The Super Mario Bros. Movie (April 7th UK)

[Helmsly]

13 hours ago, Ronnie said:

The film is still a brilliant time the second time around, confirmed.

The only bit where I think something is missing is when Mario and DK are swallowed up by the Unagi eel. It feels like that was leading to a slower moment where they talked about their respective dads not believing in them etc, but instead it just kind of cut away to the action suddenly. Wonder if there was a scene there that got cut.

I thought so too. I think it’s one of the few times I have watched a movie and I’ve felt it could have a longer running time. I really enjoyed the movie overall though.

Edited April 12, 2023 by Helmsly

[Ronnie]

Yeah, definitely could have done with another ten minutes.

[BowserBasher]

Spoiler

 

It seems that Bowser's song has been gaining quite a bit of traction. The official video on YouTube has had nearly 4 million views in its first day and was trending near the top. Talk about it being put up for nomination for best original song at the Oscars (though not sure they would). Here's the video, in spoilers of course.

 

[Julius]

$500+ million at the box office in its first week and a bit makes the film the biggest video game adaptation at the box office to date. 

Not surprising at all: arguably the biggest video game IP of all time, voice cast stacked with celebs, and made by the studio behind the juggernaut that is the Despicable Me-verse. 

Really curious to see where this ends up alongside Illumination's other films at the box office! 

[Dcubed]

So I finally got round to seeing the movie myself...

...

...

... it's actually pretty good!

Now it's not some epic piece of landmark cinema, no it's not the next Citizen Kane or anything stupid like that.  But it's a fun movie that mostly does right by the series and its cast of characters.  It generally feels pretty faithful to the current day Super Mario brand, with more than enough nods to the series past.

The biggest surprise for me though was that I actually didn't end up hating Chris Pratt as Mario! I hated how he sounded in the trailers, but in the actual movie? He's not bad at all.  I did end up warming up to his performance in the end, and even though I would've much preferred to see Charles Martinet in the starring role, Pratt did a decent job of portraying Mario in the end and it felt like he put some decent effort into the role that wasn't really evident in the trailers originally.

Speaking of which, I'm glad that Martinet didn't end up just getting sidelined into a cheap cameo role and that's it (I mean, he did get that, but thankfully that was in addition to getting a decent supporting role that allowed him to exercise a bit of range as a voice actor; which was really nice to see).

Speaking of which...

Spoiler

When'sa your Dolmio Day?

Come on!! You all thought the same thing too! Don't lie

Of course, the best role in the movie was Bowser.  Jack Black basically plays himself and it's perfect.  I mean...

Spoiler

... he literally wrote the Peaches song himself (as per the credits).  It's basically a straight up Tenacious D performance and it's great!

But of course, we all knew that going in.  Jack Black was always going to steal the show, that was inevitable.

Generally I'd say that most of the casting was solid, but I'd say that Seth Rogan as DK was kinda flat.  I mean... he wasn't DK, he was just Seth Rogan.  You can tell that his heart wasn't really in the role and it's a bit of a shame.  Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong though? WTF happened there!? The voice performance was flat out wrong, he didn't even sound old! The characterisation also didn't really feel much like Cranky at all, was quite disappointed there.

The rest of the cast was pretty great though.  Anya Taylor-Joy did a good job as Peach, with plenty of Girl Power on display (let's be honest, she was the real hero in this movie.  Mario ended up basically being totally useless for like 90% of the movie's running time ), Charlie Day as Luigi was spot on as well (though sadly Luigi doesn't end up getting all that much screen time in the end), and Keegan-Michael Key wasn't bad as Toad either (if perhaps a bit overwraught in places).  Sebastian Maniscalco did a great Foreman Spike as well; made me really hope that Nintendo end up bringing Spike back in a future Mario game! He's a great bully figure, would be great to see the Mario Movie end up bringing this character back!

The amount of little easter eggs and references sprinkled throughout the movie was also crazy.  Absolutely tons of blink-and-you'll-miss-'em nods and references hidden throughout, including non-Mario titles too, mostly of the NES era (but oddly enough, Star Fox got a nod as what I think was the only non-NES era title? Miyamoto's bias continues to shine through for that series ).  Plenty of fun to find that encourages repeat viewings.

The movie was also paced well, I didn't feel like things progressed too fast; which is pretty uncommon for a modern non-Pixar animated movie! Nor did things feel like they dragged at any point.  Story is fairly threadbare as you'd expect, but there's enough character development to keep you going and keep things fun.  Speaking of which...

Spoiler

Who's decision was it to cast Blue Luma as a fatalistic psychopath? That was brilliant! Everything that came out of their mouth made me do a double take! Talk about mood whiplash! Their inclusion felt like nightmare fuel trolling and it got some good chuckles out of me!

