked about it. The first one I believe is like
an hour 4045. This one's like in the sequel is
in close to two hours, an hour 55.
So some extra time to do nothing, you know, because it
(11:18):
was really slow, a lot of pacing.
But once Megan is back, the movie does delivered.
Robot versus robot showdown. Awesome.
But we waited too long for them to battle it out and I wish we
saw it like like Terminator two.I'm not saying RIP off the
movie, but why not have it you know this cat of mouse from
early on and have them go at each other often?
(11:40):
Honestly. Luckily, and I see Emmanuel's
comment in the chat there's which is true, like the plots
too convoluted. You know, could have used some
rewrite sure, like it is definitely way too convoluted.
Luckily it doesn't ever take itself too seriously through
that. So even though they're like
planting a lot of seeds and laying out a lot, it's also like
(12:01):
very light and fluffy the whole time.
And I I appreciated that, you know, a lot of humor throughout.
Some of the gags worked like theorigin of AI basically going
back to like a copy, you know, copy machine company called, I
believe it's called Xenox in themovies, not Xerox, but close
enough. And, you know, basically being
(12:23):
almost like this Nintendo SK it's been growing, you know,
it's it's it's mind is steadily been growing since the, you
know, the 80s. I thought all that was like fun
and silly and kind of stupid, but like the whole thing with
Megan is kind of stupid and that's what makes it fun.
I mean a lot of it is stupid funI would call it, but yes, it
(12:45):
just takes a while to get to thefun.
But one thing really did stand out to me is this.
The sequel really had a bigger budget.
It seemed like glossy or fancier.
Even that awesome car looked that's probably was mostly fake,
probably mostly CG. 2 looked really cool.
Just everything, even the some of the action and some of the
robotics that they were showing and some of the other.
(13:06):
The tech stuff looks really awesome.
The action is sharper but I really wished it leaned more on
the R rated side. It did at times, but not enough.
Yeah, that's a big part of this too.
I think it's pretty glaring throughout the movie.
And I get it right. Like Megan is a it is a movie
made to appeal to the TikTok crowd.
(13:27):
So you want to make it PG13 to have the crowds come out.
Like I understand it, but it just means that there's a lot of
deaths that like take place off screen or right as the
characters about to get, you know, their throat slit or
whatever. It's a quick cut and maybe you
see a silhouette shadow on the wall or you see, you know, you
just hear a scream and it cuts away.
(13:48):
It's it's a lot of cutting away that by the end of a 2 hour
runtime it becomes really noticeable that a lot of the
gore is kept simple or done. Well, there was a couple of keep
the. Rating down a.
Couple of shots though felt R rated.
Some of the arms that were cut off there was like a vertebrae
(14:09):
pulled off too. Like a vertebrae was pulled out.
There's some limbs and things like that, but there's even in
those scenes there's kind of a lack of blood to make it less
gory. So I think that's how they were
able to get away with it. It did have a well placed use of
the 1F bomb that they were able to drop in APG 13 movie and some
(14:30):
other workarounds for the language too.
It, you know, it all works. It, it really, I would say for
PG13, it is pushing the line at times.
But just, again, when you have amovie that's so much action and
there's so much cutting away or getting around the gore, it's
like, yeah, the PG13 is kind of glaring.
(14:51):
I was going to follow with this and Emanuel just nailed it for
me too 'cause I was going to ask, would you want to see a
unrated cut of this? And then also Emanuel would say
maybe they'll release AR rated or unrated version of Peacock
like they did for the last film.I didn't catch that one, but I
felt like there wasn't much really to add from the first
film. Maybe a couple scenes.
I felt like an unrated version or R rated would better this
(15:11):
film than it would have the original.
Yeah, and I didn't get to see the unrated version that they
released on Peacock of the firstone.
I will say this, you and I talked about this a little bit
before the screening and it's worth noting just the way that
Wrights work for streaming stuffnow is so weird.
Obviously, Bumhouse is through Universal.
The original Megan got its firstrun on streaming on Peacock and
(15:34):
I remember it came out on Peacock and then they advertised
the unrated cut on Peacock. However, now 2 1/2 years later,
you cannot watch Megan or the unrated cut on Peacock.
They're not there anymore because they, you know, go
wherever they go and they're notstreaming anywhere.
So you had, you know, the only way you could watch it is to buy
it on iTunes or whatever. I think it's like 70, excuse me,
(15:57):
799 on iTunes right now discounted, which is great.
