What makes a good movie?
Everyone has different ideas about what a good movie is. Some people like the Transformers movies. Some people like the Marvel Studios movies (I do!). While others think that only serious movies, like the English Patient, should be considered good.
I won't even discuss great movies. Great movies truly only come around once and awhile. And everyone will fight you tooth and nail about what a GREAT movie is.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is not a great movie. But I'd argue that it is a good one. Or at the very least a FUN one.
How do you make a movie out of the Mario Bros? Video game movies rarely work. Tomb Raider? Ugh. Awful. Mortal Kombat? Its ok. Resident Evil? The first one is good, the second one is ok, after that...hmm. Well. I've seen worse.
The Super Mario Bros. games just don't have much of a story. Bowser steals the Princess, two plumbers go to rescue her. Thats it. If you think about that, the movie did stay true to that basic concept. But a movie needs more than just that. Movies need details and the Mario Bros games lacked details. So the movie people had to fill in those details in. They'd never be able to make everybody happy. Heck, if you listen to most critics and fans about this movie, you'd think that no one liked it.
I like this movie. I guess some would call it a guilty pleasure. I don't believe in guilty pleasures. If you like something, you like it. Why should I feel guilty about liking the Mario Bros movie just because YOU don't like it?
So what is it I like about this movie?
I thought the main two actors did a good job of being Mario & Luigi. They believed in it. They played brothers and went along for the ride. Sure, the villains of the movie are a bit goofy. Bowser doesn't really look like Bowser. Give these guys a break. CGI wasn't like it is now. This movie was made in the 90s. So they decided to do a more "realistic" take on Bowser. If this was attempted now, we'd probably get some CGI creature as the villain. I think Bowser was fine here. He played the villain to a T.
Though, we did get some CGI creatures like this:
A more realistic take on Yoshi. Kind of cute isn't he?
But really it comes down to these guys:
They made the movie fun. I can't think of any other actors playing Mario & Luigi. To me, these guys did a good job of that. I liked them.
Sure, the movie isn't perfect. Like I said, the enemies were goofy. Parts of the movie were even a little corny. But honestly, I'd much have a movie like THIS, then a gritty reboot of Super Mario Bros. I'd rather take something thats a little bit corny over a totally realistic take on Mario Bros (or even a totally unrealistic take on them). I just think that would be an absolute tragedy.
Of course, with all this said, its been awhile since I've seen this movie. Maybe if I went back & watched it now I wouldn't like it? Thats possible. But for now, I'll just smile and remember how much I did like it. Not everyone agrees that its bad. The definition of a good movie changes with every person.
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The above pictures were taken from Google here: https://www.google.com/search?q=Super+Mario+Bros+movie&biw=1440&bih=785&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=m370VIabNMKGyAT-l4KgDQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg
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