Let me preface this by saying that I don’t hate this movie. There is some clever utilization of Mario video game elements and some notable cameos from other Nintendo characters. The fantastical visuals are colorful and reminiscent of a Super Mario Galaxy stage. There is this one scene in the film’s finale where they seamlessly transition between a possibly fictitious NES/SNES video game stage and the characters’ traversal that I enjoyed.
However, when the visuals are hailed as its apex, the movie is going to be mediocre at best. Any semblance of thematic complexity or narrative structure is upended by the movie’s constant need to stimulate the viewer. We get thrown around a million different action sequences, so much so that it begins to mishmash together into a mindless pulp. There is no moment of pause, no time to process what had just happened before the next scene blasts you. There is such a deluge of unremarkable characters that there is nothing new to care about. Yoshi just felt like this speechless sidekick that’s just there to look cute. Not very good.