But I was like OK, I wanted to rewatch it before seeing the new
one, but I also didn't really care enough to pay 8 bucks to to
rewatch it so I didn't. Had it been on Peacock, I would
have streamed it. But you know, a service that I
pay for so that I can have the Universal Bum House movies, but
(16:17):
yet it's not on there, so go figure.
Yeah, it's a weird world we livein, and Megan reflects on a lot
of weird stuff going on in our world.
Dials into tech satire, giving asocial commentary on AI,
government oversight, tech weaponization while all being
bonkers. So I definitely love the the
commentary on all that stuff this film really offers.
(16:39):
It knows what it is. It's not trying to be horror,
which I'm glad because I don't think horror works when you have
like AAI sentient robots. You could do so much with that
genre, but you got to learn moreinto the sci-fi aspect of it.
Definitely very meme worthy of amovie as well.
And it's it's a genre blending film.
Yeah, I don't know if people would take this as a spoiler or
(17:00):
we'll be mad to hear this, but I'm just going to say it.
I don't think that there's a single jump scare in this movie.
There are like horror adjacent scenes or scenes that are, you
know, could be a jump, but they're just so telegraphed that
I didn't jump a single time in this movie.
It is way more about the action in the comedy.
Which I'm I'm fine with. I don't need jump stairs.
(17:21):
Mega is not the type of film that needs it honestly.
And going forward we don't, we don't need it.
But I love the satire. You thought all that worked for
it or did you get did it get a little lost in the chaos or did
you like some of the social commentary at all?
So. I thought all of that, all that
worked. It's, you know, a lot of a lot
of satire mixed with camp. And that's the, you know, I like
(17:41):
that kind of stuff in general. I will say I am a believer of a
Megan cinematic universe. I'm ready for crossovers.
I'm ready to take Megan to like the Fast and Furious franchise
and just make 10 of them howeveryou want to do it.
It's a really ridiculous conceptand what they showed, what they
can do with the sequel, they cando a lot with it.
(18:02):
Clear set up for a extensive world and to keep exploring it.
Would you watch Megan 3 point O and beyond?
Absolutely. But what would you want to see
in the franchise? If they keep putting these out
and they're funny and have actually, you know, I'm, I'm
here for it. I'll go see these.
I think that they're a pretty good time, although not like not
(18:26):
great. You know, I do think Megan 2
point O is better than Megan, but like that's going to say
that I thought Megan was like a three star out of five movie and
Megan 2 point O is like a three or a 3.5, you know, out of five.
That's that's kind of where I'm at with it.
Yeah, the sequel is smarter. It is funnier and a lot more fun
(18:49):
than the first just because I wasn't sure what the first one
was trying to be. I felt like it was kind of how
to identity Crisis, I guess you can call it.
But I just love all the action in this too.
And the total RIP off almost. That's not RIP off but a lot of
things to T2. I liked it.
I wish there was time travel though.
If there's some time travel. Been awesome.
Maybe Megan 3 point O will have a Megan from the future to come
(19:10):
back in time to tell them you know they need to stop
something. If I'm remembering correctly, I
do feel like the marketing for the first one really did sell it
more as a horror movie. Like I remember it being kind of
creepy and eerie in the trailers, and then it had some
of those moments, but really it was kind of camp and funny too.
(19:31):
And it didn't take itself too seriously.
And this one just takes all of that and upset times 10 in every
way. If you had to pick a franchise
to cross it over with, what would it be?
A funny thing? As Emmanuel says, Megan versus
Chucky is my wish. I don't want to see doll versus
(19:52):
doll. Almost I I kind of want to see
something more ridiculous than that.
But what would you want to see? A crossover with Megan?
You could almost do like Megan, an Orphan.
Also, you know, the Orphan franchise.
Chucky's actually a decent answer.
Another series that has just gone totally off the rails and
doesn't take itself too seriously after the first one
(20:12):
being kind of more of your standard horror movie.
That's a series that just continued to get more and more
bonkers as it went on. I just want to, I just want to
see time traveling be introducedin this world of Megan.
It's totally possible. You know what, why not?
Like let's just have the Megan series go the route of the Fast
and the Furious franchise where the first one is like a little
(20:35):
grounded and then they just get bigger and bigger and how can we
keep point upping ourselves? And maybe Megan will be time
traveling or going, you know, multi multiversal, like who
knows? You know the Sky's the limit for
Megan, the Megan. Oh man, is that the new MCU?
(20:55):
It's the M3 CU, right? The Megan Cinematic Universe.
It's just still the MCU, the Megan Cinematic Universe.
She can RIP off. She can RIP off things.
