Lovely introduction, awesome battle climax, but the middle is like a clip show at times, filled with noticeably short scenes that all feel like they were once part of a longer and better script.
A provable example of this is the bit where a fish jumps on Mario's face. In one of the trailers at Youtube, Peach and Toad are seen pulling it off, but in the movie itself, there's this distractingly fast fade cut after the fish lands on him. No Peach and Toad helping him afterwards, but a new scene impatiently pushing itself onto the screen.
The movie's biggest flaw is its reluctance to talk about normal human problems and emotions, whilst it keeps bringing up these dramatic plot points. Every introduced storyline was incomplete, underexplored, or abandoned mere seconds after being brought up. Every time you're given a taste of something real, the movie reels it back before the float can even hit the water.
It prioritized the action scenes and environments, not the character-building, which was a waste, because the bits of story they presented were good. Good enough to want to know more, at least.
Mario has desires, but these are shoved aside the moment he leaves Brooklyn. He only cares about saving Luigi -the Mushroom Kingdom isn't even a factor in his wish to be involved in this foreign war, which is funny in hindsight. And also fair, since he doesn't know any of these people, but why not use his personal concerns as conversation starters with his otherworldly allies and establish a relationship that extends beyond "we are allies because we want to stop the same villain"?
During the Bowser fight in Brooklyn, an insecurity of Mario's was brought up I hadn't even picked up on throughout the movie. It seemed like this was a revelation meant for a different, more cowardly version of Mario.
Peach too was a lost opportunity, arguably moreso, since the creators failed to do what they advertised: turn her into a character.
She's a lost child, also (assumedly) from Earth, but her intrigue for the human Mario dies after one second of questioning his origin and she doesn't even show a little bit of excitement for Brooklyn and its people when she arrives there. She's finally surrounded by beings like her and no one in the movie acknowledges it.
Peach doesn't have a single personal woe in her heart. She doesn't miss her real family, doesn't express loneliness, but solely lives for the mushroom gnomes that took her in. Her only want in the movie is battling Bowser, for their sake. She's a husk of a woman, a face, no different from the original Princess Peach as portrayed in the majority of Mario games. And the truth is that most Mario characters don't have much going on for themselves, but I'm harping on Peach because of what was advertised. She was supposed to be different. "Better".
They made her combat competent and called it a day. That be it. Is this the only thing movie companies know what to do with female characters who are primarily known for being sweet and timid? Make them agile warriors, still devoid of personality? Peach's backstory would've been a good opportunity to improve on the character, but about three measly sentences are spent on it, whereafter it's never mentioned again. We get minutes of Mario training and fighting Donkey Kong, which were cool moments, but why not devote that same time on the conversations that would've realistically spawned when confronted with heavy announcements like these? Mario doesn't ask Peach questions nor shows any sympathy that lasts longer than half a second, making even a scene this short feel like a waste of time.
..And why did they involve Donkey Kong. I don't remember him being royalty and owning a kingdom. The stupid, red novelty tie certainly doesn't look princely.
If they weren't going to expand on the lost human-plot anyway, Peach should've asked Daisy for help. She's an underused character who looks way more at home in the base Mario games. Donkey Kong has his own series and only ever gets invited to Mario multiplayer instalments, so again, why him? Because Mario started out as "Jumpman", avoiding barrels? Then why is Pauline just a news anchor cameo and not Mario's girlfriend or a fellow protagonist?
I'm also tired of hearing the same Seth Rogen-chuckle coming from the characters he voices. He's already an overused voice actor and that sound bite has overstayed its welcome. Donkey Kong wasn't a bad character in the movie, just very pointless with also a rushed, unexplored personal grievance.
Speaking of pointless: Toad just shows up -no explanation given to why he's even out strolling in the wild- and instantly decides to help Mario infiltrate Peach's castle. He barely locks eyes with the man and shouts "FOLLOW ME!", even though he doesn't know who or what Mario is and doesn't care to ask, either. He could've been a Bowser goon, edible idiot..!
Toad has no discernible personality or motives, he's just a somewhat quirky, smiling face who'll call anyone who doesn't chase him away on sight a friend, without having exchanged a single meaningful word with them. In fact, Toad rarely speaks. The completely absent Luigi had more lines than him.
