I don’t know what you all think of it. But I’m hyped.
I like Jack Black playing Bowser. Its like when Jim carry played Robotnik. I was abit curious and I like what I see in the trailer.
No some folks don’t like Chris Pratt’s voice, but I was expected Mario to sound completely different as soon as they announced his voice actor last year. So I expected this,
Its like in the old cartoons where Mario didn’t get his iconic voice till Super Mario 64. So yeah I’m not worried about it.
I didn’t have faith in Jack Black as Bowser, but the trailer is sort of making a believer out of me.
Chris Pratt on the other hand, I’m still on the fence about. We really didn’t get much of a voice sample on this, like sustained conversation. Still, Mario in the games, when he does speak, has a very strong Italian accent to his speech, but I always felt the way Nintendo did that, it was almost stereotypical for the character and too strong. For how little Mario actually speaks in the games though, not a huge issue.
But for a real person, I don’t think the accent is going to be so strong as to be a caricature or a stereotype of a typical Italian, so maybe they’re dialing it back a tad to make Mario seem a little more grounded. Personally, the way he’s portrayed in the games would get annoying if you had to listen to that for a large amount of time.
I’m not sold on Pratt yet, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now, and I’m not writing this movie off because of him.
Also, regardless of the casting choices or the script, this has at least got to be a giant step up from what was the abysmal Mario movie of the 90s. That’s not exactly a high bar to clear, but I honestly feel that even at this movie’s worst possible outcome, it will still be better than that older Mario movie.
I think most of us would agree to that for sure.
so far the plot has something going on like the super mario 64 story. Then again Bowser hid the stars through out peaches castle in the story. So It makes me wonder if Bowser either has the last star or this will be a competition of who can get them.
So far, yes. Visually, it looks really good. Very faithful to the games. I’m surprised by how intimidating Bowser seems here. I hope this is good, if not great.
A lot of the jokes didn’t land, plus there was a LOT of overused 80s music. The story was pretty flimsy with way, WAAAAY too many characters and too much focus on cramming the film full of easter eggs rather than telling a good story. None of the characters are really given much depth, if at all. Even worse, the title itself was incredibly misleading; the movie would have been better off called “Princess Peach” since the movie is focused on her rather than both Mario AND Luigi. I don’t at all mind the idea of making Peach a much more capable and prominent character, but by the same token, though, she felt like one of those Mary Sue OCs that you find in fanfiction at its worse where they completely overshadow every other character, including the stars of the story.
I wasn’t looking for something Oscar-winning, I had went in with the expectation that Mario and Luigi would be the main stars of the story and that the movie would be a little more than just easter eggs. And before anyone makes the comment “what does anyone expect of a Mario movie, it’s for kids/Mario games never had a great story/plot”, I’m gonna call bull $ h i t on that; there are tons of great animated movies out there that were not so cliched and predictable, that were able to tell good, even great stories, some actually having moments that felt impactful, even emotional. I don’t know, the movie felt like a cynical regurgitation of various other movies but with a Mario skin rather than an honest effort at taking a beloved IP and really doing something to make it stand on its own. The characters and story of Mario is simple, yes, but that doesn’t mean that filmmakers couldn’t use that material and elevate it into something a little more for an animated film.
Here’s what I remember. Mario was indeed the one who rescued luigi and it was pretty much a “origin” like story for them. so Luigi was not gonna be able to do things right away, same for Mario. But it was both of them who defeated bowser, even DK and Peach were not enough to stop him.
Oddly enough you’ve had several folks who support these mary sues criticizing the movie for not sidelining Mario in the first place. and many “critics” have hated the film because it wasn’t like all those others.
do I think they added a little bit too much in there with peach? yeah to an extent. But as both a bowser fan and luigi fan, I was pleased that they did get Bowser in a way that makes him in character something even critics complained about. Though I did wish Luigi did abit more. Don’t get me wrong I don’t care much for the damsel in distress trope, but it would’ve been nice if they had them do something.
That said, I do see your points they could’ve made made it a little better than that.
the 80’s music while I do enjoy, yeah they could’ve done something like add music from the games or perhaps make cinematic versions of them.
But one thing I do got to ask is if you could make any changes to the movie what would they be?
Which makes the ending all the more unsatisfying since the movie has breezed past any and all potential development for either Mario and/or Luigi. I’m totally fine with Mario and Luigi being put through the ringer and having them earn their places, but by the same token, the movie’s pace doesn’t really allow for that to happen since a LOT of emphasis is placed on Peach.
To a tiny extent I can kind of understand the former since Peach has largely been the damsel in distress in the games. She’s playable in some of them, granted, but for the most part, she wasn’t the kind of obnoxiously perfect Kung-Fu Barbie like in the movie.
I have no issue with Bowser’s portrayal…mostly. I think that more should have been done to make him intimidating. He can still have his cute and surprisingly vulnerable moments, but by the same token, the character shouldn’t be so utterly defanged. Personally, I’d rather we see Bowser use the star for himself earlier on, if not had something more to indicate how dangerous he was.
I have no issue with the filmmakers using 80s music, it’s just that they were using songs that were so thematically ill-fitting and irrelevant, if not incredibly overused. I mean, did we really need to hear “Holding Out For A Hero” again when it has been used in so many other games and movies? “Take On Me”, “Thunderstruck”, or “Without Honor or Humanity” were the best possible choices?
I wouldn’t include both Bowser AND Donkey Kong in the same film; it would have to be one or the other. If I wanted to feature the latter, I would definitely NOT have Seth Rogen play the role, nor whoever voiced Kranky (holy h ell that guy was awful!). The jungle section and rainbow road could have been trimmed. I would have wanted to explore a little more of the world and give the story and characters time to develop. Maybe replace DK with Yoshi? I’d also try to give more thought with regards to where each of the characters fit within context of the story and consider what each character brought to the table, their own strengths and weaknesses. I don’t know, to me, the movie felt like it suffered a LOT from “Avengers” envy and was not only trying to cram in every conceivable easter egg from the games, but also to set up their own cinematic universe ala Marvel and DC. Generally speaking, I would want a movie to avoid doing that whole conceit of “we’ll save it for the sequel” or “we’re making a cinematic universe and we’ll milk these suckers for all their worth” and just focus on telling a single story/movie first.
I’d probably set Mario and Luigi up as the real underdogs of the story by making Bowser much more of a cunning and dangerous opponent. I think one hypothetical way of including DK and his crew would be if Bowser had coerced them into working for him since DK had started out as a villain/antagonist. Maybe indicate far better the consequences of some Mario’s more foolhardy actions? I don’t know, a lot of the time in the movie, Mario is a bumbling stooge, but nothing he did really ever had that much of an impact, if not consequence. Like, what if something he did ended up benefitting Bowser greatly?
Also more screentime for Luigi. How about you?
And just out of curiosity, by any chance do you find Princess Peace to be a Mary Sue? A Mary Sue-type character overall?