• Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.

Reviews The Super Mario Bros. Movie review thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
BassForever said:
Maybe the movie will be bad, but the tone of the negative reviews I've read comes off as a bit axe grinding. The amount of glowing reviews from game outlets makes me think this is just a film where your enjoyment is going to come down to how much you enjoy Mario's world.
Click to expand...
Could we just not go with the kind of « movie reviewers are mean » / « they want attention » / « they don’t understand video games » narrative and just accept that maybe some reviewers didn’t like the movie (and also that for movie reviewers a 5/10 is a 5/10, not like in the game industry where a 5/10 is a 7/10) and that’s fine ?
 
BassForever said:
There is a long history of film critics bashing films that go on to be considered timeless classics. Then you add in how the academy treats animation in general and it's easy to be cynical about the opinions of hollywood movie critics for animated films in general.

Maybe the movie will be bad, but the tone of the negative reviews I've read comes off as a bit axe grinding. The amount of glowing reviews from game outlets makes me think this is just a film where your enjoyment is going to come down to how much you enjoy Mario's world.
Click to expand...
That hasn't been true for years. Just look up the reviews for Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. The fact that respected critics gave rave reviews to a Shrek spinoff implies that folks are far more open than ever to finding great art in previously maligned genres like kids animation.
 
Linkstrikesback said:
'Fans' only get you so much as a DC cinematic universe style turnout. The film has to actually be good on top of that to make a high box office because audience retention is super important, and if the film is boring, everyone is going to become aware quickly.

It'll still make a lot of money purely due to being tied to a strong IP, but illumination and Nintendo were doubtlessly hoping for this to come close to illuminations higher earners, and that's probably out the window of possibility now.
Click to expand...
Did they? I thought a big reason why they went with Illumination was because they made profitable movies that didn't break the bank to make. The only people I've seen talking about making a billion was places like here.
 
While I am definitely surprised at these scores, I reaaaaaaaaaaaaaly doubt I'll end up dislinking this.
 
Party Sklar said:
Could we just not go with the kind of « movie reviewers are mean » / « they want attention » / « they don’t understand video games » narrative and just accept that maybe some reviewers didn’t like the movie (and also that for movie reviewers a 5/10 is a 5/10, not like in the game industry where a 5/10 is a 7/10) and that’s fine ?
Click to expand...
That's an uncharitable reading of a post that ends by - not unreasonably suggesting - that enjoyment of a Mario film might in part depend on your enjoyment of videogames and Mario specifically.
 
xaszatm said:
Did they? I thought a big reason why they went with Illumination was because they made profitable movies that didn't break the bank to make. The only people I've seen talking about making a billion was places like here.
Click to expand...

Yup you are spot on.

If the Mario movie does even $500 million, against a budget that's probably like $90 million, that's an auto-greenlight for sequels and would even that much would make it I believe the highest grossing video game movie ever, period.

Asking for 1 billion was ridiculous, even MCU sequels can't hit 1 billion reliably any more post-COVID.
 
Party Sklar said:
Could we just not go with the kind of « movie reviewers are mean » / « they want attention » / « they don’t understand video games » narrative and just accept that maybe some reviewers didn’t like the movie (and also that for movie reviewers a 5/10 is a 5/10, not like in the game industry where a 5/10 is a 7/10) and that’s fine ?
Click to expand...
I agree on every point, but I laughed at the "please respect reviewers, BUT ALSO, allow me to blast game reviewers" turn
 
Mango said:
Those reviews are ruthless. Sheesh. I just hope this doesn't prevent them from wanting to explore other franchises for adaptations.
Click to expand...
It's a movie targeting 6 year olds they have no idea what a rotten tomatoes is. Reviews are completely irrelevant for the most part lol. Personally wasn't interested in this from the start but I know a lot of people with younger kids who are going to see it and I'm sure it'll be great for them.
 
I'm sure relatively middling reviews won't be enough to put Nintendo off further ventures in cinema if the movie makes money; and especially not if the movie drives people to their game business (though I'm not sure how precisely Nintendo can measure that, they'll obviously be watching whatever metrics they can).

If the movie's reception remained tepid when audiences have had their say, and financially it disappointed, sure I think Nintendo would rejig their strategy. But even then I doubt they'd walk away from making movies because that'd be a pretty big setback for a broader strategy of using multiple non-gaming ventures to raise the profile of their IP.
 
0
If it can climb to 60%, it would be totally what I was expecting from it. Similarly to the Sonic Movie.
 
0
SpaceGodzilla said:
happened to sonic 2 as well started Rotton but got a 69% fresh once the casual reviews sent in their reviews
Click to expand...

Yep. Depends on how many more rotten or fresh reviews that need to be added. As I said on the avatar bet thread:
BZL8 said:
It's up to 55 now with 71 reviews. Average score is 5.2/10.

I personally wouldn't expect too much change with the score as the number of reviews increase unless Rotten Tomatoes has another whole batch of reviews that completely lean to one end of the scoring spectrum that needs to be added.
Click to expand...
 