That's what she likes to do. She likes to RIP off body parts,
RIP off some storylines. I mean why not RIP everything
off? There you go, the new MCU, the
Megan Cinematic Universe and Megan 3 point O If might happen
(21:16):
if the box office agrees or I don't know what Blum House is
doing. They've been on and off.
That's all I can say. I don't know how they're
surviving, but they are. They just bought the soft
franchise too. I mean, I can tell you how
they're surviving. They're surviving by making
movies on a low budget that evenif they, even if the movies
(21:37):
don't work that well, they tend to at least make back their
budget, right? Like drop a movie that you and I
both like to varying extent, right?
Made for $11 million, made almost $30 million.
Yeah, that's not like an overwhelming success, but it
almost tripled its budget. So like we're doing just fine or
but then you get a Megan that's made for $12 million and it
(21:59):
makes almost $200 million. So I think that's, I, I think
that that strategy is really good.
And I, I like what Blumhouse hasbeen doing.
I've, I've really enjoyed what they've been doing for a while.
I think you just get varying degrees of success with the low
budgets and but when they work, they work really well.
Well, we have to see how The Mummy is going to be when they
(22:20):
release that one too. The Cronin's The Mummy and
that'll be interesting to see how that plays out too.
I mean, here's another Five Nights at Freddy's, right?
Made for $20 million, Made almost $300 million, which
obviously that's a video game franchise and it's very popular.
There's a sequel to that coming out this year, I think.
So I would expect that one's going to do pretty well.
(22:41):
Christmas ish and. Then those funds your woman in
the yards or your drops or your imaginaries or is black phone
your nice one house. Is black phone 2 Blumhouse?
I believe Black Phone 2 is Blumhouse.
That is correct. Yeah, they got some good stuff,
but for me, I think they're, forme, they're misses more than
(23:01):
hits or they're just subtle. There's there's small, smaller
hits of movies. I mean, they don't have the
major impacts that you would expect.
They kind of fizzle a little bitwith Halloween.
So I don't know. And we'll see what they do with
the soft franchise. Maybe that's going to be their
new way, you know, getting past Halloween, grab a new big
franchise. They were trying to do Jason,
(23:23):
but I believe that's Friday 13this now 824.
The the Jason writes are like really talk about convoluted.
Look up the history of the rightthe Friday the 13th franchise of
Jason. It is it is weird.
I think I thought they were supposed to be making a series
for. People, they're filming already.
They've already filming it and that's why I was trying to see
of who is behind that one, 'cause I believe a 24, 'cause
(23:49):
it's called Crystal Lake and it has started production already,
but I'm just trying to find yeah, it's produced by a 24.
Blumhouse lost that one. That would have been a good one
for Blumhouse over Saw. I feel like I just don't know
what they're going to do with Saw to continue it, reboot it.
I don't know, but I'm I'm alwayshere to see what they do.
I'm very interested in this in their company because it's very
(24:12):
different than what we've seen for the other studios because
they they work kind of like an independent studio, like a very
small studio, but they deliver really great products.
At the end of the day. All their films are shiny, look
great. They're not low quality, just
lower budget, but they pull it off.
I'm very impressed by them at the end of the day still.
Yeah, yeah, I agree. Any final thoughts drew on
Megan? Just hopefully no one builds a
(24:34):
real Megan in real life, right? Yeah, let's hope not.
I I think that, you know, there is a lot of social commentary in
it. Some of it's pretty obvious and
it's all very relevant right nowwith just talks of AI and
things. But I felt like at times I'm
like, OK, how many times are yougoing to tell me that we
shouldn't be on phones or we shouldn't be using tech or we
overuse, you know, all that kindof stuff.
(24:56):
But just at least Megan doesn't take itself seriously enough
that I can still laugh at everything.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to Megan 3.0 though, but that is a
wrap for this episode of the movie Go Society.
If you've seen Megan 2.0 or going to watch it, just let us
know what you thought. Did it slay?
Did it stall? You Ready for more Megan?
(25:16):
Not a you know or done with Megan, but be sure to subscribe
for more reviews. Hot takes, deep dives.
Don't forget to follow Neutropolis across all social
medias. Make sure you check out our
website. Follow Drew and I on our socials
as well. Once again, I'm Sean Touchworth,
the mayor of Neutropolis and. I'm Drew Manhausen, the
professional media and movie mastermind.
(25:36):
And we will see you at the movies.
Well, hello and welcome to the Movie Goer Society podcast
brought to you by Nurtropolis. I'm your host, Sean Tajburg, the
mayor of Nurtropolis. And joining me, as always is my
Co host, the professional media movie mastermind Drumenhausen.
