A half star more because I begrudgingly concede it gets the job done with kids- the cousin I watched it with enjoyed it well enough- but beyond that it’s so vapid and shallow. Does it look ‘good’? Technically, sure. But the house style of Illumination is artistic competence and technological shininess. There’s no room for artistry and passion in it, not helped by Nintendo’s own Mario style being pretty edgeless these days. The same extends to the story and characters. Mario wins one fight, thanks to a power up that does the fighting for him, and now he’s the hero over Peach, who’s hyper competent to subvert old cliches and serve new ones but nonetheless Mario must save the day instead. Pratt basically plays Emmett again but at least in the Lego Movie there was some reason it had to be him, or at least they thought it had to be. Here the only reason is he’s Mario, and without that Martinet charm.
Day is fine, better than Pratt. Jack Black and KMR make the rest of the cast look bad with the energy they bring, especially with KMR’s decades of experience. They’re the best part, with Bowser getting to be both amusing and intimidating, the piano scene being a standout.
The rest of the music outside of Peaches are obnoxious needle drops or, like the rest of the movie, full of references to the source material that never allows this movie to exist on its own. The blue mushroom! The cat one! Karts! It’s exhausting. It’s nothing outside of tingling the part of your brain that knows the game. But kids like it, I guess, so. One and a half stars.
Review by JCVIP 4BlockedParent2023-12-09T21:45:20Z
A half star more because I begrudgingly concede it gets the job done with kids- the cousin I watched it with enjoyed it well enough- but beyond that it’s so vapid and shallow. Does it look ‘good’? Technically, sure. But the house style of Illumination is artistic competence and technological shininess. There’s no room for artistry and passion in it, not helped by Nintendo’s own Mario style being pretty edgeless these days. The same extends to the story and characters. Mario wins one fight, thanks to a power up that does the fighting for him, and now he’s the hero over Peach, who’s hyper competent to subvert old cliches and serve new ones but nonetheless Mario must save the day instead. Pratt basically plays Emmett again but at least in the Lego Movie there was some reason it had to be him, or at least they thought it had to be. Here the only reason is he’s Mario, and without that Martinet charm.
Day is fine, better than Pratt. Jack Black and KMR make the rest of the cast look bad with the energy they bring, especially with KMR’s decades of experience. They’re the best part, with Bowser getting to be both amusing and intimidating, the piano scene being a standout.
The rest of the music outside of Peaches are obnoxious needle drops or, like the rest of the movie, full of references to the source material that never allows this movie to exist on its own. The blue mushroom! The cat one! Karts! It’s exhausting. It’s nothing outside of tingling the part of your brain that knows the game. But kids like it, I guess, so. One and a half stars.