The Super Mario Bros Movie is far more style than substance

Jackson Piercy STAFF WRITER

The “video game movie” has been something of a loaded genre ever since the inception of the very first iteration, ironically the much-maligned Mario Bros. Movie from 1993. Many questions arise from going from a medium that allows user control to one that removes that control entirely. To this day, I’m still not sure that Hollywood has that formula figured out. Even up until very recently, it only seems that the recent Sonic the Hedgehog films are really the only ones that have that figured out. I think that’s more to credit Sonic as a character than to the quality of his given film. Nevertheless, as we’ve seen in recent box office history, if you make the movie, they will come.

Upstart brothers Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) are going through the motions of starting up a new plumbing business in Brooklyn (and Queens). While trying to fix a leak in the water main that has washed up into the street, the brothers find a particular pipe that leads them to a world once unseen to the rest of the “real” world. In this world, the malevolent turtle Bowser (Jack Black) has taken a Super Star to hold the Mushroom Kingdom hostage, threatening to use its power to leverage himself into a marriage with the ruler of the kingdom, Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy). To prevent this invasion of the Kingdom, Peach and Mario, flanked by Toad (Keegan MichaelKey), go to the Jungle Kingdom to acquire the assistance of the Kongs, led by Cranky Kong (Fred Armisen) and Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen).

The pure visuals of this film are very easily the best part of this picture. Unfortunately, I don’t think the themes and performances really match the prestige brought up by these visuals. The pacing is hyper-quick, and the performances seem to be a little phoned in (outside of an all-timer by Jack Black), and it isn’t really a film that has anything substantial to say. Now, the argument for this film goes something along the lines of it being a movie for the fans, or that it’s for kids, and I will admit that I don’t really fall under those banners. I will say, however, that just because a movie is made for kids it doesn’t give it a right to be “not good” (see Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio and Rango, for instance), and that even if I were a fan of Nintendo, I would rather a thoughtful movie before one that is pure fan service. Because, in my mind, fan service for fan service’s sake a movie does not make.

Personally, and unfortunately, this doesn’t really do it for me. All that, with the talk of making more Nintendo property pictures, I may be in for a very long decade at the cinema. It’s hard to criticize a movie like this and not sound like a hater, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.