Review: The Super Mario Bros Movie is the best video game film ever, despite playing it safe

videogameschronicle.com:

‘The greatest video game movie of all time’ – to crown a film with such a title sounds like damning with faint praise, the epitome of their bad reputation being the 1993 live action Mario movie, which was so bad it turned Nintendo off big screen adaptations for almost thirty years.

But, if anyone can make a successful family film out of Mario, it’s Minions creator Illumination Entertainment, of which everything it touches turns to yellow, banana-scented gold dust. So, can it add some winning Mario Stars to the reputation, too… and be awarded the grand title of the genre in the process?

An origin story in the simplest way possible, the film paints the Mario brothers as two struggling yet plucky plumbers in New York City, voiced by Chris Pratt and Charlie Day. That is, until they discover a pipe a little different to their usual water mains, and warp into the magical Mushroom Kingdom, where they meet its fearless ruler and leader of the Toads, Princess Peach, voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy.

However, when Luigi gets lost and captured by baddie Bowser in the process, it’s up to our other heroes to traverse the lands of the mad world to rescue him and save the Mushroom Kingdom from Bowser’s devastating plans.

Of course, Mario games are not about the plot. Authentically, neither is the movie.

What follows is an affectionate lampooning of the bonkers world of Super Mario, which really can’t be explained – so why even bother? Instead, Shy Guys are left to simply look creepy, because, well, they just do, and Peach trains Mario in using Power Ups without need for much more exposition.

“You don’t drive on rainbow roads?” Peach asks fish-out-of-water Mario during an action-packed Rainbow Road kart race. “Next you’ll tell me turtles aren’t