Despite the main appeal of the movie being the fantastical Mushroom Kingdom and everything surrounding it, I liked Brooklyn's scenes the most. The movie seemed to take its time in the emotional department here (relatively speaking), and Mario and Luigi were a great pair.
Having that said, Luigi's unceremonious erasure from the story was by far the worst choice they made. Unlike Mario, he's not given the chance to explore the world and pretty much sits in a cage for the vast majority of the running time, off-screen as well. The trailers pretty much spoiled every single scene he appeared in. A miserable use of a good character.
That they didn't even consider giving him his own hero's journey, I don't understand. Luigi could've tried taking Bowser down from the inside, make his successes comedic and accidental if you have to, but Nintendo and Illumination ignored he too is supposed to be a hero. This movie is called "The Super Mario Brothers Movie", so why did they keep my green boy simmering in a lava prison for 90% of the story?
The soft-spoken Peach has to be an unstoppable ninja, surpassing Mario in wit, speed, and strength, but Luigi is allowed to be his cowardly self and less competent at the same time?
Bowser was also given little to do. He had plenty of awesome scenes, but in the end, most of these were just short snippets of him drooling over Peach. The movie ends with him piano serenading to her again, despite his earlier attempt of one-shot killing her after she declined to marry him, so.. very romantic and sincere.
During the credits, I wondered.. what exactly did I watch? Whose journey was this? Mario's, I suppose, but what did he achieve that he wasn't already capable of? He shouldn't have won the battle, either. Bowser had a power star, which he refused to use for no reason. And with all the violent horrors both Mario and Luigi endured, why would they choose to stay in The Mushroom Kingdom? Brooklyn hailed them as heroes and completely ignored the strange creatures that helped save their one street from an angry turtle man, there was no need to move and be plumbers in a world of ruthless plants and beasts.
Also, hearing existing songs in this video game movie that prides itself in its original soundtrack was atrocious. I wish Nintendo told Illumination no, but I guess there's the off chance it was Nintendo who thought using overused 80s classics was a good idea. Normally an Illumination move, though.
Considering Illumination made this, I'm just happy there was no toilet humor. We're dealing with plumbers, after all.
Before watching, I hoped it was going to be a non-stop comedic ride, but it wasn't -very few jokes in this, actually- and as I was watching it, I hoped it'd explore the concerns and backstories of the characters, and it also didn't.
I've heard some viewers argue they didn't expect a deep story, making this a non-issue to them, and I would've agreed if the movie hadn't sprinkled in these "deep" moments. It's like if Toad told Mario "My dad left me when I was a baby", but then it's never made a point again. Toad keeps smiling, he doesn't express to be looking for him, his father doesn't return at the end, like, why did you share this information.
Don't have Mario and Luigi struggle with their business, don't have their father barking Mario down, don't have Peach reveal to be a lost human child, don't have Donkey Kong lament to be a disappointment to his father -every single one of these plot points could be a movie of their own, but are glanced over in this film, and people are saying that's fine, basically because their expectations were low, anyway.
"It's-a just Mario, why bother": Because this is not a video game, it's a theater released movie. Can't we hope the creators treat it as such and do something more, cause otherwise you should just boot up one of the games and watch the cutscenes.
To discard effort because the original source lacked it will cause that source to never exceed itself. I'm not disappointed because the movie is bad, I'm disappointed because the movie could've been good. It's an imperfect story for no reason. The unfinished storylines and cut scenes made it feel short, but I saw the potential, I could've easily watched a 3 hour Super Mario movie, assuming the extra running time would've fixed the issues above.
I wouldn't take anyone seriously who says this is anything above a generous 7 or an even more generous 8, though I do understand why someone would enjoy this. But, I don't think I'd buy this movie on DVD any time soon. There are a few great clips, but they're not part of one great story.
If a sequel were to come, perhaps it'll be better, but only if fans give this instalment a realistic score. If you deem this a 9 or higher in your excitement, what incentive will Nintendo and Illumination have to step up their game where it matters?
Also, I can't believe we now have movie Sonic and movie Mario uttering the sentence "I hate mushrooms".