If I have to make any complaints? It's mostly down to the soundtrack.  Not that anything is really bad or anything, but I did question the need for any of the licensed music at all when you've got a vast library of Mario music to draw from... And it's not like they did a bad job in that regard either! There's plenty of representation from across the whole series, but it did leave me scratching my head as to why any licensed music was used at all; as it just felt a bit out of place.  And yes, I was upset to see that Grant Kirkhope got no credit for the use of the DK Rap; that's very not cool, especially when it was literally a straight rip from the N64 game, not even a new arrangement!

At least Iwata got a nod in the credits I suppose.

But overall? I really don't have much to complain about.  It's a solid and fun movie that actually does capture the spirit of the Mario series quite nicely, and it's absolutely not a cash-in; you can tell that it was made with real love and reverence for the Mario series and Nintendo as a whole.  It certainly put me in the mood to play some Mario games, that's for sure!  (And bring Foreman Spike back already Nintendo! He deserves it after the movie! Come on!)

Edited April 16, 2023 by Dcubed

[Ronnie]

Never change ResetEra...

Quote

Like what is up with the princess defending his fragile male ego? Or how even though he fails by her standards he still gets to come along in a perfect display of what white male privilege is? Or that the key to everything is Mario's toxic masculinity of challenging Donkey Kong to a fight? Just such dated concepts.

 

[Ashley]

As an analysis it's not wrong. But if they were honestly expecting anything better from the Mario movie I'm not sure what to say to them. 

[Helmsly]

As expected, the movie has now made a Billion dollars:

https://variety.com/2023/film/box-office/super-mario-bros-movie-hits-one-billion-global-1235598692/amp/

[Ashley]

I trust Nintendo unlocked a new title screen for collecting all those coins

[Ronnie]

Feels like Nintendo are having their best years ever at the moment. Switch selling like crazy, software sales through the roof and now Mario on top

[killthenet]

Closing on $500m in the US too, every chance it could overtake The Dark Knight's US gross next weekend 

[Ronnie]

Add another 30 quid to the tally, taking my nephew to see it tomorrow. 

[bob]

Add another virtual £50 - I'm probably going to pirate it and watch it that way.

[Ashley]

1 hour ago, bob said:

Add another virtual £50 - I'm probably going to pirate it and watch it that way.

In fairness you can watch it on Twitter

[bob]

In fairness you can watch it on Twitter

I think I'd rather pay £30 than have to sign up to Twitter

[Ashley]

6 minutes ago, bob said:

27 minutes ago, Ashley said:

In fairness you can watch it on Twitter

I think I'd rather pay £30 than have to sign up to Twitter

You don't need to sign up to Twitter to use it. But you can give me £29 and I can send you the URL if you want. 

[Ronnie]

I like Cranky Kong's voice in the film. There I said it.

[Ashley]

I still stand by the belief it's the second worst casting choice simply because Armisen is about half the age you'd expect. 

[Dcubed]

22 hours ago, Ronnie said:

I like Cranky Kong's voice in the film. There I said it.

I'm pretty sure you are the only person on the entire internet who hasn't complained about Cranky's voice lol.

[Ronnie]

It's different to what you might expect sure, but I think it works for the role he played in the film. 

[Ike]

Available digitally in the UK now. The Google version isn’t 4k like on Prime or iTunes, yet it’s the same price.

[bob]

Finally managed to watch this all the way through. It was okay....not fantastic, but not too bad either. 

I enjoyed spotting all the references, and i thought the music was really good, but the plot was as barebones as they come. I realise it's a children's film, but there are plenty of examples of kids films that have well written storylines. This one just felt like a load of action scenes loosely strung together with barely anything in between.

I liked all the voice acting. I don't think I ever heard Kranky Kong talk before this, so what they had was fine. 

Here's hoping the inevitable sequel is better. This one i would give 5/10.

[BowserBasher]

1 hour ago, bob said:

This one just felt like a load of action scenes loosely strung together with barely anything in between.

But isn’t that what a Mario game is? People wanted a deep story but we were never going to get that. This was always going to be a fun film and not some deep epic. 

[bob]

2 minutes ago, BowserBasher said:

But isn’t that what a Mario game is? People wanted a deep story but we were never going to get that. This was always going to be a fun film and not some deep epic. 

It's not a game though, it's a film. I understand it's based on a game, but it can still have more than the most basic story joining everything together and still be fun. Without that its basically like watching someone streaming a game on Youtube.

[Ashley]

I can understand enjoying it as an adaptation of a game franchise that manages to capture the sense of fun and all the references. 

However, as a film it is absolutely poor. The narrative is bare bones, characters are pretty flat and the only one that has any kind of emotional development is - weirdly - DK. Even Mario doesn't have one because he starts the film acrobatic, heroic and caring for others. All that changes is his location and the fact that gives him powers. 

It's not like I expected some kind of narrative masterclass, but the film absolutely deserves criticism as a film. I think it's why critics were divided because if you're critiquing it as a film (as opposed to a much enjoyed game franchise) it doesn't hold up. Even with the common misguided write off that it's "for kids" (as if they can't appreciate a good narrative).