0
The downside of video game adaptations is that the "review period" will be just as bad, now with higher profile IPs.

Cant wait to watch it with my parents and siblings this weekend.
 
0
Bowser Sr. said:
Michael Bay, among others, have proved countless time that "being good" is actualy not at all necessary for audience retention.
Click to expand...
The Bayformers movies did decline in BO though. Look at the drop from 4 to 5. If you give audience crap over and over eventually they stop showing up. Ditto POTC.

I dunno the quality of this movie though, so maybe audiences will totally love it.
 
Anyway, hire the Rie Matsumoto + studio BONES dream team to make your next adaption projects Nintendo.




Okthanksbye.
 
linkwashere said:
The takes here are something else.
Click to expand...

How so? Nintendo barely cares about having decent stories for many of their games. Not all of them need it, but many that deserve far better don’t get them.

So Nintendo decides to join the film space, a medium that is largely telling stories, and gets reamed because -gasp- they didn’t prioritize writing a great story to wrap all their gameplay nostalgia and references around?

I love Nintendo, but they aren’t infallible. I’m not going to defend the effort, say it’s going to sell super well to kids etc. I wanted a great film with a memorable story. Guillermo del Toro recently said, animation is not a genre, it’s a medium - Mario did not need to be some paper thin kids film for quick laughs. They chose to make it this way and I will gladly chastise them them for making that call.
 
Last edited:
Mekanos said:
The Bayformers movies did decline in BO though. Look at the drop from 4 to 5. If you give audience crap over and over eventually they stop showing up. Ditto POTC.

I dunno the quality of this movie though, so maybe audiences will totally love it.
Click to expand...
Look at the rise from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4, despite all being bad.
 
Machrider said:
Yup you are spot on.

If the Mario movie does even $500 million, against a budget that's probably like $90 million, that's an auto-greenlight for sequels and would even that much would make it I believe the highest grossing video game movie ever, period.

Asking for 1 billion was ridiculous, even MCU sequels can't hit 1 billion reliably any more post-COVID.
Click to expand...

If the Mario movie only does 500m, illumination are probably going to need some real convincing to not go right back to working on their own franchises which routinely do at worst in that region, and often, way better than that, but don't come with any licensing or revenue splitting costs.

It doesn't mean there won't be more films, but it is going to become a much tougher sell when illumination have clearly dedicated a lot of resources to this, and they just made over 900m on a minions film.
 
Linkstrikesback said:
If the Mario movie only does 500m, illumination are probably going to need some real convincing to not go right back to working on their own franchises which routinely do way more than that, and don't come with any licensing or revenue splitting requirements.

It doesn't mean there won't be more films, but it is going to become a much tougher sell when illumination have clearly dedicated a lot of resources to this, and they just made over 900m on a minions film.
Click to expand...

If the Mario movie does lets say 500 mill and change -- $520 million lets say, that would be higher box office than 3 out of the last 4 Illumination Movies.

If Illumination wants to look off that (the highest grossing video game movie ever, higher than Sonic and Sonic 3 is well into development with lower results) then that's on them, but how many Minions movies can they make before saturation becomes a problem for them? Mario is a film brand that has room to grow whereas Minions is probably already peaked and due for decline.

If they don't want Mario, I'm sure Nintendo has a clause where they can go elsewhere and I'm pretty sure plenty of other studios (including Sony, lol) would be very interested because a 500+ mill take on a 1st franchise entry definitely points to a sequel having potential for $650-$750 mill+.
 
0
Linkstrikesback said:
If the Mario movie only does 500m, illumination are probably going to need some real convincing to not go right back to working on their own franchises which routinely do at worst in that region, and often, way better than that, but don't come with any licensing or revenue splitting costs.

It doesn't mean there won't be more films, but it is going to become a much tougher sell when illumination have clearly dedicated a lot of resources to this, and they just made over 900m on a minions film.
Click to expand...
I think you're putting far too much expectations on what both Illumination and Nintendo want from this film. Minions/Despicable Me movies aren't made fast enough to support the studio on its own. If Mario makes $500M, then that's enough for sequels in between the big hitters.

Also $500M would break the Video Game Movie Box Office title. So like that's prestige on its own.
 
Minions had a 50-ish RT score, but an A Cinemascire, great legs, and made over $1.1 billion. Illumination knows how to cater to kids and General Audiences. This movie is making well over $500 million.
 
0
Bowser Sr. said:
I agree on every point, but I laughed at the "please respect reviewers, BUT ALSO, allow me to blast game reviewers" turn
Click to expand...
Hidden content is only available for registered users. Sharing it outside of Famiboards is subject to moderation.
 
Bowser Sr. said:
Look at the rise from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4, despite all being bad.
Click to expand...
1 had a generally positive reception so 2 benefitted from that. 3 and 4 actually had declines in most major markets, but China expanded significantly, to the point where the Chinese box office for 4 outgrossed the domestic one. Then 5 had a massive drop off, even in China where it made half of what 4 did.

Just saying, a movie series can't retain its audience if people don't actually like the movies.
 