And let me know what you thoughtabout that intro.
It's perfect, it's great and be jamming.
(00:30):
Yes, today we're talking about probably one of the wireless
sequels we've probably seen making 2.0, and we'll dive into
that in a little bit. But finally got to have Date
night Drew. We had date night last night.
We did. It was nice you had your new
popcorn bucket that you had freshly purchased.
(00:51):
You know your Jurassic World popcorn bucket.
Man, you're supposed to keep that a secret till Jurassic
World comes out. Oh.
No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry to spoil.
No, you're just spoiling that. We have a lot of episodes coming
everyone's way. Got a lot of interviews, a lot
of reviews, tons of stuff happening at Neutropolis.
But we do want to dive right into this movie just because
(01:11):
it's so fresh in our mind. My full review is up on
neutropolis.com, but I'm just going to be honest, right off
the gate, the first Megan film, I did not vibe vibe with that
all. I felt that film was super
cringy, not really horror, and not saying this one's horror,
(01:33):
but like I was expecting more horrific stuff in that one.
So my expectations were actuallypretty low for the first Megan
film and I just didn't like it. I.
Remember that too, because I think that because that was
before you and I were doing thisshow and on my other podcast,
fresh out the podcast, I remember you came on as a guest
around that time. I can't remember what we
(01:56):
reviewed, maybe like Ant Man andthe Wasp or something like that.
And Megan was like still kind offresh on the mind.
And I remember you and Gary and Johan on that showed like not
being a huge fan of the first Megan that I was the one kind of
defending it a little bit. And not even, I'm not saying
it's like amazing by any means, but I was, I liked it more than
all of you did. Well, right off the bat,
(02:17):
Emmanuel was saying Megan greater than Megan 2 point O,
And I'm just going to say real quick, I beg to differ on that
one. Yeah, I'd, I also, you know,
I'll come out and say I disagree, but we'll get into it.
Was this we're going to get intoit, But my expectations were a
little awesome for this one. I saw maybe some of the trailer
for the sequel way more intense those trailers were they seem
(02:38):
more fun. And after watching this film,
I'm kind of on board with the Megan train.
Honestly, I'm kind of sold on this and I I feel like this is a
movie that really just sucked inthe craziness of it went off the
rails and not to compliment honestly, like just was bonkers,
super self aware, hilarious, creepy when it wants to be.
(03:02):
But also, you know, Drew, we'll get into it, but it had its
issues with pacing and being super long, not enough Megan and
maybe too much Gemma drama. So First off, I'm gonna ask you
Drew your first thoughts walkingout of the film and did it grab
you more than the original? Yes, it did.
And I think my first thought wasthat while this is definitely an
(03:24):
imperfect movie, which I think is the same thing I said about
28 years later, which is a moviethat I I liked a lot more than
this one. But still, like, I, I feel like
they took the right lessons fromthe first Megan in this movie.
If you remember, the first Megankind of had this viral marketing
campaign that I don't know if they even could have planned
(03:47):
for. But like, the scenes from Megan
in the trailer dancing and fighting down the hallway went
viral. And like, that was a TikTok clip
and a trend that was, you know, shown everywhere.
And so I think that they got lucky with the campaign for that
one. So the first Megan movie, you
know, did really well and the $12 million budget and made
(04:07):
almost $200 million. Like, of course they made a
sequel and they're expanding theworld.
And this one has a lot of those same kind of viral moments.
Not that you can create a viral moment, but I'm saying like
tonally the same, right? Like they took those things,
like, oh, these things that wentviral from the first movie,
we're going to have more of it, make it bigger.
(04:30):
I'm surprised that this movie, The budget that's listed here is
not significantly higher than the first one, despite this one
feeling way bigger than the first one.
That all that to say, a lot of the plot, like didn't all
necessarily make sense. Or, you know, you kind of lose
the thread at times of like the true intricacies of it.
(04:51):
But at the end of the day, you understand, like who the
protagonists are, who the you know who the villain is and what
they're trying to do. And and that's what it works.
Spoiler. No spoilers.
But do you though? I thought it was pretty
telegraphed personally. For those not really familiar
(05:12):
with the plot of this movie, youknow it takes place two years
after the first Megan, and it follows a new military grade
weapon robot named Amelia who isbuilt by a defense contractor
who stole Megan's underlying tech.
And it's kind of a cat and mousegame That's pretty fun and we'd
like to tease it and call it it's the Megan Judgement Day A.
(05:34):
Film it is. Yeah, exactly.
This is the Terminator 2 ification of Megan, right?
