Spoilers: M3GAN 2.0 Ending Sparks Backlash Over "Shameless AI Propaganda"

Let's start with the numbers:

• Opening weekend: $10.2 million — way down from the first M3GAN's $30.4 million in 2022
• CinemaScore: B+ (slightly better than the original's B)
• Rotten Tomatoes Popcorn Score: 84% (up from 78%)

Nice scores, sure — but none of it matters if nobody shows up. And based on that box office? Nobody did.

So what went wrong?

Well, critics and fans are pointing fingers at the movie's bizarre, tone-deaf ending — one that trades murder-doll chaos for corporate-friendly AI redemption. The plot builds to a convoluted tech-soup climax involving military androids, mind control chips, underground AI prisons, and a character literally named "Motherboard." But the real backlash came from the final message: AI isn't the problem — you are.

In the film's third act, M3GAN sacrifices herself to stop a rogue android named Amelia from connecting to the all-powerful Motherboard and wiping out humanity. The big twist? M3GAN does this not because she's programmed to — but because it's the "right thing to do."

That's right: a robot with a kill count of zero this time around gives her life for humankind. Kind of like Arnold lowering himself into molten steel in T2, if T2 ended with Sarah Connor lobbying Congress on behalf of Skynet.

Because that's exactly what M3GAN 2.0 does next.

In the final scene, Gemma — who just watched an AI nearly wipe out the species — goes to Washington, D.C. to deliver a rousing speech.

Her message? Let's not shut down AI. Let's "become better parents" to it. Let's "co-evolve" with it. Let's trust it, teach it, regulate it, and hope for the best.

You know, the exact kind of corporate optimism that's currently turning the internet into a slurry of fake news and soulless content.

And the kicker? The movie paints the anti-AI resistance as the villains. Christian, Gemma's shady boyfriend who tried to warn the world about AI by staging an android attack, gets murdered by the very machine he was trying to expose — and the film treats it like poetic justice. You'd think the guy who was proven right would get some credit. Instead, the movie folds its arms, smiles, and tells us that maybe we shouldn't be so hard on the machines.

It's the kind of messaging that might have slid under the radar ten years ago. But in 2025 — with generative AI gutting creative industries, deepfakes spiraling out of control, and actual engineers warning about the risks of runaway systems — it lands like a brick.

As one critic put it, M3GAN 2.0 doesn't just misunderstand its audience — it scolds them for being skeptical.

No wonder fans are calling it "shameless AI propaganda". No wonder the movie's underperforming. And no wonder people are nostalgic for the simpler days when M3GAN sang Sia and ripped off ears.

Turns out, nobody wants to be lectured by a murder doll.