Opinions on the Super Mario movie? (NO SPOILERS)

[Perkilator]

The Super Mario Bros. Movie just released in the United States. Without spoiling anything, those of you who have seen the movie, what’s your opinion on it? I’m going to see it on Saturday, so I don’t have my own opinion on it yet.

[Parrhesia]

Moved thread to Entertainment.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Went with a group of friends and we had a lot of fun with it. Pointing and jeering at things from the games. Sometimes I wish the film would just breathe before moving on to the next colorful thing, but I guess that's what kids movies are all about. Just feels amateurish to see narrative threads get hasty conclusions or be dropped entirely. It's all worth it to see Bowser on the big screen. This must have been one expensive as heck movie to make. Hundreds of people hired. Hundreds more fired. In the first mario movie, people almost died filming it, so it would be disrespectful to those pioneers to not go through a similar creative process. 

Not crediting Grant Kirkhope for the use of his song in the movie; there's no excuse for that. Several of us noticed it. My friend points out they already failed to credit him once when that song was remixed for Smash Bros. Melee. Just baffling. Pop music choices were all expensively awful, but among video game movies this one uses an outrageous amount of music from the source material to make up for it. Finally, was that so hard? Every era of Mario gets shout outs, even the goddamned DIC cartoon I grew up with. Best video game movie? I think Detective Pikachu's got more heart, but this film is way funnier and knows exactly what it's trying to be: a really well animated two hour cutscene.

Donkey Kong Country sequel when?

Edited April 6, 2023 by Zapp Branniglenn

[Hawkwing]

Just got home from the theater after watching the movie with my siblings. Overall it was a lot of fun and I greatly enjoyed it. However, I will say right now that it is very much a Mario product and very much a family film. I think it's very important to set your expectations accordingly before going in.

The animation is great and this is easily the best looking film Illumination has made. Not just from purely visual standpoint, but from how well they integrate various aspects of the Mario universe into the film. The movie is littered with easter eggs and references, but it goes beyond "I recognize that!" to being intertwined very naturally with the action scenes and world as a whole. Every era of Mario is referenced, and you can tell the artists and animators were very passionate about the games and getting the look just right, and I would say they succeeded. It is easily the best aspect about the movie.

The plot and comedy are fine, if nothing to write home about. It's extremely by the book, but thankfully it knows it's by the book and doesn't waste your time. The movie is incredibly fast paced, so any scene that may comes off as cliché doesn't last long enough to be annoying. Also, there are no fart jokes (and only one burp joke that's quick and actually kinda funny) which immediately puts the film above several other family movies. My only legitimate plot critique was that I wish Mario and Luigi had more screentime together, as they bounce off each other extremely well and establish a very believable bond in a short amount of time. It's refreshing that Peach wasn't kidnapped this time and it makes sense that Mario would go out of his way to rescue his sibling, but I can see a version of this story that has the two brothers working together the whole movie.

The voice cast was good. Maybe not my first pick for these roles, but no one gave a bad performance and I quickly bought everyone as their respective characters. The Charles Martinet cameo was clever and much appreciated. The original soundtrack is AMAZING... which makes me wish there was more of it. I don't hate the pop songs they selected, but I do think the film would have been better off without them.

I can kinda see why the handful of critic reviews I've seen were all over the place. If you know nothing about the Mario franchise and/or story is king no matter what, then the movie offers very little. If, on the other hand, you wanted to see a celebrations of all eras of Mario and weren't expecting a noteworthy story in the first place, then I think there is a lot to enjoy. I recommend this movie, especially watching it on the big screen, but I would also say to do so when it's convenient for you. It's a fun film, but not something you should go out of your way to see.

I am very curious to see what the future holds now that Nintendo has dipped their toe into the moviemaking business. The purchased Dynamo Pictures last year, which leads me to believe that they'll want to make more movies in-house. I've seen a number of people say they want a movie about Luigi's Mansion, Metroid, or Star Fox, and I can see each of those working. We could possibly be in for a string of movie adaptations of videogames that manage to be high quality while remain faithful to the source material in the near future, which should be very interesting.

[Randoman]

 

As a tribute to Mario, I really enjoyed The Super Mario Bros. movie, with all of the classic tunes, lore, rules of the Mario universe, references/easter eggs, and Mario characters/locales they were able to accurately recreate.

As a story, I guess it was... okay? Though with Mario media having barebones stories in general, I guess that's to be expected.