You know the difference being the in the original Megan, Megan
was created not for nefarious means, right?
Like Megan was created to be a companion for our friend robot,
you know, for a child. And then in the need to protect
(05:56):
the child takes a turn that becomes deadly, right.
And then you have this one whereMegan has since been destroyed.
You know, there is no more Megan.
Oh, in comes bigger batter robot.
We need Megan back to fight thisrobot.
So like you know very much Terminator 2.
Megan on her last legs or no legs?
(06:16):
Yes. I do want to talk about the
human side before we dive into all the robotics.
I I'm glad the cast is back. They're they're, they're good.
But like the characters, Gemma and Katie, I actually like Katie
more than Gemma and we see Katieand her I I like her a lot.
(06:36):
Gemma who was if I can find thisone.
I'm not a fan of Gemma for a lotof reasons.
I can't really explain them, butshe's not that likable and comes
off as very weak and needs the help of others.
Even though she's supposed to bebrilliant, she doesn't come off
as brilliant to me. There's a lot of Gemma, maybe
too much Gemma, and then obviously we do get a new
(06:59):
villain that we'll get into. But what do you think about the
Gem scene? Or is it an Allison Williams
thing for you? I think it's a Gemma thing.
I have nothing. I I like the actress.
It's the character, honestly. I haven't really seen her in
that. I mean, obviously in the Megan
movies and I've seen Get Out, but she is, you know, villainous
character in so that works, but I haven't seen I know that she
(07:19):
really got her start like the the TV show girls really kick
started her career and that's a show I didn't watch.
So no, I like, I just haven't seen her in that much.
I, I like her as an actress, I just think that character is
pretty bland in my eyes, just just as someone that created
Megan, but really doesn't show off the intellect or the
(07:40):
strength and seems pretty weak. But especially when you put her
against Katie. I think I would rather follow
Katie's story instead of Gemma'sstory.
And I think it's more about Katie, but like he kind of
doesn't feel that way at times. So what did you feel about the
human side of things? Did you enjoy the human elements
and some of the characters? I mean they do make some funny
scenes, but I I could do withoutthem.
(08:01):
Honestly. There's too many of them.
Yeah, I I agree. I like Katie a lot and for a
young actress she does pretty well and I'm glad that the cast
returned. I even like the the 2.
I don't know the the names. I guess it's Tess and Cole who
are like basically Gemma's Co workers.
(08:21):
Like I like them and I remembered them from the first
movie and so, you know, I'm gladthat they were here.
But I think the the big issue isthere's so much setting up the
plot in this movie and getting to a point where we can even
bring Megan back. Don't get me wrong, Megan is a
presence throughout the entire movie, which is good.
But like there's just a lot of the humans when like we're here
(08:44):
for Megan, right? Like it's it's Megan 2 point O
that she's on the posters, she'sin the trailers, she's dancing,
she's singing like we want Megan.
And it really kind of takes a while to get there.
And I feel like there's a version of this movie that maybe
could have been cut down to makeit a little bit more compact.
So yes, like, I like the human characters.
(09:05):
There's just too much of them inthis one.
Right and and you know, we meet Megan like this pretty much
leads to this type of Megan you see man in the back and then
this is the final form Megan pretty much right here.
I don't know as far as robotics,but Megan seems similar to Elita
Battle Angel. Yeah, they're similar vibes
(09:26):
there for sure. No, I dig it.
And then we obviously have there's this new villain Amelia.
Total Terminator vibes, slick, creepy, I mean honestly one of
the best parts of the sequel. But I also think it's she gets
the short end of the stick too. It would been fun to seeing her
(09:46):
do more at the same time or evenfollow her point of view.
Would have been awesome. The the villain Amelia, played
by. I'm probably going to butcher
the pronunciation, but Ivana, somaybe Sakno.
I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing it right, but who looks
strikingly like Elizabeth Olsen?I thought like it's, you know,
(10:08):
it's not her, but it's kind of uncanny valley because they, you
know, she very much resembles Elizabeth Olsen.
Scarlet Witch. Herself, yeah, but I, I thought
she was really great. I wanted to see.
She's pretty awesome, like pretty strong.
The we we laughed at the beginning sequence for many
reasons because of the politicalclimate as well.
I thought it was oddly timed andwild coincidence.
(10:32):
I would say that but I liked having her in this.
I will go back to my biggest issue at Megan 2 point O is we
don't get enough Megan in the first half.
We do get some Amelia but not enough too much of that human
element. Building up the emotional arc
too between Gemma and Katie. Again, I was like, let's get
over this, have them battle it out or something because I'm
tired of them having these issues since the first film.
