The Super Mario Galaxy Movie - Though Personally I Prefer The Original, This Is Still A Fun Sequel and Should Please Fans of The Games

This movie already had its advance ticket sales in Indonesia since around 2 weeks ago, and my wife and I had bought them for yesterday's show for quite a while. Hence we were able to see this movie on its first day of release which was quite rare for us. Without further ado, here's more on the film.

Brief Story Line

After the events of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Mario (Chris Pratt -Mercy, Onward etc) and his brother Luigi (Charlie Day - Honey, Don't!, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia TV series etc) continued their plumbing business where they later met & befriended young dinosaur called Yoshi (Donald Glover - Mufasa: The Lion King, Community TV series etc) during one of their job. Meanwhile Bowser Jr. (Benny Salfdie - Happy Gilmore 2, The Curse TV series etc) who followed in the footstep of his father Bowser (Jack Black - Anaconda 2025 reboot, Kung Fu Panda 4 etc) was trying to free him and plan to dominate the universe.

When Mario, Luigi and Yoshi attended the birthday party of Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy - The Gorge, The Queen's Gambit mini series etc), a young Lumas appeared and sought the help to free Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson - The Marvels, Kong: Skull Island etc). Peach and Toad (Keegan-Michael Key - Play Dirty, The Predator etc) decided to help the Lumas while Mario and friends stayed behind in the Kingdom. However, it was a very difficult mission and they had to work together to pass through various challenges across the galaxy. 

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Well that was indeed fun. Just like its predecessor, this movie was filled with many of the characteristics from the Super Mario games. However, while the first film was truly entertaining and brought complete nostalgic feeling, it did not have the same great effects for me. Perhaps it was due to the movie based on the Super Mario Galaxy game which I have never played before and all the references here were kind of lost for me. Nevertheless, the characters though unfamiliar were still fun to see, like Bowser Jr and the others. So it was still an enjoyable experience.

The story here was very simple and definitely not the deep kind that you would see in other animated films. I believe it was never meant to be those type anyway, so there is no need to compare with them as you would be disappointed. This movie was made for fan service and relied heavily on the awesome playable (and non playable) characters from Nintendo games. And some of the classic game plays were still apparent here like the mushroom, the magical blocks, the warp pipes and so on. The animation was also very good to my opinion especially the main characters, as well as those cute Lumas.

Most of the main cast from the original film have reprised their roles here. There were also some new names added here aside from those I mentioned above, such as Luis Guzman (Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, Code Black TV series etc) as Frog King Wart, Kevin Michael Richardson (Trolls World Tour, Like Family TV series etc) as Bowser's right hand man Kamek and even Glen Powell (The Running Man, Hit Man etc) as an important character whom I believed Nintendo games players would have been familiar with (though I never saw him before), plus several others. This sequel was still directed by Aaron Horvat & Michael Jelenic and written by Matthew Fogel. So it is still done by basically the core crews.

What I liked about this movie was the wonderful animation, the fun adventures, the funny moments that made us laughed and the awesome musical score which enhanced the feel during the certain scenes. Though the excitement feeling was lesser for me in this sequel, my wife equally enjoyed both movies. Critics apparently were less impressed with the second movie but audience seemed to love it and its box office performance certainly looking good. However whether it would be more successful than the original will have to wait till next few weeks. 

The film has duration of 98 minutes including closing credits and a brief post end credit scene. It was surely added to give hint of next installment which should excite fans of Mario games (though unfortunately my wife and I were not familiar. Overall this was still an enjoyable sequel to a movie truly dedicated for fans of the games. Both of us had nice time watching this, despite one minor thing that bothered us a bit related to Mario & Peach. But it was relatively small and probably we were the only ones who felt that way. Anyway if you like the original film, I am sure you would be entertained by this one as well. However if you prefer a meaningful, emotional, wonderfully written movie then you will have to manage your expectation when watching this one. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars