THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE Review

Alright, let's talk about The Super Mario Galaxy Movie — and look, I'm going to be upfront with you right off the top: I am a Mario guy. Always have been. So take everything I'm about to say with that in mind. Because here's the thing — if you go into this film as a fan of the franchise, you're probably going to have a good time. And I did. I walked out giving it a solid 7 out of 10. But if you go in looking for a movie — like, an actual story with something meaningful to say — you might feel a little shortchanged by the time the credits roll.

This is fan service. Full stop. And I mean that in the most literal sense of the phrase. The Easter eggs, the callbacks, the cameos — it's all there, stacked on top of each other, and the film leans into that so hard that it almost forgets to build an actual narrative around it.

Horvath and Jelenic are back directing, Fogel's back on script duty — same team that gave us the first one. And honestly, that's kind of the problem. The first film got a lot of goodwill just for existing and not being terrible. This one had a chance to go deeper, to actually develop these characters beyond their game counterparts. It doesn't really do that.

What it does do is introduce some genuinely fun new additions. Brie Larson's Rosalina is a welcome presence, and Benny Safdie as Bowser Jr. is — and I did not see this coming — actually kind of great. There's a loose, slightly unhinged energy to that performance that works way better than it has any right to. But the emotional core of this film? It's thin. And when you strip away all the nostalgia and the visual spectacle — which, to be fair, looks incredible — what you're left with is a feature-length highlight reel of Nintendo properties. Which, again, as a Nintendo guy, I enjoyed. I'm just being honest about what it is. Critics have not been kind to this one, and I get it. The story is undercooked. The pacing in the second half gets messy. And it has that same problem the first film had where it's going so fast, so loud, throwing so much at you — that nothing really lands with any weight.

But here's where I land: if you grew up with these games, if Super Mario Galaxy is in your personal top five — you're going to have fun. The film knows its audience, it delivers for that audience, and it doesn't overstay its welcome at an hour and thirty-eight minutes.

Just don't confuse enjoyable with great. There's a difference. And this film is very much the former.

🍿 SCORE = 66 / 100