I saw it on Friday and yeah, it was good. It's refreshing to see a video game movie in which the writers actually PLAYED the damn games. Or at the very least, knew their stuff about it. Ya go to see a fuckin' Resident Evil movie/TV Show and you know for a fact those fuckers have never played a Resident Evil game in their lives. But fuck it, they're gonna make it anyway because money. I also think that this is Illumination's best movie by far. Although that's kinda like comparing a dog turd to a bowl of soup. Which one would you rather eat?

What I liked about it:
-First and foremost, the movie is gorgeous. Mad props to the animators as everything looked really great. This is one of the few movies I actually wouldn't have minded seeing in super special 3D IMAX or whatever. I probably won't, but I'd be super down to see it again at the more expensive ticket.
-Jack Black as Bowser was great, but my god... Charlie Day stole the show as Luigi. He was actually trying and giving it his best. When they inevitably make a sequel, they damn well better have him voice Luigi again. Chris Pratt though... still a terrible choice. But to his credit, you stop noticing after the first five minutes and he's fine. Chris did okay. C- for Chris, he tried I guess.
-They actually remembered that Mario and Luigi are super short in comparison to everything in the Mushroom Kingdom. That's why they need to use the power mushroom to become big. This was something I was sure they were just not going to do or completely forget about. But no! They totally remembered it, so good on them.
-No dumbass Minion shit. I was convinced that they would have some sort of obnoxious Minion equivalent in this movie. They could have just as easily made all the Toads like the Minions, but they really held back. So much so that they didn't even have a cringy Mario related Minion short at the beginning which is what I was at least expecting. Super glad they held back.
-In line with the Minion shit, I thought they would also do a scene where we get a closeup of a male characters bare ass. Because children think that bare asses are hilarious for some reason. But not female asses because that objectifies women. They could have easily had a stupid scene where one of the Toads shows up in a Borat thong and says, "Whoops! This isn't the jacuzzi room!" Or some shit like that. But funny enough, the only ass shots we get are from Peach in her Mariokart outfit. Great on them for that. Really breaking new ground of not worrying about negative articles on Peach's ass. Two big thumbs up on that one.
-They actually used tracks and sounds from the game. Take notes on that Sonic movies! Also the amount of Easter eggs they crammed in this movie is insane. Like, I need to see the movie again and pay close attention to the background because there were a ton of refs to not just Mario, but all sorts of Nintendo properties.

What I didn't like about it:
-If you've seen any YouTube review on this by now, then you're gonna keep hearing this. But the pop song choices were reallllllllllly bad. Ironically enough, one of the most important part about visual entertainment is the music. A song choice will straight up make or break a scene, and it's not to say that these songs are bad... they just didn't fit. The only song in the entire movie that wasn't from the games I felt was alright is when Mario and Luigi are running around the city very early in the film to Beastie Boys: No Sleep Till Brooklyn. This was okay because it was still taking place in the "real world" and Mario and Luigi are plumbers from Brooklyn. But as soon as they got to the Mushroom Kingdom. Throw that shit out the window! "Thunderstruck", "I Need a Hero", "Take on Me." These are great songs, but they don't belong in a damn fantasy Mario world. It'd be like watching a Harry Potter movie and they bust out with "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." The non-diegetic nature of these songs do absolutely nothing for the film except make it worse.
-Peach's face was horrible. I don't know what they were thinking. Peach has such a cute face in the games and they just fucked it up. I guess they were trying to make her look more realistic? But everyone else looked just fine. This feels like Lola Bunny syndrome all over again. "We can't have people sexually attracted to her so just fuck up her face." At least they didn't take her tits away too. What's even more upsetting, for me at least, is I've been seeing toys of Peach lately that have been using that ugly ass face.... Maybe that's why they did it? Nah, the face ain't fucked up on the toy, that's just how she looks in the movie.
-As I mentioned in my likes, Charlie Day was great as Luigi. Which is why it was so disappointing that he was barely in the movie. He spends most of the film locked up in cage and is basically the damsel in distress instead of Peach. I was worried that Peach was going to be a Mary Sue and she was... but that doesn't mean you needed to make Luigi the captured one. Bowser trying to take over all the Kingdoms was enough. You didn't need this tacked on subplot to motivate Mario or whatever. You can still split them up and trying to find each other and all that. Just have Luigi do his own thing instead of being useless.
-Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong... I called it, he did his stupid laugh. You know the laugh; "uhhuthuthuthuthugh" Yeah THAT.... I'm convinced he's contractually obligated in every movie he's in at this point to make that stupid laugh. Doesn't ruin the movie, but as soon as I hear it I'm always like, "Oh that's right... this isn't a character it's just Seth Rogen."

Nitpicks. These are things that are in the movie that were a little dumb. They didn't ruin anything, I just didn't enjoy them:
-Mario hates mushrooms. That way it's super funny that he has to keep eating something he doesn't enjoy. In the 30+ years I've been playing Mario games... I never knew that as one of his character traits. Not that Mario has deep lore, but I'm pretty sure this was just some shit they made up. Also the mushrooms are the only powerup he needs to eat. All the other ones he just touches.
-Mario never use the Fire Flower. Both Peach and Donkey Kong use it, but Mario doesn't. Seemed like a missed opportunity. Now that I think about it. Mario didn't really use many powerups at all in this movie. Weird.
-There's this scene early on in the movie with a dog that is straight up just one of the dogs from Secret Life of Pets. It was really dumb and reminded me that I was watching an Illumination movie. Which is basically just a watered down Dreamworks movie... whereas Dreamworks is already just watered down Pixar. This dog scene goes on WAY too long and only serves to add conflict to a scene that wouldn't have had conflict to begin with. It's really dumb and I hated it.
-Mario only ever says "Mama Mia" in slowmo. I have a feeling that this was a "fix it in post" thing where Chris Pratt did a terrible Mama Mia line and instead of making him try harder, they just slowed it down.
-Mario's actual voice actor is a background character who is basically just an alternate reality version of Mario. Which was another thing I totally called. Like, you already casted him! Just make him the voice! Kids don't give a fuck about celebrities!

Final score: I'd give it a solid 6 or 7/10. Would see it again for sure. Basically this movie is everything I wanted from both Sonic movies. Just have the plot focus on the characters from the actual game. Use music from the actual game. And have a bunch of references to it in the background. They didn't keep cutting back to some live action "Joe" every ten minutes like, "Let's check in on Joe real quick. You came to the Mario movie for JOE, right!?" Looking forward to the inevitable sequel. This movie is make Avatar money right now so there is NO way they won't. Also, make sure to listen to Jack Black's song "Peaches" he did for the movie. It's great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW7bzd8uwyQ&ab_channel=LyricalLemonade