The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2023

I actually saw this movie in theaters when it came out three years ago, mainly because my family are all big Mario fans, but also with the intention of reviewing it here on this site. But after watching it, procrastination got the better of me and the days turned into weeks, the weeks into months, and by then my memory isn’t good enough to try to write a review for the movie so I wrote it off. And now with the sequel in theaters now, I thought it was a good time to revisit the movie before going to theaters with my oldest daughter to watch the new movie. And while I think it felt a little bit like a stretch to call the original live action movie a superhero movie (despite super being right there in the title), I don’t think there’s nearly as much argument that this isn’t a superhero movie. It follows the origin story format quite a bit closer and the super powers are much more overt with the Mushroom Kingdom power ups. The movie itself follows a more or less straightforward path with a couple curveballs thrown in for comedy sake, but where it really shines is how packed it is with classic video game and Mario Easter eggs. It’s practically fanservice: the movie, but it’s also a lot of fun besides.