By Seth Lukas Hynes
The Super Mario Bros Movie
Starring Chris Pratt, Charlie Day and Anya Taylor-Joy
Rated PG
3.75/5
The Super Mario Bros Movie is a bright, charming adventure that does its source games justice.
Brooklyn plumbers Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) must protect the magical Mushroom Kingdom from the monstrous King Bowser (Jack Black).
If HBO’s The Last of Us show is an excellent adaptation of a video game that was already quite cinematic in tone and style, then The Super Mario Bros Movie is an adaptation that superbly captures the cheerful, madcap vibes of the Mario games.
The Super Mario Bros Movie features colourful, vibrant animation, endearing characters and fun action set-pieces that draw clear inspiration from the games, with plenty of power-ups and gravity-defying jumps.
Fans will delight in the many subtle references sprinkled throughout the film.
The film is very light on plot or tension, but this isn’t an issue: most of the games boil down to ’save Princess Peach and defeat Bowser’, so it’s natural for the film to take the same streamlined family-friendly approach.
This film’s Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) also has more agency and an aura of plucky defiance.
What is an issue is some rushed pacing and a distinct lack of Luigi, who is sidelined as Bowser’s captive for much of the movie, even so, Mario and Luigi’s close brotherly bond forms the film’s sweet emotional core.
The so-called “video game movie curse” is overblown. While there are many awful video game movies, there are also many good video game movies, including Werewolves Within, Detective Pikachu, Sonic the Hedgehog, Tomb Raider (2019), Mortal Kombat (2021) and Uncharted (shut up; I liked it).
Playing in most Victorian cinemas, The Super Mario Bros Movie is not only entertaining and well- made in itself, but reflects a clear love and understanding of the source games.