306.png
 
Not every movie has to have a story to be marketable or good, that's why almost movie reviews doesn't work for me (<insert deity here> forbid me how many movies lost to watch just for following a movie reviewer). Going tomorrow with 0 expectations and just have fun.
 
0
Skipper93653 said:
So uh yeah not off to the strongest of starts, but it's better now than it was (it started at 47% and now at 55%)
Click to expand...
+8% point climbing in 2 hours? Now that's pretty determined! Guessing by tomorrow we may actually have it fresh?
 
0
55 is not that bad for a video game.

Uncharted was 42.

Tomb Raider was 53.

Mortal Kombat (2021) was 54.

Angry Birds was 43.

Warcraft was 29.

Ratchet & Clank was in the 20s (ouch).
 
Mekanos said:
1 had a generally positive reception so 2 benefitted from that. 3 and 4 actually had declines in most major markets, but China expanded significantly, to the point where the Chinese box office for 4 outgrossed the domestic one. Then 5 had a massive drop off, even in China where it made half of what 4 did.

Just saying, a movie series can't retain its audience if people don't actually like the movies.
Click to expand...
And I'm saying that being good has nothing to do with it though. There are countless movies that are bad and are liked, and like you said, some liked in different markets (See: Brazil being absolutely obsessed with White Chicks, despite being magnum trash). I saw the first three Transformers films, and they were all bad, and yet I have failed to meet a flesh and bones person in my life that thinks they're bad too, which takes us to the subject of "is a movie likeable?" which is genuinely different from standing as a quality work that measures up to long set standards of story telling, but deeply tied to how succesful the film will be.

Any claim of how this movie has killed the chance of an ongoing franchise to exist made before one knows the box office is not really a claim being made with a foot on reality.
 
0
xaszatm said:
I think you're putting far too much expectations on what both Illumination and Nintendo want from this film. Minions/Despicable Me movies aren't made fast enough to support the studio on its own. If Mario makes $500M, then that's enough for sequels in between the big hitters.

Also $500M would break the Video Game Movie Box Office title. So like that's prestige on its own.
Click to expand...

Breaking the record for videogame movies only matters for internet nerds arguing on social media.

They've been capable of making a despicable me/minions movie every other year consistently up to 2017... Which we know from official interviews and such is about when they started making real developments on the Mario movie. Obviously COVID didn't help, but it sure seems like the film has taken the resources of a larger film for illumination, and they'll probably want to see box office receipts to match. And maybe they still will, we won't know for months yet.
 
Skipper93653 said:
So uh yeah not off to the strongest of starts, but it's better now than it was (it started at 47% and now at 55%)
Click to expand...
Yeah it's landing about where I expected. I for sure thought it would never score higher than the 60s. It's designed to be a safe, inoffensive product to jumpstart Nintendo's merchandising multimedia empire. This was never gonna be a Puss In Boots 2 type of film.
 
0
With the one from 1993 at 29%, this one maybe ending up at 58% (if the stars align right), the next Mario film will be for sure at 116%! We only have to believe in the PATTERNS!. It all comes together.
 
Last edited:
I know the Sonic 2 movie got a 47, I loved that movie. Probably my most favourite movie of last year, so I'm not worried at all.
Then again my second favourite movie is Jurassic World: Dominion so maybe my opinion isn't that valuable LOL
 
Linkstrikesback said:
Obviously COVID didn't help, but it sure seems like the film has taken the resources of a larger film for illumination, and they'll probably want to see box office receipts to match. And maybe they still will, we won't know for months yet.
Click to expand...
I think you’re right, and it’s a safe bet to say that this is without a doubt the most expansive Illumination movie ever. Usually, Illumination saves money on environments and by sticking very closely to the storyboards ; given what we saw in the trailers and the involvement on Nintendo I’m pretty sure it’s not the case on this one. With that said, even taking into account the huge marketing campaign and stuff like that I’d be very surprised is the movie is not profitable by the end of the month.
 
Linkstrikesback said:
'Fans' only get you so much as a DC cinematic universe style turnout. The film has to actually be good on top of that to make a high box office because audience retention is super important, and if the film is boring, everyone is going to become aware quickly.

It'll still make a lot of money purely due to being tied to a strong IP, but illumination and Nintendo were doubtlessly hoping for this to come close to illuminations higher earners, and that's probably out the window of possibility now.
Click to expand...
Minions has a +50 RT score and did 1.1 billion. Mario is gonna be fine on that front.
 
0
Party Sklar said:
I think you’re right, and it’s a safe bet to say that this is without a doubt the most expansive Illumination movie ever. Usually, Illumination saves money on environments and by sticking very closely to the storyboards ; given what we saw in the trailers and the involvement on Nintendo I’m pretty sure it’s not the case on this one. With that said, even taking into account the huge marketing campaign and stuff like that I’d be very surprised is the movie is not profitable by the end of the month.
Click to expand...
Movie is on track to make 225 million dollars in it's opening weekend at the box office, think it'll be fine
 
Status
Not open for further replies.


Back
Top Bottom