The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

3 outta 5

Super Mario Galaxy is both a movie that tries too hard and doesn’t try hard enough. The first film was awash in classic Mario content which gave it a nostalgic pep. This one cribs a lot from the more recent games that don’t have as much pop as the first film. This is a very rambunctious film that careers from one fast paced action scene to another, that is does get a bit tiring. At least the two best characters from the first film, Bowser and Peach, get a lot to do. The Mario Brothers are kinda sidelined in their own franchise, they’re still fun if all they mostly do is hollering as they go through action scenes. This hits the viewer over the head so much that you eventually just roll with it.

Rosalina (Brie Larson) is a space princess who is captured by Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie) as a way to free his shrunk and captured father, Bowser (Jack Black). Princess Peach (Anya-Taylor Joy) wants to save Rosalina as this captured Princess may hold a key to her past. The Super Mario Bros hit the road and the guys meet Yoshi (Donald Glover), a self-proclaiming dinosaur who swallows folks and makes them power up eggs. Peach, Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), and Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) need to hitch a ride across the galaxy so they find the daring pilot Fox McCloud (Glen Powell) who is great but promptly crashes. Now with Bowser Jr taking away Rosalina’s energy, Jr. and his dad may capture enough energy to remake the galaxy.

The film collides from one colourful action scene to the next. The first one did too but it felt like a videogame narrative progression of boss fight, power up and progress. This one is just whipping the audience over the head with some puzzle level platforming. But the classic power up platforming in the first movie felt more like Mario Bros, this is just kinda excessive. The addition of Nintendo pilot, Star Fox, gives the movie an injection of energy. Powell is basically doing a vocal performance of his hotshot pilot from Top Gun: Maverick but he’s really good at it. There is an appearance by Brido and King Wart (Louis Guzman) which is neat to see characters from the weird and misbegotten Super Mario Bros. 2.

When Fox is first introduced, he is shown in anime instruction manual comic art, which is what the StarFox games came in (remember instruction manuals, those were a blast.) There’s a couple of moments when the visuals turn into the classic 8-bit Mario graphics with classic level complete music. Also at the end when they rebuild the castle it looks like the old graphics. There is a compelling simplicity in the 8-bit graphics, when the movie goes for some of the more modern game twists with levels that spin upside down and new powers, it is a bit excessive.

Yoshi is fun and chaotic, constantly chowing down on folks and saying “Yoshi!” Glover actually does a great impression of the classic Yoshi proclamation. Simplistic but likable. One of the best bits is when they crash land and meet yet another dinosaur and Peach yells, incredibly frustrated, “And we keep picking up dinosaurs!” Taylor-Joy’s performance remains very exuberant. She is still hyper-confident to the point where things are a bit too easy for her. But she does get a good emotional plot where she is compelled to save Rosalina, not knowing their connection and the payoff is pretty decent. Larson as Rosalina gets to have some moments of badass but deep down she loves her children/stars, and just wants to protect them.

Safdie as Bowser Jr. has some really cool vocal VFX and he seems very determined to rescue his father. He says all these horrible things his dad told him, like on the first day of school someone will probably stab them in the back, and Bowser says that was some great parenting. There is quite a bit of Bowser being an absentee father but he is getting closer to his son. Bowser, having been captured and shrunk by Mario, develops a bit of Stockholm syndrome, having joined the book club and making soup for Luigi. But deep down, despite developing feelings for his captors, ultimately Bowser has to be Bowser. Black gets to run the gamut at first with a high pitched voice as he’s been shrunk, he eventually becomes closer to his son making up for years of being an absentee father. Black even gets to sing a bar of “Peaches” which is great to hear but he drops it rather quickly. A reprise would have been nice, it’s a total banger.

Mario and Luigi are basically just shuffled around from action scene to action scene, although Day’s Luigi has some of the best lines. The finale of the movie does feature a neat bridge confrontation with Bowser when Mario is throwing axes at the chains holding the bridge together, just like in the classic 8-bit Mario vs Bowser final levels. There’s a bit more after that when Mario, Luigi and Yoshi gets powered up to confront Bowser but it seems like a copy and paste of the finale of the last movie, their power-ups are weird, and it isn’t anywhere near as iconic as the Brothers kicking all of Bowser’s goons at once with the super-star. Super Mario Galaxy may not have as much classic awesomeness as the first film, but it is a fast paced experience that may be loud but fun.