![The Red Right Hand Movie Reviews [Matthew Stogdon]](https://reviews.theredrighthand.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/cropped-header1.png)
Directors
Aaron Horvath
Michael Jelenic
Starring
Chris Pratt
Anya Taylor-Joy
Jack Black
Benny Safdie
Charlie Day
Keegan-Michael Key
Following the events of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Mario [Pratt] and Luigi [Day] continue to serve Princess Peach [Taylor-Joy] by completing various plumbing duties throughout the Mushroom Kingdom. However, when Bowser Jr [Safdie], son of the recently defeated Bowser [Black], abducts the intergalactic Princess Rosalina (voiced by Brie Larson), the group will need to set out on a galaxy-hopping adventure, making new friends and allies along the way.
When The Super Mario Bros. Movie was released in 2023, it arrived to huge financial acclaim. Sure, the reviews were fairly middling but the money was eye-watering. And when a fairly generic but entertaining movie makes $1.3 billion, it’s unlikely that originality and risks are going to surface in any proposed sequel. So it should come as no surprise that The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is essentially more of the same. That said, due to the nature of the plot, there there are certain identifiable elements that are an improvement over the first film, yet overall this feature feels like a lesser outing. To bisect this review somewhat, let’s tackle the positives first.
The visuals continue to delight and impress, with a sheen of quality and wonder that is undeniable. What’s more, it would be so easy to phone-in generic direction but there’s just enough novelty to make it compelling and engaging. Granted, we aren’t talking the standout, innovative levels of something like Puss In Boots: The Last Wish but there’s plenty of novelty in toying with this physics-defying world; the best example being Peach’s fight in Wart’s casino. This film also fixes one of my main gripes from the previous instalment by maintaining the chemistry between Mario and Luigi. And I still maintain the energy between the brothers is more interesting than the force-fed romantic ties between Mario and Peach, which are all very chaste and vanilla.
I also felt Bowser’s ethical dilemma was decent enough. The trajectory and conclusion is irrefutably predictable but it offered a sufficient illusion of depth and growth that held promise. And, of course, Jack Black continues to arrive in the studio, scream and flail wildly, and spin gold in the process. Speaking of Black, Benny Safdie as Bowser Jr is great. Not necessarily because the character is particularly well-drawn or compelling, but simply because his performance fits; giving us all the dastardly energy one would expect from a pint-sized Bowser. Similarly, the inclusion of Glen Powell as Fox McCloud was quietly wonderful. Powell is an actor that Hollywood insists we should care about but there are a handful of roles that he simply feels born to play. I will admit, Fox’s presence in this film is the kind of unabashed cameo drudgery that we lament from the likes of the MCU, but it’s charming enough to work. And it goes without saying that Brian Tyler’s score continues to hit all the nostalgic notes and leitmotifs that audiences will not only want but expect.
While I will admit, there’s an definite madcap energy to this movie, the first 30 minutes are quite hollow, feeling story-light and action montage heavy. And as the film spools on, you start to realise the whole thing is largely lacklustre and is often lost in the ensemble of it all. In the same way that Wreck It Ralph had a clearly defined story but Ralph Breaks The Internet struggles to find meaning in the various plot points it’s bouncing to and from, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie lacks definition. There are semblances of meaning and themes but the characters are whipped from setup to setup too quickly for any of them to really land, resonate, or even matter. Case in point, Rosalina is effectively absent. Yes, I know she’s meant to be a kidnapped macguffin but, for such a central new component, I think Fox McCloud was somehow more developed. And this is a fundamental issue that can be felt throughout the film: it’s so incredibly simplistic and oftentimes a little rushed, with every obstacle being resolved with rudimentary ease.
I could also slate the constant, clumsy wedging of Mario franchise power-ups, nods, and references but that would sort of defeat the point of these movies – which essentially live and die on all the callbacks and fan service. Yes, they’re gaudy but thankfully there’s enough of a movie here to hang said egregiousness on. To my mind, these Mario films sit neatly between Sonic evolving beyond its first release into a stronger and stronger franchise, and Minecraft with its vapid brain-rot shallowness. And to reiterate the opener of this review, when your first film made $1.3 billion, no studio will allow you to deviate from the established formula. Meaning the positives are back, but all the problems are right there too. So, you’re either on-board and ready for twenty more of these films, or they’re simply not for you (in this current form) and you’ll likely be irritated with every single instalment. Only time will tell.
Release Date:
03 April 2026
The Scene To Look Out For:
There are plenty of predicaments and encounters that feel like filler, to the extent they reveal a series of disconnected post-it notes on a wall that form the ‘plot’ of this film. A prime example is Bowser convincing his son not to kill Mario and Luigi, so instead he turns them into babies. From there, they land on a random planet, are chased by a dinosaur, try to repair Fox’s ship, and then wait for a deus ex machina to save them. The whole thing adds little to the story and is a momentary, fruitless distraction in an already threadbare break-neck film.
Notable Characters:
Yoshi is in this film. And that standalone sentence is seemingly the entirety of the thought put into this character. I won’t bemoan Donald Glover’s voice work because he does a pitch-perfect Yoshi. But Toad’s dismissive line of “So some dinosaur just shows up and he’s now part of the group.. cool” is painfully valid. It’s a brazen acknowledgment from the writers that Yoshi is here because Yoshi is in the game. Don’t question it, he’s just here now, shoehorned in because it’s expected rather than earned. And that’s how every character will appear from now on. Don’t question it, just thank us for this recognisable intellectual property.
Highlighted Quote:
“I bring the soup!”
In A Few Words:
“An abundance of flash and style with a distinct lack of soul and purpose that makes a few minor fixes but ultimately learned nothing from the first film.”
Total Score: 2/5
