The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the studio Illumination’s best movie, and it still kind of sucks. The casting has been controversial throughout the film’s entire advertising run, but that wasn’t the issue, it was fine, celebrity voice actors are a common occurrence in big budget animated films.

The issue was the writing, while I enjoy the change in dynamic between Mario and Peach, with Peach being a stronger, more independent character, having Mario being an inexperienced hero ruined a lot of the potential fun the movie could have, instead of getting scenes fans want, you get this fat little man getting slapped around constantly until the very end of the film, where he predictably becomes a hero. I enjoyed the characterization but feel like it’s missing something, it wasn’t very funny.

The jokes just did not work, I don’t know if I’m out of touch but nothing really felt enjoyable about this movie’s humor.

Jack Black as Bowser was surprisingly great casting in this iteration, due to a certain character element I won’t spoil, Charlie Day as Luigi was legitimately great but as most people already know but Chris Pratt as Mario is rough. His performance is stilted and while it’s clear he is trying, the guy is just not a voice actor.

The script is fun, clearly influenced by the people working on it, including Jack Black’s “Peaches,” song, and a couple of self aware jokes.

 The film is very fast paced, and there aren’t really any moments of reflection or character development, it just keeps moving, this isn’t inherently a bad thing but it can lead to a feeling of fatigue while watching.

Illumination, the studio making it, is known for making bad movies, while this one is better than most of their output, it is still not a great movie.

The animation was stunning and was clearly given the time it deserved, but it doesn’t really make up for the lack of quality storytelling and voice acting.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is fun, watch it if you want an easy, fun movie with barely any stakes, it’s a cute film.