The following was wirrten by the brother of Solomon, Isaac Kenworthy. Would that make him Luigi?
Level 1: Introduction
I have been playing videogames since I was probably four years old. I like them. I think they’re a good time. As an adult, I find videogames to be an effective and enjoyable way to escape from stresses and anxious thoughts for a while. My wife and I even play videogames, like Smash Bros, Mario Kart, and even Call of Duty, as a way to spend time together – and sometimes she even beats me (!!!). Since I was a kid, as I played my favorite videogames, I would try to imagine what those games would be like if they had been turned into movies. I would imagine who the cast would be, what the plot would be, camera angles, aspect ratio, dolly shots, crane shots, mise en scene, color grading, and other terms and words I didn’t learn until I was an adult.
Something, however, that every other article about The Super Mario Bros Movie will tell you, is that videogame movies have never been what people with eyes would call “good.” Passable? Sometimes. Enjoyable? To an extent. But “good?” Uh, no. Some of the worst movies that have ever been put in theaters are videogame movies, including the 1993 Mario movie, which sucked to badly that Nintendo said they would never make another movie with Hollywood again – something else you’ve probably learned from literally every single other Super Mario Bros Movie article you’ve read and/or will read. This statement killed pretty much all hopes for an epic, dark, emotional Legend of Zelda trilogy that may or may not be something I have wanted for a very long time. This statement was of course retracted due to the creation and subsequent monetary success of Detective Pikachu (which was passable and enjoyable to an extent) in 2019, and my sometimes literal dreams for the subjectively-perfect Zelda trilogy I have written in my head, whose story and details change from time-to-time because I occasionally forget about it, live on…
ANYWAY. What I’m trying to say is this: me think Mario game good, but me think video game movie not good. That being said, I had decided when the first trailer for the Super Mario Bros Movie came out that I was going to see it in theaters. My wife decided she would come with me. The last movie I saw in theaters was Zombieland: Double Tap, and this was the first movie since then whose trailer made me genuinely excited and made me feel – dare I say – giddy. So I, like a responsible adult, watched a midday showing of The Super Mario Bros Movie in IMAX on a Friday accompanied by my older brother, who has allegedly played videogames before, my parents, who graciously bought tickets, and my wife, who jumped at the scary parts with Luigi.
Not wanting to write any more of an introduction, the review (spoilers ahead):
Level 2: Analysis
Hello, and welcome to the structural analysis portion of this review. In this section, I will attempt to objectively analyze critical components of filmmaking that were executed strongly or poorly by the filmmakers. The execution of these components will be given a score out of ten and this somewhat arbitrary score will be placed at the end of this section. Keep in mind that no movie is perfect – there is no 10/10 movie – and that the purpose of the analysis is not to prove or disprove levels of perfection, simply to analyze them. If this does not appeal to you and/or you are my dad, please scroll to the “Opinion” portion of this review.
Thematics
“Thematics” is apparently not a word. Whatever. It is here.
There are a few identifiable themes I found in the movie. One, to persevere and overcome. Two, the comradery of brotherly love. Three, to be brave. Four, nostalgia. Five, peaches (peaches, peaches, peaches, peaches). These themes serve as the overarching messages found throughout the runtime and this analysis will be looking at how well these messages are told, both verbally and visually, through some critical components of film, which will be listed in whatever order they come into my head. Thank you.
Mise en Scene
I don’t know what the literal translation is for mise en scene, and I really don’t care. What I was taught is that mise en scene is what is literally, visually on screen in a given frame. So, whatever you’re literally seeing, not inferring or thinking about, is mise en scene… According to whoever taught me. Anyway.
The first thing that comes to mind is the character animation. It’s not overly detailed, you can’t see Mario or Luigi’s pores on their skin, and it’s also not overly simple. It has enough detail for characters to be recognizable and demonstrate personality and lacks enough detail so as to tell the audience “Hey, it’s just a movie.” The character designs also do not stray very much from their videogame counterparts, which is good, because the filmmakers could have made complete redesigns of each character, and that would have been a disaster.
The backgrounds and scenery all follow this trend and are filled to the brim with references. You could pause the movie on almost any frame and play I Spy to find all the references. That’s actually not an exaggeration. It can get a little overwhelming at times, because if you’re trying to find all the references in a given shot, you can miss some of the story, which, for the most part, is ok. It’s a kid’s Mario movie, not a Christopher Nolan movie, so you’re not missing an explanation of the physics of how love transcends time or how it’s noble to take the blame for someone else’s wrongdoings, even if it’s a lie; you’re missing a joke that’s really just a reference to one of the games.
Story
There are actually two stories happening in Super Mario. One is Princess Peach trying to save the Mushroom Kingdom from Bowser, and the other is Mario trying to save Luigi from Bowser. These two stories are not handled very well. The main problem is that Mario’s story is the B story in the film. Bowser is going to the Mushroom Kingdom because he wants to marry Peach, Peach wants to stop him, and Mario is just kind of… there. Looking at it the other way, Luigi lands in Bowser’s territory and has been captured by Bowser, Mario wants to save him, and Peach is just kind of… there.
One of the reasons for the contrast in stories is a lack of converging themes in these stories. Princess Peach’s entire motivation seems to be “just be brave.” The movie doesn’t go into depth about Peach and Bowser’s relationship, which it kind of needs to do in order for Bowser’s motivations and their confrontation to be effective. But, Peach doesn’t even know why Bowser is going to the Mushroom Kingdom until he shows up. At the end of the movie. And he tells her. To her face. Why does Bowser want to marry Peach? Why doesn’t she like him? Who knows. The answers to these questions are hidden in frame 532 under a t-shirt that says “64”… Maybe. Peaches.