(10:55):
I really came here for this. Like dull robotic chaos that we
see later on that takes forever to get to look at the runtime.
Because we talked about it. The first one I believe is like
an hour 4045. This one's like in the sequel is
in close to two hours, an hour 55.
So some extra time to do nothing, you know, because it
(11:18):
was really slow, a lot of pacing.
But once Megan is back, the movie does delivered.
Robot versus robot showdown. Awesome.
But we waited too long for them to battle it out and I wish we
saw it like like Terminator two.I'm not saying RIP off the
movie, but why not have it you know this cat of mouse from
early on and have them go at each other often?
(11:40):
Honestly. Luckily, and I see Emmanuel's
comment in the chat there's which is true, like the plots
too convoluted. You know, could have used some
rewrite sure, like it is definitely way too convoluted.
Luckily it doesn't ever take itself too seriously through
that. So even though they're like
planting a lot of seeds and laying out a lot, it's also like
(12:01):
very light and fluffy the whole time.
And I I appreciated that, you know, a lot of humor throughout.
Some of the gags worked like theorigin of AI basically going
back to like a copy, you know, copy machine company called, I
believe it's called Xenox in themovies, not Xerox, but close
enough. And, you know, basically being
(12:23):
almost like this Nintendo SK it's been growing, you know,
it's it's it's mind is steadily been growing since the, you
know, the 80s. I thought all that was like fun
and silly and kind of stupid, but like the whole thing with
Megan is kind of stupid and that's what makes it fun.
I mean a lot of it is stupid funI would call it, but yes, it
(12:45):
just takes a while to get to thefun.
But one thing really did stand out to me is this.
The sequel really had a bigger budget.
It seemed like glossy or fancier.
Even that awesome car looked that's probably was mostly fake,
probably mostly CG. 2 looked really cool.
Just everything, even the some of the action and some of the
robotics that they were showing and some of the other.
(13:06):
The tech stuff looks really awesome.
The action is sharper but I really wished it leaned more on
the R rated side. It did at times, but not enough.
Yeah, that's a big part of this too.
I think it's pretty glaring throughout the movie.
And I get it right. Like Megan is a it is a movie
made to appeal to the TikTok crowd.
(13:27):
So you want to make it PG13 to have the crowds come out.
Like I understand it, but it just means that there's a lot of
deaths that like take place off screen or right as the
characters about to get, you know, their throat slit or
whatever. It's a quick cut and maybe you
see a silhouette shadow on the wall or you see, you know, you
just hear a scream and it cuts away.
(13:48):
It's it's a lot of cutting away that by the end of a 2 hour
runtime it becomes really noticeable that a lot of the
gore is kept simple or done. Well, there was a couple of keep
the. Rating down a.
Couple of shots though felt R rated.
Some of the arms that were cut off there was like a vertebrae
(14:09):
pulled off too. Like a vertebrae was pulled out.
There's some limbs and things like that, but there's even in
those scenes there's kind of a lack of blood to make it less
gory. So I think that's how they were
able to get away with it. It did have a well placed use of
the 1F bomb that they were able to drop in APG 13 movie and some
(14:30):
other workarounds for the language too.
It, you know, it all works. It, it really, I would say for
PG13, it is pushing the line at times.
But just, again, when you have amovie that's so much action and
there's so much cutting away or getting around the gore, it's
like, yeah, the PG13 is kind of glaring.
(14:51):
I was going to follow with this and Emanuel just nailed it for
me too 'cause I was going to ask, would you want to see a
unrated cut of this? And then also Emanuel would say
maybe they'll release AR rated or unrated version of Peacock
like they did for the last film.I didn't catch that one, but I
felt like there wasn't much really to add from the first
film. Maybe a couple scenes.
I felt like an unrated version or R rated would better this
(15:11):
film than it would have the original.
Yeah, and I didn't get to see the unrated version that they
released on Peacock of the firstone.
I will say this, you and I talked about this a little bit
before the screening and it's worth noting just the way that
Wrights work for streaming stuffnow is so weird.
Obviously, Bumhouse is through Universal.
The original Megan got its firstrun on streaming on Peacock and
(15:34):
I remember it came out on Peacock and then they advertised
the unrated cut on Peacock. However, now 2 1/2 years later,
you cannot watch Megan or the unrated cut on Peacock.
They're not there anymore because they, you know, go
wherever they go and they're notstreaming anywhere.
