The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Last weekend, The Super Mario Bros. Movie was released in theaters. This movie was a partnership between Illumination and Nintendo and brings us the first Mario movie in 30 years. This movie follows Mario as he travels to the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue his brother Luigi and save the kingdom from the attack of Bowser. I have always enjoyed playing Mario games, whether it was the regular Super Mario, Mario Party, Mario Kart, etc, so this movie was one I was really looking forward to.

Starting off, when this movie leans into the video game aspects of the story, it is a lot of fun to watch. Most of the scenes in the Mushroom Kingdom and other lands feel like they are pulled directly from one of the games. The items, music, and background characters are all there and are really fun to see in a film. It is also really fun to hear the music of each individual land and event just like that in the game. For example, when we get to the mushroom kingdom, we hear that music from the game, and when Mario gets powers from an item, we hear the music associated with that. It is all there, and the filmmakers knew exactly what to include to get people excited. I also enjoyed how the movie pulls from multiple games. We get traditional Super Mario level elements, but then we also get some components from Donkey Kong, Luigi's Mansion, and even Mario Kart. These aspects are all included naturally and feel like they organically fit in the story. The movie also has quite a few funny moments throughout the film with several making me laugh out loud. Finally, I really liked the journey Mario goes on in this film. It is a traditional heroes' journey storyline but it is done very effectively and really allows Mario to grow.

While I did have fun with this movie, there are a few issues that hold it back. One of the issues is that it includes the Illumination trope of throwing in random pop songs throughout the film. Normally, I don't take issue with this but Mario has so many different iconic songs to pull from and it just seems really weird to not use those and instead use a pop song that just feels out of place. I also wasn't a big fan of the direction they took Bowser. The way his character acts just feels like a parody of Bowser instead of how he should actually be. Finally, I felt the movie wasn't long enough. There was so much in this movie and the movie has to move so quickly from place to place to fit everything in. Had it been about 15-20 minutes longer, the scenes could have more time to breathe and we could spend more time at some of these locations.

Overall, this is a very fun movie that does a great job of capturing the style and feel of the Mario games with the biggest issue being that the film should have been longer. I think this is going to be a very crowd-pleasing film with fans of the Mario games having a lot of fun with it.

Score: 7/10 Grade: B

Recommendation: Must see for Mario fans or families. Everyone else can wait to stream it