The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
Written by Cameron Geiser
The sequel to The Super Mario Bros. Movie is here, but is it any good? I’d say it depends on your expectations to an extent. The movie is visually striking, the pacing moves at breakneck speeds, and there is a tidal wave of gluttonous video game references every few seconds. However the storytelling is far messier, and the writing is weaker than the first film, but the voice acting is still top notch with every celebrity actually putting in lots of boisterous effort. It’s a strangely delightful and entertaining chaotic quandary.
While the film claims the Galaxy moniker from that titular game and it uses visuals and characters from it, I was reminded of a different game in the video game franchise. Tonally, and at times visually as well, this film is far closer to Super Mario Odyssey in execution. That game was all about going bananas with wild new iterations that seem out of place but ultimately mesh well with the hordes of love and references to the older games. Here it’s less cohesive, partly because there are so, so many elements from the last forty years of Mario games that it’s a blink and you’ll miss it feast of storytelling, character notes and evolutions, and even crossover action from other well known video game series. Again, it’s a car crash of ideas- but there’s an audience for that too, and they're called demolition derbies.
Mama mia.
As far as the actual plot goes this time around the story is more invested in Princess Peach’s (Anya Taylor-Joy) backstory than the actual Mario Brothers (Chris Pratt and Charlie Day). We also get some interesting stuff between Bowser (Jack Black) and his son Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie - in a bizarrely accurate move of voice casting) even though not enough was devoted to this plot thread to be actually satisfying. You see, Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson) is kidnapped by Bowser Jr. to power his quest to impress his father in the inciting incident and things pretty much never stop moving until the end credits. This only adds fuel to the fire of a statement made by Martin Scorsese a few years ago now that Marvel movies are essentially theme park rides, not cinema.
While I get the statement, this movie is actually that stance writ large. However as a man in his mid-thirties, my opinion on this doesn’t really matter. This film will make a billion dollars regardless of review scores, and frankly I loved it anyways. Look I grew up on the Super Nintendo and have loved these games my whole life and still do. I know it’s not the height of artistic expression, but I never expected it to be. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is an excellent kids movie and the best part, in my opinion, is that there were no needle drops in this movie. I repeat, no needle drops! They relied on the decades of game music and themes and I couldn’t be happier. Your mileage may vary.
Cameron Geiser is an avid consumer of films and books about filmmakers. He'll watch any film at least once, and can usually be spotted at the annual Traverse City Film Festival in Northern Michigan. He also writes about film over at www.spacecortezwrites.com.