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Nintendo struck a 1UP with its first Mario outing. Bright, simple, and just self-aware enough to win people over. Then along came the sequel.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has opened to a 43% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 37 on Metacritic, with critics largely agreeing on one thing: it looks the part, aaannnddd that’s about it.
From reviewers calling it the end of cinema to others labelling it worse than AI, and even a suggested drinking game built around the explosions, this one isn’t landing the way Nintendo would’ve hoped.
At Least It Looks Good
Even the harsher reviews tend to agree on one thing: it still looks incredible. The Seattle Times said watching it is “akin to being inside the 2007 Super Mario Galaxy game itself.”
Its sense of scale and spectacle carry most of the film’s praise, with plenty of bright, fast-moving set pieces and familiar worlds pulled straight from the games.
For some, that’s enough to keep you entertained, even if everything around isn’t doing very much.
Bigger, Louder And a Whole Lot Worse
Across the board, reviews point to a sequel that goes bigger without getting better.
Several reviews point to how empty it all feels underneath the surface, with The Playlist describing it as “nice to look at and dead inside.” Where the first film kept things simple, this one tries to do more. More characters, more worlds, more going on.
It feels similar to the Justice League films. Rather than building the world, they dive in headfirst, giving us little to care about. Relying instead on our nostalgia. Consequence puts it quite plainly, “no clear story structure… or narrative momentum.”
Despite the endless amounts of video game lore to dive into across various iterations of the Mario series, Galaxy lacks direction. AwardsWatch argues it “signifies little more than recognisable franchise iconography.” A video game movie for the sake of a video game movie. Others go even further. The New York Times, for example, called it “supremely vacuous” and “physically painful to watch.”
“It’s that bad, and that offensive,” the Times says. Mama mia. (However, the Times‘ headline – “It’s A-Meh” – is a winner.)
What Are Audiences Saying?
As the Akron Beacon Journal puts it, “for kids, this is an ‘A+’ movie… not so much for adults.” Now, we could be more forgiving if this were Paw Patrol Galaxy, but when you’re handling a beloved IP like Mario, with a budget in the hundreds of millions. It’s not enough.
Which is a frustrating place for moviemaking. Because, despite the reception, there’s little doubt about how it will perform. RogerEbert.com suggests it “will probably make a billion dollars again,” which feels about right.
If you’re a glutton for punishment, you can watch The Super Mario Galaxy Movie in theatres right now.
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