Review: The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Due to their unique nature as vehicles for audience interaction, adapting a video game to any other medium poses a significant challenge. Consideration must be given to what elements of a given game can translate out of its original form; for a series like The Last of Us (2023), it plays to the game’s strength in its story. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) on the other hand only ever adapts its source material on the surface level.

Super Mario Bros. as a series presents very little to bring to the big-screen. The games tend to be virtually barren of true narrative elements, and the characters shallow through a lack of necessity to be anything more. What is not lacking however, is a genuine sense of charm and atmosphere that has allowed the series to craft its own identity and stay as a titan of gaming. The newest film adaptation squanders this charm in its attempt to be something more.

Super Mario Bros. as a series presents very little to bring to the big-screen

The Super Mario Bros. Movie suffers from horrendous pacing. By trying to fit so many different elements into a 90-minute runtime, the film cannot allow any one aspect to properly breathe. The breakneck pace ensures that the audience is given the most basic impression of anything without any depth being built in. The world is unrefined and unexplored, the characters are left dull and bland when there is a necessity for them to be more, and the stakes are never built to a point where a care can be given to the outcome of the conflict.

This does not have to be the case however. The film has a genuinely brilliant core that translates the aforementioned charm of its basis. But by trying to build a film around references that the audience can point to and say “I recognise that”, the opportunity to build this character is lost for a fallacy of one.

If The Super Mario Bros. Movie cared to build up these characters, give scenes for them and their relationships to be properly explored, explore the world of the Mushroom Kingdom, then it would fare much better. As it stands, however, in a film where Mario (Chris Pratt) is aiming to rescue his brother Luigi (Charlie Day) and the Mushroom Kingdom alongside Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) from the tyrannical Bowser (Jack Black); the character that Mario shares the deepest on-screen connection to is, for some baffling reason, Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen).

For a film that intends to flesh these characters out past the flat characterisation seen in the source material, not properly exploring these integral relationships and dynamics only serves to make the film cluttered. There are hints to deeper motivations and backstories for characters like Peach and Bowser but because of the lack of time the film gives itself to spend before introducing a new element, these are left unexplored.

All of this is to say, in no uncertain terms, that the Mario movie is harmed by the amount of content it contains

All of this is to say, in no uncertain terms, that the Mario movie is harmed by the amount of content it contains. Trying to juggle so many different characters, set-pieces, plot elements, and world building into a 90-minute film is not feasible without an incredibly tight screenplay which this film sorely lacks. This becomes more apparent when some plot elements that take place are completely unnecessary to the film’s progression.

Namely, the introduction of the Kongs into the film does nothing to genuinely push the plot forward and serves to bring in set pieces that very likely could have been achieved in other ways. By removing this detour from the film, more time is freed to properly develop the more integral characters and broaden the world of the Mushroom Kingdom which already served as a varied and interesting backdrop.

Verdict

The Super Mario Bros. Movie contains a good film and solid adaptation of its source material somewhere within it. However, by trying to bring in too many elements of the game series’ nearly 40-year long history, it butchers its own potential in being anything more than a sub-par animated adventure designed to cater to the attention span of a child raised on Cocomelon.