The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

The Mario Galaxy movie was roughly what I expected, which wasn't much.  It was entertaining and chock full of nostalgia driven references so as a fan of Mario games I was enjoying it.  But the story was definitely not as thought out as the first movie, with abandoned side stories and a lazier version of the story presented in the game.  They basically switch Peach and Rosalina where in the game Rosaline helps Mario to rescue Peach but in the movie Peach is on the mission to rescue Rosalina and Mario helps here and there.  There's no character arcs like the first film and I admit I can see how some might not like it if they have no idea who Rosalina is because she's brought in with the assumption that you already know who she is and honestly that's one of the more disappointing things with the movie is what makes the story of the first Mario Galaxy game so good is the presentation of Rosalina's backstory and how it develops.  In the movie you don't see any of that play out like where she came from and her views on life and perseverance based on her experiences with grief.  

To be honest I didn't expect them to go into these themes as they seem to market the movies more towards kids than the games are but I feel there is a way these can be presented like the game to make them for kids to enjoy and take something from too.  I mean Pixar has done that numerous times.  But we're talking about Illumination here.  It was a miracle that the first Mario film was as good as it was, this one honestly is closer to what I expected from both.  Illumination is lowest common denominator entertainment.  But with that said, I fall into the category of people who would get some entertainment from this film in regards to being a Mario fan since childhood so this one worked for me and I am glad I saw it in the theater because it definitely had visuals that were stunning and worth seeing on the big screen.  Not to mention the fantastic soundtrack which I felt was done better than the first Mario movie because it was more subtle with incorporating songs from the games where the first one felt more in your face but still enjoyable either way.  But I would say that I don't feel as much like seeing this one again anytime soon but will be happy to watch it again when I have kids one day.  But I would be interested in continuing to see what Nintendo pumps out especially with the end credits scene showing Daisy which implies maybe the next one will be more based off the Mario Land games with Wario and Daisy.

The last thought I had when seeing this and discussed a little with the friends we went with, was brought on from how Fox McCloud was presented.  I liked seeing him in the film and we loved the quick little anime bit when showing his backstory and talked about how cool it would be if Nintendo made a Star Fox film that was an anime.  I think it would be awesome if every character they plan on making movie adaptations for always had a different kind of art or visual style.  Like how they're making a live action Zelda movie, which is fitting for the more serious tone of the Zelda franchise, it would be cool to see the mentioned anime of Star Fox.  Another I thought about would be if Metroid was done in a way that is darker like presenting it more as a horror mystery film.  I can see F Zero being live action with tons of CG and maybe Pokemon is either done in a similar style to Detective Pikachu or like a cell shaded animation style.  My main thing would just be I hope they don't use Illumination for all of the IP's Nintendo wants to bring to the big screen.  I think Illumination is a fair pick for the Mario series but due to the different tones in the game they should definitely work with other film companies to bring those to life just like how they are using different companies for Zelda.  All in all, I enjoyed the Mario Galaxy movie but would not recommend it to anyone who isn't a fan of Mario games in general, if not at least a big fan of the Mario franchise as quite a few of the references are more like deep cuts in this film versus the first one.  But if you are a fan, definitely check it out in theaters, it's more than worth that experience.