What Worked and What Didn’t: The Super Mario Bros. Movie Review
Last night, I was seated for a showing of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. A packed theater filled with teenagers and adults who are fans of the Italian plumber. Expectations seeped in as the Rotten Tomatoes scores rolled in with a 54% for critics but a 96% for audiences. I’ve been here before with the Sonic 2 Movie receiving mixed reviews from critics but a high audience score. After watching the movie in its full glory in Dolby Cinema at AMC, I can confidently say it’s a fun time for any Mario fan. Whether you have played every game in the series or casually play Mario Kart, you can find enjoyment in The Super Mario Bros. Movie by Illumination. They made these characters come to life like never before. The visuals are amazing while being set in the fictional world of the Mushroom Kingdom. The fan service and references are subtle, never taking over the overarching story of the movie. While predictable, it is a fun ride through and through. Anyone with a slight interest and/or history with Mario should watch it in theaters.
⚠️ Spoilers Ahead ⚠️
How they construct this world for the Mario Bros. in Brooklyn before sucking them into the Mushroom Kingdom is cool. This is a setting where the brothers aren’t usually in the games, so seeing them as small-time plumbers in Brooklyn is a breath of fresh air. The duo being straight up nobody’s into full blown heroes is great. Everyone around them doesn’t think highly of them including their parents. Mario and Luigi living with their family is new for the series. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo were hesitant on the idea of introducing Mario’s family into the franchise but it worked out.
Mario being this guy who doesn’t know when to quit is a wonderful trait to add to his character. Giving more personality to them is tricky since most of the time, they don’t talk in the games and have very little character development. Luigi continues to be the scary cat and the situations he’s put in reference to Luigi’s Mansion. Luigi running away from the Dry Bones is one of the coolest scenes. Princess Peach having the status she does in this movie makes sense. Her backstory being a mystery can be explored in the future but her stature and confidence to run the Mushroom Kingdom is awesome. Peach is the girl boss character that everyone can enjoy. I liked her being Mario’s “mentor” because he is this fish out of water, trying to navigate this new world. Guiding him through the power-ups and how to overcome the obstacles ahead. I like Donkey Kong’s story mirroring Mario’s with the father issues. They are rivals in the movie for a portion of it but they come together once they realize they’re more similar to each other than they realize. The Kong family was dope to see and tying them to the Mario Kart elements was nicely done. I was wondering how they would get their karts for the Rainbow Road section and linking it to the Kong family is cool. It gives them more to do in future movies aside from the already established lore in the DK Country games and such.
Bowser is a great villain, mainly because of Jack Black’s performance. He brings the villainous and the humorous sides out of the character. The best of both worlds. By far, Jack Black is the standout performance from this cast. He puts on a show and even does some musical acts too. They are the most silly parts of the movie. Everyone else, including Chris Pratt’s Mario, were great. Pratt is a lot better than many gave him credit for when he was initially announced for the role. He’s a fine Mario, he doesn’t do anything that was “standout” but I didn’t hate him either. Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Keegan Key, Seth Rogen, and the rest of the cast do well in the roles they play. Rogen’s performance does reflect onto the big screen, his laugh matches up to what DK’s would sound like.
As a 24-year-old man, the humor was not all that great. My theater never collectively laughed at the jokes with only a few landing for people. I would smile at some of the slapstick humor but the jokes didn’t land. I’m sure some kids will get a kick out of the humor but for me, they were not funny. The predictability aspect comes from these “video game adaptation movies” and it’s especially glaring here. Mario game stories have always been (for the most part) about Mario defeating Bowser and saving Princess Peach. I don’t find the predictable story to be a negative because I still had a fun movie theater experience watching it. It may not break new boundaries or show up a completely different side for Mario stories but it’s one that’s enjoyable from beginning to end. And if you have knowledge of Mario & Nintendo’s history, you will get a kick out of the many references and easter eggs throughout the film (I’m looking at you King Bob-omb). I’m excited to see them introduce Yoshi into the cast as they teased it in the second post credit sequence. We saw a glimpse of them as the trio traveled to the Kongs but what story will they tell with the Yoshi’s? Material from the games or a new story-line? Only time will tell~
Travis “tvsonic” Vuong
Business e-mail: travisvuong56@gmail.com
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