The Super Mario Bros. Movie

The Predaking

Administrator
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Bowser was definitely the best in this film. Jack Black's musical talents were put to good use here.

I literally feel asleep towards the end of the film. I woke up a couple minutes later for the final fight in real world.

I can say that I enjoyed the film, and the kids had a blast, but this is nothing that you have to see in theaters. The plot is pretty much exactly the trailer. I am sure that I will get this when it comes out on home video, and we'll watch it a dozen times or more, but its nothing epic.
 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
Yeah, there were THREE credits scenes. One at the start of the credits, one in the middle, and one at the very end.

Having slept on it and let the hype die down, I now feel like the movie was just okay. Fun and charming, absolutely, but I kinda feel like the visuals and the references were where the film's highest priorities laid. The story was both simple and yet a bit overstuffed. I know we shouldn't expect too much depth from these characters since the games themselves rarely offer much besides "Bowser kidnaps Peach and Mario must save her," but when the film does try to examine its characters, their backstories, and what makes them tick, it does both an excellent job of fleshing them out and, strangely, not enough. I guess you could say that I liked what little bits of character exploration that the film had that it left me wanting more, which is what a movie is supposed to do, but that "more" that I want is also what I wish had been in this movie but wasn't.

If I'm being completely honest (and this is not spoiler territory since we see what I'm about to vaguely talk about in the trailers), I kinda feel like both the Donkey Kong and Mario Kart/Rainbow Road parts of the movie were extra fluff that only contributed to the fanservice references instead of substantial, meaningful aspects of the film's narrative. It might be blasphemous to say this, but I actually kinda wish that both of those had been left out of the film (potentially saved for sequel content) to give more focus to the main story surrounding Mario, Peach, and Toad, which kinda felt underdeveloped. It had really good moments in it, but the Donkey Kong and Mario Kart parts kinda took away from it just to add more fanservice.

Now, don't get me wrong. I understand that the Donkey Kong parts did serve some degree of importance to Mario's personal growth, and that something like it needed to happen in order for Mario to properly complete his personal journey by the movie's end, but the movie could have done something similar with Mario overcoming a different challenge against a Mario game enemy instead of Donkey Kong (again, not a spoiler, we saw it in the trailers), so that the story could keep things tigher and more interpersonal between the trio of Mario, Peach, and Toad, instead of blowing things out of proportion with an entire Mad Max-style Mario Kart race fleet. Less "spectacle for spectacle's sake" and more growing character dynamics.

Of course, that would also require Mario, Peach, and Toad to go seeking something other than what they went looking for in the movie, but there's a million different McGuffins from the Mario games out there that they could go looking for instead. The end result of their quest could be the same as it was in the final movie, but with the added bonus of more completed character arcs than what we got.

But in the end, this is all just me nitpicking and feeling a bit personally overwhelmed by how pop culture nowadays feels like endless references have become the end-all be-all for what nerds want to see in today's media, treating fanservice as more important than solid storytelling and character writing. The sheer volume of references in the movie and the near pathological adherence to make everything in this movie super-accurate to the games (regardless of whether or not all of that made sense in this movie's universe) kinda made it feel like the movie was psychologically terrified of ever being compared to the 1993 film, which was infamous for its being such a drastic departure from the games.
 
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Pocket

jumbled pile of person
Citizen
OK but is Chris Pratt tolerable? Also did that video speculating that they had cut his lines way back seem accurate, like did he seem weirdly non-talkative for a protagonist?
 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
Yeah, Pratt's voice was Pratt's voice, but it worked. With how he was written in this movie, this Mario didn't need to sound too close to Martinet's game Mario.
 

MEDdMI

Nonstop Baaka
Citizen
Yeah, he was fine. Felt just a tad off in spots, but I probably wouldn't have even noticed if I wasn't trying to catch it.
 

Ungnome

Grand Empress of the Empire of One Square Foot.
Citizen
I think he's just upset they didn't even consider casting him as Luigi again.
 

Kalidor

Supreme System Overlord
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Oh no, the Colombian guy who played the Italian guy isn't going to watch the cartoon movie.

Anyway, it was most definitely a kids movie with a paper thin story. Which is fine for what it was. It's like a video game come to life and that's what 4 to 8 year olds would love.

The original Mario voice actor made a few appearances which is nice. And the prisoner ghost onion thing sums up how I feel about life pretty well.

The most jarring part of the entire film was the part I guess was targeted specifically to Gen X viewers, all the 80s music popping up at random times. But the Super Mario Brothers Super Show theme they used in the commercial was very nice.

Overall the movie is fine but forgettable.

2 out of 5 stars.
 

Stepwise

Not Crew.
Citizen
My daughter and I went and saw it yesterday after school. We loved it.

Story-wise, it felt pretty 'tight' the first time through - if something happened or something was used as a 'thing' later on, it had been introduced somehow earlier in the movie.

I know I missed some of the cameos/references, but between me and my daughter, we caught a lot of them. We were sitting there trying to figure out which game all the background music came from, too.

One thing I really liked was the texture of the characters - they all looked like toys, with smooth plastic, felt, or hair.

We cracked up every time the Luma was on-screen, too.
 

Ungnome

Grand Empress of the Empire of One Square Foot.
Citizen
Luma is GREAT. I rather enjoyed the movie, but my expectations were low going in.
 

Rhinox

too old for this
Citizen
Got to go with my kids and parents yesterday. We all really liked it. (except my dad, but he's a crabass)
Plot was decent enough. Peach wasn't a damsel in distress trope, and the movie felt like everyone was having a good time.
I'd recommend it. It's not the end all be all, but it's not supposed to be. It's cute, fun, and an overall good time that highlighted several cool things from the games.
I'd give it a 4 out of 5.
 

Kup

Active member
Citizen
Lately, everything has been so heavy in life. Personally we’ve had a lot going on. Nationally, thing are…well…

Globally? Yeah.

My point? Sometimes a feel good, nostalgia driven film is what the soul needs. Heavy handed messages, artful films, or make a statement films have their place and audience.

But whatever happened to being okay with fun? Within a week we saw both D&D and Mario, loved them both, and left the theater feeling *good*. I plan to see this a few times just to catch all of the Easter eggs.

Mario was everything I could have asked for. I’d gladly pay to see it again, though I will likely wait for streaming/home release for those secondary viewings.
 

The Mighty Mollusk

Scream all you like, 'cause we're all mad here
Citizen
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