My 7 year old son thinks he is Mario. He dressed up as him, 'tache and all, when we went to see this at the flicks (twice). And he loves this movie, so what more can you ask for? But being a killjoy adult, naturally I have a god given duty to dissect it until it cries.
It's amazing that money grabbing Nintendo took quite this long to make it, since Jumpman first took on Donkey Kong back in 1981. One can only presume that the profit margin in movies is way less than in games and other merch. They had half a go with the Bob Hoskins movie in the '90s, but it turned out laughably bad and virtually nothing to do with Mario at all. It's so bad it got the Rifftrax treatment.
But this is better. It looks brilliant, a totally faithful replica of the games. And it's got Jack Black and Emmet himself, Chris Pratt in it, so the voices sound right too. Mario lives in Brooklyn, which gets flooded and he pops down a pipe to the Mushroom Kingdom, where he has to help a pleasingly spunky Princess Peach save the Fungus folk from evil tortoise Bowser. Phew. I've got to stop doing drugs...
It's nicely paced without too many boring expositiony bits, which is perfect for kids and adults alike. However the script sometimes seems lacking, failing Bowser in particular, with Jack Black not getting as many laughs as he deserves. Mario and Luigi say 'Mamma Mia' so often I start to feel a bit wrong watching them. And the music is straight from Movie Stock Tunes Vol. 7, with Take On Me, Holding Out For A Hero and...that battle music from most Tarantino films.
Oh and if you're making a movie specifically for kids, maybe ease up a tad on all the references to killing, dying and the like! And Bowser quite happily tortures characters at will, which seems off. I'm amazed he doesn't cut their ears off while dancing and singing '70s pop standards. There's also a strange star with an unnecessarily morbid outlook on life which might make you want to end it all.
So this is by no means a winner across the board, but it ain't a bad effort. It lacks the joyous in-joking and joie de vivre of the Lego movies (yes I love 'em and yes I have issues) but it's still good escapist geeky gaming fun.
DK rules! Mario sucks!