The Super Mario Bros. Movie – Review

Disclaimer: This movie review is a loose transcription from our podcast where we do all our movie reviews – link is at the bottom of this page to listen in!

James:

Hello everyone, we just saw The Super Mario Bros Movie, Nayan and I just saw a public screening we didn’t go to the screening for this one. But we were lucky enough to be able to go to an early screening a day before release, even though it’s available to the public. So we’re going to review it right now. What did you think of the movie initial thoughts? 

Nayan:

It was a bad movie, but it was so much fun at the same time. You know, it’s like it’s negative and positive at the same time. The story if you strip it down to its core it was pretty, pretty short. Like I was very basic and whatnot. But from a fan base point of view that’s played the games and stuff it does so many things right in terms of the linear/horizontal gameplay that they transitioned into some scenes. We got that in the first five minutes and that was awesome. You have the Mario sounds as well. The sound design of this film is awesome. Not the score just purely the sound because it kept the original sounds from the games like when Mario hits a box or gets hurt you get that iconic Nintendo sound. Bowser’s motives seemed a bit weird, he and his army pretty much crashed into Princess Peaches’ world and all of a sudden his main goal was to marry her even tho he has never met her. Chris Pratt wasn’t what I expected In terms of his vocal performance. I thought he was going to have his normal accent without attempting to change it but nope, he changed his voice up a bit and made it sound a little Italian which was nice to hear. 

What did you think James?

James:

Well, I mean, I know everyone wants to hear about the Chris Pratt side of things. I know that’s been a big topic in terms of this movie. Just in terms of this movie alone, you can tell it’s done by Illumination. They make it very noticeable in terms of how they introduce the movies and just animation. They’re basically doing what they know, and it feels very Illumination. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s as mind-numbing as Minions. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that this movie is bad. I think it is just fine. It fits somewhere within the middle, and it fits within a place that I’m not completely certain of yet. In regards to the story there is very little meaning here, as in-depth as they get is that Mario is trying to save his brother Luigi from Bowser. It’s really a surface-level kind of story to it. It’s very easy for everybody of all ages to enjoy. So it’s really designed for families, and I think in terms of its target audience, I think it succeeds. But in terms of us who you know, kind of look a little bit deeper into movies and stuff like that. I do not think that it actually satisfies in terms of a level that we think is good. The animation I think is overdone. It’s colorful and quirky for a reason and it’s to you know, get us over the kind of belief that the animation quality is poor. Illumination when it comes to animation, has always been very below average. They have good techniques to cover that up. They always have a lack of detail, but with Mario, it’s very colorful which really pops in it. In terms of detail within the animation,  you look at Luigi’s mustache, you don’t see threads of hair, you just see one big brown patch of hair. I really like Toy Story if you were to zoom up on Woody, and there’s just like stitching off the column. Illumination has never been that kind of studio and it is not this is not a movie with a demonstrated expertise and animation. When it comes to l the gameplay of the game it’s very well done. There are some scenes in here where it’s like, fuck, yes. This is what I’m looking for. This is what I see. Yeah, there’s the first five minutes there’s a scene within the film where, you know, they’re running lines, going up levels and punching a box and stuff like that. I’m like, Yeah, this is what I want. This is the way how to convert a video game to a film and it’s doing well but it’s not consistent throughout the whole movie. 

All right. So now, thoughts out of 10, what do you think of the movie?

Nayan: I would give it a 4 out of 10, what about you?

James: I will go down the middle and give it a 5.