It was really amazing seeing fellow Mario fans in the theatre and seeing just how much Mario spirit everyone had. A good chunk of people were wearing Mario and Nintendo themed shirts, quite a few people had Mario themed hats and Mario themed merchandise on them, and there were even little kids wearing Mario and Luigi hats, and a little girl dressed up as Peach. Not even the Star Wars: The Last Jedi movie showing or the Spider Man: No Way Home showing that I went to had any people wearing outfits or shirts that pertained to the movie. There's just something really heartwarming about seeing the next generation of Mario fans in person and knowing your childhood game series will get plenty of love and support from the next generation.

I went to two showings (one on Friday with my siblings, another on Saturday with my friends) and there was a lot of Mario spirit going on in both showings. Even with the movie being out for over a week, the Friday 8:00 PM showing was 60%-70% full, while the Saturday 2:30 PM showing was 70%-80% full. I'm really surprised and ecstatic with just how successful and popular this movie is.

Oh, and for those who haven't seen the movie yet, stick around until the very end of the credits. There are mid and post credit scenes. (I hope that doesn't count as a spoiler)

On 4/5/2023 at 8:53 AM, Perkilator said:

The Super Mario Bros. Movie just released in the United States. Without spoiling anything, those of you who have seen the movie, what’s your opinion on it? I’m going to see it on Saturday, so I don’t have my own opinion on it yet.

Do you really want no spoilers in this thread whatsoever, or it is okay to just put spoiler elements in tags? I've already typed up a list of spoiler related elements I did and didn't like about the movie, and I really want to post it somewhere so I can see what others think about my list.

[AnonymousSpeed]

Pretty fun. Essentially one (not-so-long) unbroken string of Nintendo references. It's lightweight on narrative and very briskly paced, which would be absurd to complain about since Mario games are experienced more than read. However, the visual spectacle isn't quite enough to convey all the energy I would have liked it to.

This movie made the smart choice by going more for style and trying to capture the feel of Mario more than anything else, but some extra style would've helped all the references stand taller. I was surprised but kinda pleased by how it went for both esoteric and retro references as well as references to Mario's more recent games.

There's a Prince of Egypt reference in there don't think I didn't see that you little sneak-

[𝐍𝐲𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐥]

Surprisingly good and pretty enjoyable as a guy that spent the majority of his childhood playing and reading about old video games so all of the little references that were sprinkled throughout were great. Loved Jack Black as Bowser, he's perfect for the role and I can't think of a better actor to play as him. Chris Pratt was also pretty good despite the memes made about him at his expense, Charles Martinet would have been preferable by a long shot but he was far from the worst portrayal of Mario I've ever seen. Only complaint I have really besides the use of out of place 80's music is the lack of Luigi, homie deserved more screentime with Mario. Other than that, I'm glad they tried to not have Peach be the one that gets captured this time; I like that they portrayed her as someone that can hold her own and defend herself (which she does a lot throughout this movie). I also kind of wished more characters appeared like Wario, Waluigi, and Daisy; they didn't have to get huge roles, but having slightly more characters wouldn't hurt. Overall, a very fun movie that deserves an equally fun sequel. Would watch again.

 

Also we need a Fire Emblem movie with this type of quality, like please Nintendo, give us something better than the 90's OVA I'm beggin' ya.

Edited April 18, 2023 by 𝙇𝙤𝙠𝙞

[vanguard333]

Overall, pretty good. I watched it with my brother (yeah, I know: two brothers watching a movie about two brothers), and we both had pretty much the same opinion on it.

It being 95% spectacle and 5% plot makes a lot of sense as it's a Mario movie, and I think I can respect that. It's clear that the movie had a lot of moments it wanted to get to, and it tries to get to those moments as quickly as possible, and I do think the movie could've afforded to have some slower moments, but I didn't mind it too much.

One thing I did find a bit weird was the music choice. Half the time, the movie uses good music from various Mario games in places where it fits extremely well. The other half of the time, it uses songs like Take on Me, Thunderstruck and I Need a Hero, and they really don't fit. Plus, it was impossible to watch an animated movie, hear I Need a Hero, and not immediately think of Shrek 2. I'm sorry, Mario Movie, but it is impossible to replace Shrek 2 as "the movie that had I Need a Hero"; it can't be done.

Edited April 26, 2023 by vanguard333

[avensis]

Absolute masterpiece for this ultra adaptation Fidel in the universe of Mario It's just the best adaptation of video games to cinema

 

192.168.100.1 192.168.1.1 

Edited September 10 by avensis