I thought this was... OK. Nothing to write home about, but it also wasn't horrendously bad.
There's a clear love for the imagery of the series here that fans of the games will appreciate, though the plot is a tad generic, but I feel for the first movie in what is probably going to be a series that concept is fine.
I'm not going to argue that they make or break the film, but the callbacks to the various points in Mario history were neat and that's coming from a guy who isn't all that into the franchise as a whole.
Mario going on a "hero's journey" is, again, fine and it serves the purpose of the story, even if the changes in his character are minor compared to the games.
(Yes really, I think they got Mario "on character" here, but expanded on the basis of who he is in the games)
People were pissy about the changes to Peach and honestly, I can say, screw 'em.
The worst I can say about her character is that Taylor-Joy doesn't go for Peach's usual high-pitched range but given the amount of dialogue she has, it would've been annoying.
Real talk, the way they wrote her reminds me a lot of how Zelda has been portrayed in the TLoZ games since Ocarina of Time and I'm here for that.
I'm not a fan of celeb voice acting, but I gotta say, they were on point for me.
I didn't have as many problems with Pratt as Mario and Taylor-Joy as Peach as some. The rest of the cast was great, Charlie Day really nailed Luigi (who is based on more modern characterizations as a frightened lad), Keegan-Michael Key and Seth Rogen are fun as Toad and DK respectively and Fred Armisen just straight-up ACED Cranky Kong.
But let's be real, the show-stopper as far as the VAs go was Jack Black as Bowser.
He goes from goofy to menacing and is able to portray Bowser really well in both instances and having him sing that goofy-ass song showed they utilized their Jack Black to the fullest.
Like, why wouldn't you get the guy who is known to be funny AND a legit musician not be funny on occasion and sing?
But the music is another subject altogether and boy oh boy this is where the movie dipped for me.
Tyler Bates did a great job with the actual soundtrack, so I'm not going to muse on that, but what really annoyed me was the pop music needledrops.
Holy, they suck and are unnecessary, but apparently this is what Illumination just... DOES? I'm not familiar with their catalogue beyond knowing they exist (this is the first movie of theirs I ever saw, so...)
Apparently Bates and Kondo had made music for the scenes where they occur but some exec decided to just... not use them?
The use of popular tracks stops being good right after No Sleep Til Brooklyn - which actually fits the scene for a change - but then we move right into "ironic use of Bizet" which in my book was played out by the 2000s.
From here on out, every montage is underlaid with a pop song and the choices are so pedestrian it hurts, even though I like most of these songs.
And it's not even like... cover songs. It's the originals. There's a Bates/Kondo remix of a DK track that's been replace with...
a-ha's "Take on Me" during the intro scene to the Kong Kingdom and I'm like... why is this here.
The final scene before the credits is accompanied with "Mr. Blue Sky", again... not a song I hate, but one that has become so prominent in pop culture recently it's pedestrian.
Same for "Holding Out For A Hero" during Mario's training montage and "Thunderstruck" during the Kart select bit.
It's pedestrian and it drags the movie down the most for me.
Again, I liked this film for a decent part and while I'm not a fan of the whole "kids movies need to be no longer than around 90 minutes" shtick, the length felt appropriate here.
It's not brilliant, but I also don't see it as a pure exercise in corporatism either, and if you're a Mario fan who wanted to see the Mushroom Kingdom come to life as close to the games as possible while also delivering a fun rid, this will be your jam.
Andreas