50 - Man, I Can't Believe It, I am Mario
The Super Mario Bros. Movie just came out. and SPOILERS - it’s the first movie I have seen since the pandemic, as a BONUS, I got to see it with one of my best friends, Jack (of Fun Time Calls)
Listen to the loud backing music and a guy rambling about the Mairo Movie for about 50 minutes. The quickest review is - This is just like every video game movie before it. It’s having fan service to the source material, it’s easily forgettable as a movie as well, The only cool part was that this was animated instead of live-action.
If they went “all-in” with the mario easter eggs and references, this would be a much better movie, but Universal is the bankroll, and they wanted the Mushroom Kingdom to look like Super Nintendo World, they have a Donkey Kong roller coaster on the way, that’s most likely why they included the Kongs in this universe. The voice acting ranges from “Good” (Charlie Day, Seth Rogan) to “Good Enough” (Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Pratt) to “Confusing” (Fred Armisen, Sebastian Maniscalco)
It’s okay, most likely, the kids won’t care, they hear the Mario Kart randomizer song and smile, the parents get to see an easter egg involving Duck Hunt or Balloon Fight and move on, and the plot is very “and then this happened” sort of moving part, with Mario’s arc being confusing, Luigi going from “reliable brother” to “stuck in haunted area” to “stuck in cage” to “the hero at the end”, and Peach having urgency, but not enough urgency to do a 8 minute montage platform goof, and Bowser wanting Peach to marry him, but not really figuring out the “cruelity to show affection” - you’ve heard the peaches song on YouTube or TikTok, you don’t need to see this movie, that was “the big joke in the movie” - BUT DON’T SPOIL THE MARIOS
Jack’s review is “your milage may vary, only dependent on how much you care about Mario”
My review is similar, but with the caviat that “this is just every video game movie before it, only animated, and the projections about this movie are grossly exaggerated” - it’s a fun kids movie, yes, but I have played Mario. I am sure there is parents out there unfamiliar with it, who would be seeing this the same as your parents taking you to see Pokemon The First Movie when you were a kid, or even worse - Doom, or Assassin’s Creed, or Warcraft - they are all similar, having that easter eggs, trying to make gaming seem “cool to adapt to movies” but, hey, the target audience being LITERAL CHILDREN gives Mario the advantage.
It’s not trying to win over the movie critics looking for the next How to Train Your Dragon or Kiki’s Delivery Service - it’s trying to win over the kid who won’t shut up about Mario Kart 8. And for that - they did a great job!
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