So you had, you know, the only way you could watch it is to buy
it on iTunes or whatever. I think it's like 70, excuse me,
(15:57):
799 on iTunes right now discounted, which is great.
But I was like OK, I wanted to rewatch it before seeing the new
one, but I also didn't really care enough to pay 8 bucks to to
rewatch it so I didn't. Had it been on Peacock, I would
have streamed it. But you know, a service that I
pay for so that I can have the Universal Bum House movies, but
(16:17):
yet it's not on there, so go figure.
Yeah, it's a weird world we livein, and Megan reflects on a lot
of weird stuff going on in our world.
Dials into tech satire, giving asocial commentary on AI,
government oversight, tech weaponization while all being
bonkers. So I definitely love the the
commentary on all that stuff this film really offers.
(16:39):
It knows what it is. It's not trying to be horror,
which I'm glad because I don't think horror works when you have
like AAI sentient robots. You could do so much with that
genre, but you got to learn moreinto the sci-fi aspect of it.
Definitely very meme worthy of amovie as well.
And it's it's a genre blending film.
Yeah, I don't know if people would take this as a spoiler or
(17:00):
we'll be mad to hear this, but I'm just going to say it.
I don't think that there's a single jump scare in this movie.
There are like horror adjacent scenes or scenes that are, you
know, could be a jump, but they're just so telegraphed that
I didn't jump a single time in this movie.
It is way more about the action in the comedy.
Which I'm I'm fine with. I don't need jump stairs.
(17:21):
Mega is not the type of film that needs it honestly.
And going forward we don't, we don't need it.
But I love the satire. You thought all that worked for
it or did you get did it get a little lost in the chaos or did
you like some of the social commentary at all?
So. I thought all of that, all that
worked. It's, you know, a lot of a lot
of satire mixed with camp. And that's the, you know, I like
(17:41):
that kind of stuff in general. I will say I am a believer of a
Megan cinematic universe. I'm ready for crossovers.
I'm ready to take Megan to like the Fast and Furious franchise
and just make 10 of them howeveryou want to do it.
It's a really ridiculous conceptand what they showed, what they
can do with the sequel, they cando a lot with it.
(18:02):
Clear set up for a extensive world and to keep exploring it.
Would you watch Megan 3 point O and beyond?
Absolutely. But what would you want to see
in the franchise? If they keep putting these out
and they're funny and have actually, you know, I'm, I'm
here for it. I'll go see these.
I think that they're a pretty good time, although not like not
(18:26):
great. You know, I do think Megan 2
point O is better than Megan, but like that's going to say
that I thought Megan was like a three star out of five movie and
Megan 2 point O is like a three or a 3.5, you know, out of five.
That's that's kind of where I'm at with it.
Yeah, the sequel is smarter. It is funnier and a lot more fun
(18:49):
than the first just because I wasn't sure what the first one
was trying to be. I felt like it was kind of how
to identity Crisis, I guess you can call it.
But I just love all the action in this too.
And the total RIP off almost. That's not RIP off but a lot of
things to T2. I liked it.
I wish there was time travel though.
If there's some time travel. Been awesome.
Maybe Megan 3 point O will have a Megan from the future to come
(19:10):
back in time to tell them you know they need to stop
something. If I'm remembering correctly, I
do feel like the marketing for the first one really did sell it
more as a horror movie. Like I remember it being kind of
creepy and eerie in the trailers, and then it had some
of those moments, but really it was kind of camp and funny too.
(19:31):
And it didn't take itself too seriously.
And this one just takes all of that and upset times 10 in every
way. If you had to pick a franchise
to cross it over with, what would it be?
A funny thing? As Emmanuel says, Megan versus
Chucky is my wish. I don't want to see doll versus
(19:52):
doll. Almost I I kind of want to see
something more ridiculous than that.
But what would you want to see? A crossover with Megan?
You could almost do like Megan, an Orphan.
Also, you know, the Orphan franchise.
Chucky's actually a decent answer.
Another series that has just gone totally off the rails and
doesn't take itself too seriously after the first one
(20:12):
being kind of more of your standard horror movie.
That's a series that just continued to get more and more
bonkers as it went on. I just want to, I just want to
see time traveling be introducedin this world of Megan.
It's totally possible. You know what, why not?
Like let's just have the Megan series go the route of the Fast
and the Furious franchise where the first one is like a little
(20:35):
grounded and then they just get bigger and bigger and how can we
keep point upping ourselves? And maybe Megan will be time
traveling or going, you know, multi multiversal, like who
knows? You know the Sky's the limit for
Megan, the Megan. Oh man, is that the new MCU?
(20:55):
It's the M3 CU, right? The Megan Cinematic Universe.
It's just still the MCU, the Megan Cinematic Universe.
She can RIP off. She can RIP off things.
That's what she likes to do. She likes to RIP off body parts,
RIP off some storylines. I mean why not RIP everything
off? There you go, the new MCU, the
Megan Cinematic Universe and Megan 3 point O If might happen
(21:16):
if the box office agrees or I don't know what Blum House is
doing. They've been on and off.
That's all I can say. I don't know how they're
surviving, but they are. They just bought the soft
franchise too. I mean, I can tell you how
they're surviving. They're surviving by making
movies on a low budget that evenif they, even if the movies
(21:37):
don't work that well, they tend to at least make back their
budget, right? Like drop a movie that you and I
both like to varying extent, right?
Made for $11 million, made almost $30 million.
Yeah, that's not like an overwhelming success, but it
almost tripled its budget. So like we're doing just fine or
but then you get a Megan that's made for $12 million and it
(21:59):
makes almost $200 million. So I think that's, I, I think
that that strategy is really good.
And I, I like what Blumhouse hasbeen doing.
I've, I've really enjoyed what they've been doing for a while.
I think you just get varying degrees of success with the low
budgets and but when they work, they work really well.
Well, we have to see how The Mummy is going to be when they
(22:20):
release that one too. The Cronin's The Mummy and
that'll be interesting to see how that plays out too.
I mean, here's another Five Nights at Freddy's, right?
Made for $20 million, Made almost $300 million, which
obviously that's a video game franchise and it's very popular.
There's a sequel to that coming out this year, I think.
So I would expect that one's going to do pretty well.
(22:41):
Christmas ish and. Then those funds your woman in
the yards or your drops or your imaginaries or is black phone
your nice one house. Is black phone 2 Blumhouse?
I believe Black Phone 2 is Blumhouse.
That is correct. Yeah, they got some good stuff,
but for me, I think they're, forme, they're misses more than
(23:01):
hits or they're just subtle. There's there's small, smaller
hits of movies. I mean, they don't have the
major impacts that you would expect.
They kind of fizzle a little bitwith Halloween.
So I don't know. And we'll see what they do with
the soft franchise. Maybe that's going to be their
new way, you know, getting past Halloween, grab a new big
franchise. They were trying to do Jason,
(23:23):
but I believe that's Friday 13this now 824.
The the Jason writes are like really talk about convoluted.
Look up the history of the rightthe Friday the 13th franchise of
Jason. It is it is weird.
I think I thought they were supposed to be making a series
for. People, they're filming already.
They've already filming it and that's why I was trying to see
of who is behind that one, 'cause I believe a 24, 'cause
(23:49):
it's called Crystal Lake and it has started production already,
but I'm just trying to find yeah, it's produced by a 24.
Blumhouse lost that one. That would have been a good one
for Blumhouse over Saw. I feel like I just don't know
what they're going to do with Saw to continue it, reboot it.
I don't know, but I'm I'm alwayshere to see what they do.
I'm very interested in this in their company because it's very
(24:12):
different than what we've seen for the other studios because
they they work kind of like an independent studio, like a very
small studio, but they deliver really great products.
At the end of the day. All their films are shiny, look
great. They're not low quality, just
lower budget, but they pull it off.
I'm very impressed by them at the end of the day still.
Yeah, yeah, I agree. Any final thoughts drew on
Megan? Just hopefully no one builds a
(24:34):
real Megan in real life, right? Yeah, let's hope not.
I I think that, you know, there is a lot of social commentary in
it. Some of it's pretty obvious and
it's all very relevant right nowwith just talks of AI and
things. But I felt like at times I'm
like, OK, how many times are yougoing to tell me that we
shouldn't be on phones or we shouldn't be using tech or we
overuse, you know, all that kindof stuff.
(24:56):
But just at least Megan doesn't take itself seriously enough
that I can still laugh at everything.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to Megan 3.0 though, but that is a
wrap for this episode of the movie Go Society.
If you've seen Megan 2.0 or going to watch it, just let us
know what you thought. Did it slay?
Did it stall? You Ready for more Megan?
(25:16):
Not a you know or done with Megan, but be sure to subscribe
for more reviews. Hot takes, deep dives.
Don't forget to follow Neutropolis across all social
medias. Make sure you check out our
website. Follow Drew and I on our socials
as well. Once again, I'm Sean Touchworth,
the mayor of Neutropolis and. I'm Drew Manhausen, the
professional media and movie mastermind.
(25:36):
And we will see you at the movies.
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com