That was AWESOME!
First the negatives. Almost everything that was wrong with the first film is what's wrong with this one. The plot and characters are all simple and straightforward like the first film, and If you're not an adhd person like me who is fine with having a ton happening on the screen at once while quickly jumping right from scene to scene like it does, it might be a little jarring having so much constantly thrown at you. I still don't like the direction they went with Bowser Jr's voice (seriously, they could have at least pitched him to sound like a fking kid or teenager), and the fact that they managed to shoehorn fking Minions into Mario made me roll my eyes. Lastly if you're a die-hard fan of the Mario Galaxy games specifically, you will be disappointed that this is a movie that just picks bits from the Galaxy games as a baseline and does whatever it wants from there.
That being said, as a Mario movie it was fking great. Despite being titled after Galaxy, you get a little bit of every Mario title here. Bros 2, 3, World, Yoshi's Island, Crafted World, Sunshine, Galaxy, New Mario Bros, AND Odyssey all get a moment to shine through the events of the movie. Hell, the fking De-Evolution gun from the live action movie is redone!
On top of that the movie manages to be na introduction to a wider Nintendo Movie Universe with all the non-Mario characters who appear. I'm certain we'll be getting a new Star Fox project in the near future, be it a movie or a game. Despite that all the characters are great and all of them get a moment to shine. In my opinion nobody overstays their welcome or gets too little screentime. The action scenes are phenominal, and I think Illumination has hit its stride with quality animation. Nintendo/Illumination also seem to have actually heard some of the criticisms with the first movie, because Mario and Luigi are constantly fighting together throughout the film and the soundtrack is amazing, adapting the game soundtrack wonderfully to the film (honestly it's one of the only two things that I think the Mario movie does better than the Sonic movies).
I get why critics didn't like the movie, and people that aren't massive Nintendo/Mario fans won't like how it's bursting at the seams with references. But half of the references are sewn into the story and the other half aren't detrimental to the story whatsoever like all the critics are trying to act like it is. It's a great ride from begining to end, and I highly reccomend it to anyone that liked the first movie.
Posted by SirSilverscreen