If Mario and Peach had similar reasons for going after Bowser, it would have been better. We learn that Peach just showed up in the Mushroom Kingdom one day and the toads took her in and made her a princess. Kinda weird and stupid. IF she had showed up one day and the toads took her in and made her a princess BECAUSE she had gotten lost looking for her brother like Mario did, then you have a thematic connection of comradery and we’re all on the same train. But, no, we don’t get that. We just get “Peach was brave.” Wow. Very cool. It would have taken literally three lines of dialogue to create this connection, and, because we don’t have this connection and we don’t know Bowser and Peach’s history, Bowser just hates Mario because he sees Mario as dating competition and is only holding Luigi as leverage against Mario, and Peach just hates Bowser cause she’s supposed to. Yaaaaaay. Peaches.
If Nintendo wanted to have a story about a character falling down a hole into another world, meeting monstrous and alien creatures, forming a romance with a character from that world, and wanting to get back home while simultaneously maturing and gaining confidence in themselves and saving people, they could have just watched Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. No joke, go and watch that Alice in Wonderland and compare it to the Mario movie. They’re the same movie. The only difference is ALLLLL the characters in Alice in Wonderland have overlapping themes. What’s that, I hear you say? You think that the Mario movie couldn’t have had depth and thematic consistency while also being a fun, engaging movie for kids and adults? Well, in that case, allow me to refer you to Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Cars, Monsters Inc, Brother Bear, Finding Nemo, Star Wars: A New Hope, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2, and, of course, God’s favorite movie, Rango, among others. Peaches.
For the record, there is a scene where Donkey Kong and Mario have been knocked away from the rest of the group and have a moment where they connect over their respective father’s not approving of their career choices and both feeling like losers. It’s pretty effective, but it only last about 20 seconds, if that. Peaches.
Music
The music is great. All of the tracks on the official soundtrack, except for a very special song, are revamped versions of music from the Mario and Donkey Kong games, and they do a very good job of appropriately fitting a given scene and amplifying on-screen emotions, not acting as them. It also does a good job of pulling the nostalgia strings for those of us who have played a lot of the games and makes you go “Oh, yeah, those games are fun. I should play those games again. Why am I in a theater, again?”
Dialogue
The dialogue is passable. It doesn’t do a very good job of verbally executing themes, characters just kind of say them and move on. Intentionally, there are questions about the story, characters, and motivations that are left unanswered. This comes as no surprise, as in the 1993 Mario movie, one line of dialogue answers the unasked question of Mario and Luigi’s last name, and we learn that Mario’s full legal name is Mario Mario. That is real. It’s understandable that Nintendo wouldn’t want something like that again, but it would have been helpful to get some exposition and answers to questions, even if the answer was “I don’t know.”
The voice acting, on the other hand, is done very well. Not many people had faith in Chris Pratt as Mario’s voice, and, to be fair, it is the worst part of the voice acting, but he did come through with decent work. Luigi, Bowser, and Donkey Kong were the most immersive voices on screen, and after the first scene with Bowser, I didn’t think about Jack Black in front of a mic, Bowser was just… Bowser.
Analytical Score: 6.5/10
Level 3: Opinion
Holy balls, I love this movie. Every reference was like a dream come true. In some cases, it WAS a dream come true, but this article is intended for audiences of all ages, so I will be discreet on the matter. The movie has pretty big story and structural flaws, but I literally do not care. Go on, do it. Say it was bad. You cannot hurt me, the battle has been won. Yes, the movie sacrifices depth for pretty much anything else, which I hate, but I would watch this movie again literally right now, whenever you’re reading this.
The best parts for me were Mario and Luigi’s relationship. I think that the guys behind the film (one of whom was Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario) knew that a lot of brothers play video games together, and I wish that this had actually been the focus of the film strictly because of how much those memories mean to me. I mean, my brothers and I never had any sappy sayings like “nothing can go wrong as long as we’re together” while we were playing – it was usually more like “Why are you doing that, are you stupid?” or “Hey, jackass, there’s a star over here.” or “Why did you take my powerup?” or “You sonofabitch you are pulling the camera away from me.” Although, in hindsight, I think we meant the same thing. (I have decided that this review will not be for all ages.)
I wish we had been given more backstory for Bowser, or that Peach was more than just a two-dimensional placeholder for a character, but, it’s whatever. This movie seemed to be setting up Bowser’s story and more Mario and Luigi moments for the already-in-production second film, so I’m ok to wait for that. I also think that the sequel will be MUCH more structurally sound than this one, and while I cannot prove that in any way shape or form, it kinda feels like it’s going that way. Also someone owes me ten bucks if the sequel opens up with a koopa sneaking into Peach’s castle dressed as a toad and flicks Bowser so he’s full size again and then Bowser turns him into one of those skeleton koopa guys and gets away in his airship with Peach. I have spoken.
There were few activities I looked forward to as a kid more than playing videogames with my brothers – and we still play online together, because we are responsible adults. In fact, playing with someone else was part of escaping stresses in the first place. Not many movies can make me feel like a kid again, but every second of The Super Mario Bros Movie made me twelve years old. Not only did it let me escape the stressful thoughts of today, but it brought my back in time to when the things that cause those stressful thoughts didn’t even exist. It feels great.
Well, that’s all I have for this I think. I’m going to go play some Mario Kart with my wife.
– Isaac
Opinion Score:
“A decent 8/10.” – Me, upon being asked my opinion of the film after leaving the theater.
MooCow Entertainment 