Movies

i saw mario today and

it's fine. the plot doesn't require anyone to think and moves along without much conflict. it is eye candy and a nostalgia blanket without much substance, and i can't imagine anyone reading this right now is going into this thinking it will be anything but that, so in that regard the movie succeeds. references galore from all eras of mario and other nintendo properties, i did find myself looking around at the backgrounds rather than focusing on what the characters were doing on screen. anyone like me that grew up with this stuff is going to enjoy the member berries. the chris pratt stuff is probably overblown, i didn't even really notice after the first few seconds, if anything it's jack black being jack black that sticks out. weirdly, the movie has some macabre material and talk of death which i found surprising- not anything quite like the toy story characters accepting their fate in the incinerator, but still somewhat dark for an otherwise bright and cheery nintendo film. overall, it's worth seeing on the big screen for the visual fun you'll have but the story itself isn't particularly engaging.

there is a brief post-credit scene involving a character only briefly seen during the film, so i'm sure if this movie makes enough there's already a sequel story being planned.

edit: i guess it might not have been explicitly clear in my comments above but i did like it, it was a fun moviegoing experience and i wasn't expecting anything more than that.

edit: also, saw it at the alamo in their big theater and being 1045am on a wednesday there was maybe 20 attendees out of a couple hundred available seats. when i bought my tix the other day, i chose our seats in the last row and nobody else was in it, and plenty of open seats everywhere. then today this couple and their kid come in and sit right next to us. like, why would you do that? 180 seats to choose from and you choose the ones right next to strangers? you don't even put a pair of seats between us when you literally had 10-12 open seats in the rest of the row all the way to the aisle? why??? friggin' people, man! i go to shows on wednesday morning to avoid people, dammit!
 
AndySlash said:
i saw mario today and

it's fine. the plot doesn't require anyone to think and moves along without much conflict. it is eye candy and a nostalgia blanket without much substance, and i can't imagine anyone reading this right now is going into this thinking it will be anything but that, so in that regard the movie succeeds. references galore from all eras of mario and other nintendo properties, i did find myself looking around at the backgrounds rather than focusing on what the characters were doing on screen. anyone like me that grew up with this stuff is going to enjoy the member berries. the chris pratt stuff is probably overblown, i didn't even really notice after the first few seconds, if anything it's jack black being jack black that sticks out. weirdly, the movie has some macabre material and talk of death which i found surprising- not anything quite like the toy story characters accepting their fate in the incinerator, but still somewhat dark for an otherwise bright and cheery nintendo film. overall, it's worth seeing on the big screen for the visual fun you'll have but the story itself isn't particularly engaging.

there is a brief post-credit scene involving a character only briefly seen during the film, so i'm sure if this movie makes enough there's already a sequel story being planned.

edit: also, saw it at the alamo in their big theater and being 1045am on a wednesday there was maybe 20 attendees out of a couple hundred available seats. when i bought my tix the other day, i chose our seats in the last row and nobody else was in it, and plenty of open seats everywhere. then today this couple and their kid come in and sit right next to us. like, why would you do that? 180 seats to choose from and you choose the ones right next to strangers? you don't even put a pair of seats between us when you literally had 10-12 open seats in the rest of the row all the way to the aisle? why??? friggin' people, man! i go to shows on wednesday morning to avoid people, dammit!
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I saw it at 11:30 and there was no one at time of reservation.

3 other parties (2-3 ppl) showed up and one was right next to me but they decided to leave a space between us. Seriously ? You can see which seats have been claimed lol
 
Saw Mario today and I guess I’ll be the dummy who says they liked it. Like I said before, I wasn’t expecting something incredible. It’s not. But it succeeds at being a fun, light movie. Visually it’s just fantastic, like so vastly superior than anything Illumination has done before. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it actually.
Once you take a step back you realize how thin the plot is, but it’s not a huge dealbreaker for me. As someone who grew up on these games, and still loves them today, it felt great to see the world this realized and beautiful.

And I was surprised how good some of voice acting was. I expects the worst, but it’s not as bad as that. Toad was the real surprise winner for me. The internet was so upset with Chris Pratt when the trailer dropped but he’s fine. I’m more annoyed that he keeps popping up in these huge movies.

As far as the 80s songs go, they aren’t bad or cringey as much as they are really bizarre. Like they never really connect to what’s going on on screen and just feel like a strange choice. The score is good enough as it is, we truly don’t need these songs anywhere in the movie. But knowing how Illumination movies are, I expected worse. I expected potentially cringey childish humor and pop culture references. But that was like nowhere to be found. I felt relieved. I’m sure many will try to critique the movie and pull it apart, but at the end of the day what’s the point? It’s a fun adaptation of a great game. Nothing masterful or genius, and it didn’t really need to be. I like how it’s just simple fun cause it’s that warm dumb feeling I get when I play the games.
 
Bennnnn said:
Saw Mario today and I guess I’ll be the dummy who says they liked it. Like I said before, I wasn’t expecting something incredible. It’s not. But it succeeds at being a fun, light movie. Visually it’s just fantastic, like so vastly superior than anything Illumination has done before. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it actually.
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I like it as well. Can’t wait to see it again with the kids (but with interruptions lol)

the movie premise is about as deep as a typical Mario game and the plot line does a little back story and lore here and there. If anything this movie flies with all of the things that they attempt to cram in it. I don’t mean all of the Easter eggs, but all of the characters and basic plot/landscape is really packed. I would be willing to bet there will be a sequel and at least one spin off in which I feel there will be room for an actual story to be told and not the typical save the mushroom kingdom.
The 80s music was mostly fine although the aha track wasn’t bad just seemed the most out of place. I guess it was illuminations way to connect it to the origins irl to the time period ?? It was fine but there was plenty of Mario music that could’ve gone in its place.
 
I finally finally watched Your Name and have just started Weathering With You. Your Name had a lot of great qualities to it, namely the style. Just incredible to look at. But the storyline had me in pretty fast too.

I am planning on checking out the directors new film Suzume next week, in theaters.


Also the Japanese stage show of Spirited Away is in theaters the following week for one or two showings. Gotta check that out too. Just rewatched Spirited Away recently. It’s not my favorite Ghibli but it’s up there.
 
The Denmarkian Wonder said:
First time seeing these. Quite annoyed that the first four movies in that era (The Return Of Godzilla, Godzilla Vs. Biollante, Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah, Godzilla Vs. Mothra) are OOP on blu-ray. Maybe Criterion will release a companion set will the full Heisei/Millennium era.
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The 1990 Godzilla vs King Ghidora whips so hard. It has time travel shenanigans, hilarious WW2 dubs, a terminator rip-off. It's so good. Agreed, wish those were more accessible.
 
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