The sequel to the tongue-in-cheek sci-fi/horror M3GAN feels less like an expansion of the story and more of a stress test for the titular terror. The acid-spitting killer AI of a little girl returns to take more of a central role in a Terminator 2 style tale of her being an unlikely ally against a more brutal AI. Although M3GAN is the most capable of hunting down a new robotic rogue, there’s a lot of weight placed on her shoulders with how she’s expected to carry a film of ho-hum ideas amid ha-ha one-liners.

The premise is solid, but much like the conception of M3GAN, it mostly sounds good in theory. The stressed Gemma (Allison Williams) finds herself torn between retooling AI and shunning technology, her flimsy advocacy making it harder to relate to her adopted niece Cady (Violet McGraw), still interested in technology even after watching her aunt being strangled by M3GAN. Of course, M3GAN (reprised by Amie Donald working the body and Jenna Davis providing her voice) is still alive, but lingering in the darker corners of a smart home, waiting for her chance to get back in a robot body.

Her chance comes amid a messy plot about the government using the same AI tech to craft their own robot assassin, AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno). Her programming goes awry, and it’s up to M3GAN to track down the killer tech and unravel the conspiracy behind who made her and what she is seeking. There’s more of a sci-fi thriller angle taken with this scenario, but it still maintains the comicality of the previous film. This aspect comes in the form of the supporting cast being framed more like cartoon characters, as with Gemma’s snobby love interest, Christian (Aristotle Athari), and the insufferable egotism of the tech-billionaire Alton (Jemaine Clement).

There’s far more of a sci-fi vibe than an adherence to horror, made evident not just through the mixed-message tackling of ethical AI but also through the visual odes to the robot designs of Metropolis and Heavy Metal. There is more for M3GAN to do in this film, and her efficiency tactics of combatting a peer have a cleverness that I felt was lacking from how Mission: Impossible staged an antagonist cobbled from artificial intelligence. The methods by which M3GAN and AMELIA manipulate everything from phone calls to traffic have a cleverness that leaves humans in the dust. Sadly, that’s more to the detriment of the characters like Gemma and Cady, who are reduced more to props, where Gemma’s faulty parenting and Cady’s love of martial arts never have enough time to become compelling. It makes the film’s ultimate thesis about being a better parent fall short of any emotional weight, begging for more of M3GAN’s mockery with her encore singing and dancing.

M3GAN 2.0 doesn’t upgrade much of the absurdity from the previous film, but it still functions with most of its sturdy components. My love for the M3GAN character hasn’t diminished, and she’s destined to become more of a horror icon, despite sharing more in common with The Terminator than Child’s Play. She just needs a better story to step into that better utilizes her vicious choreography and biting wit, instead of relying on it as charismatic backup for a wishy-washy AI thriller.