Theatrical Review: Super Mario Bros. Movie

Date: Saturday, April 15 2023
Location: Cinemark Theater
Time: 11:50am (began at 12:12 after all the trailers and ads)
Party: 2 (my sister and I)

Review:

With the recent success of bringing Sonic the Hedgehog to the big screen, there’s no doubt there’d be a lot of pressure on Mario to do the same.
I’m not super familiar with the sonic franchise (or really any video game franchise other than Pokémon) but I enjoyed both movies that’ve come out so far.
Comparing the two for a moment, Sonic still has the better story and villain (Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik is really hard to beat). But both were a lot of fun to watch.

I’ve played a handful of Mario games (and seen even more on YouTube as Let’s plays). I wouldn’t necessarily call myself an expert. I don’t know what the lore behind Mario and Luigi is but I honestly didn’t expect this to be a fish out of water type story. Where both were plumbers from Brooklyn get sucked into Nintendo land and consequences unfold as a result.

The story overall is ok. Nothing super ground breaking. The main characters (Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Toad, Bowser, Donkey Kong) are recognizable and their voice actors match their personalities pretty well. Really, the best part of this movie was the set designs and trying to find as many Easter eggs as you can.

And any time they throw in gameplay mechanics, it’s super cool seeing that in movie format. Like how when Mario meets princess peach, she puts him through an obstacle course to prove he can handle the journey ahead. And the Super Smash brawl between Mario and Donkey Kong where they use different power ups.

My sister and I have also seen several Donkey Kong Let’s plays on YouTube so the whole Kong island scene was a highlight. Peach and Mario go there to enlist an army to help them defeat Bowser. Seeing Cranky get a big role and Diddy and Dixie getting brief cameos (two of our favorite YouTubers nicknamed them Crinkles, Diddles and Dixels respectively) was a blast.
The antagonism between DK and Mario is fun to watch and it only gets better as they evolve into allies.

Of course, Jack Black as Bowser… you don’t get much better casting than that (except Jim Carrey as Robotnik… that just bears repeating).
We see all parts of Bowser’s character, including a little known sensitive side. The last thing anyone expected was a piano ballad somewhere in the middle of this movie… wouldn’t be surprised if Jack Black wrote the whole thing himself.

Easily the best part of the whole movie was the big battle scene at the end. I won’t give everything away but Mario and Luigi (who spent much of the movie being kidnapped) both get to shine in battle. And Bowser gets the whooping that’s coming to him.

Whether or not we’ll get a sequel, I’m not sure but the potential is absolutely there.


Grade: A-


Trailers:

It's almost like some executive thought: this movie is going to be huge so let's overstuff it with trailers that cater to kids and their parents.

The one cool thing they did do was add a couple of Nintendo Switch ads during the 5 minutes of commercials. One for the Legend of Zelda series and another for Mario Kart.


Ruby Gilman: Teenage Kraken

It’s an interesting idea, reimagining krakens as the good guys and mermaids as the villains. But as someone who grew up loving Ariel, I have a lot of mixed feelings about this…

Barbie 

easily one of the most talked about movies coming this year. It looks very pink, very colorful. Like your classic Frankie/Annette beach movie… not sure if I’d spend money on a movie ticket but Margot Robbie looks perfect for this role
This also makes me wish they made a "Birds of Prey" sequel cuz I loved that movie

About my father

another Robert DeNiro vehicle where he meets his son’s new in laws. 

The one memorable thing about this trailer was that the other family had a pet peacock and things don’t end well for it

Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3

this will be our next theater trip for sure and we’ll have plenty of company

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse 

I’m not sure if this is a sequel to the Oscar winning animated film from a couple years ago, but it clearly was.
Like with the last Suicide Squad, the titles were so similar it wasn’t inherently obvious. Whatever happened to just putting the next sequential number in the title? So we don’t have to second guess ourselves
All that said, I’m sure this movie will do just as well as the original. And it did very well


Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

As much as I wanna say “do we REALLY need another reboot of this series?”, there’s a very good chance we’ll probably be seeing it. They do bring back Bebop and Rock Steady from the original animated series and the turtles are actual teenagers this time.
I may be in the minority but my favorite is still the 4kids version. Having Michelangelo being voiced by Wayne Grayson who also did Joey wheeler in Yu-Gi-Oh! was a stroke of genius. (And maybe I’m biased but Veronica Taylor was also a good April O’Neil- minus that iconic yellow jumpsuit from the original series)

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

This was a teaser trailer if anything. I’m not sure if it’s another Michael Bay “all explosions, no substance” affair or if it’ll be closer to the Bumblebee movie but it’s sure to make its money back either way.

(Looked it up- "Bumblebee" was a Transformers prequel and this movie is a sequel to that. Michael Bay isn't directing, but is one of the producers so there'll probably be plenty of explosions)

Book Club: the next chapter

The original was a cheeky idea. A group of older women getting into "50 shades of grey" and their love lives reaping the benefits from it. This one is likely to feature more “old lady” humor. The one good joke from the trailers was Candice Bergen saying how the ruins they're visiting in Italy are falling apart faster than she is. 
I didn't remember Jane Fonda being in the original so I had to double-check to confirm she was. In that case, I'm kinda surprised we saw the original. My folks have boycotted everything she's been in because of some political controversy from decades ago. (Something I know nothing about and therefore cannot/do not wish to add further comment)

Trolls: Band Together 

Ok... So the trolls are back but now we’re going into the boy band angle. Something about how Branch was the Michael in their Jackson 5 and the other members abandoned him and now they want to do a reunion
As a huge 90s boy band fan, I’m all about this… but if this is going to be Justin’s way of rewriting his own history, that’s not cool. HE is the reason *NSYNC broke up, not the other way around. Never mind that his solo music is 99% garbage… 

Migration 

honestly I spent almost this whole trailer expecting this to turn into a Duck Hunt movie. It was released alongside the original Mario game for the original Nintendo system way back when. Ergo, I don’t remember anything about what this movie is actually meant to be about, haha