The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Review

The animation is not what anyone is arguing about, because it is genuinely spectacular. Whole galaxies are built with physical logic that holds, the gravity gags in the observatory sections come closer than any film has to the feel of playing the games, and the color work is the best the studio has produced. Donald Glover makes Yoshi funny in about four lines and Glen Powell walks off with the picture as Fox McCloud.

That is where the praise stops, and most of the reviews agree about why. There is no story underneath the spectacle. Rosalina, the one figure in this catalog with genuine pathos attached to her, is reduced to an object to be recovered. The revelation about Peach lands on nothing, because the film never builds the relationship it is trying to pay off.

Mario and Luigi have no arc at all, and the cast keeps expanding to service sequels rather than this one. The pacing never slows long enough for a joke to breathe, and the final half hour is an unbroken chain of explosions with no stakes attached to any of them. The first film was reviewed harshly and made a fortune anyway. This one is reviewed worse, and the craft on screen deserves better writing than it has been handed.