Mario Galaxy Movie is Mediocre

Released three years after the first film, the Mario Galaxy Movie soared to new heights as the Mario Brothers traveled through planet to planet on their mission to rescue the kidnapped Princess Rosalina from the clutches of Bowser Jr. Stealing Rosalina’s cosmic powers in order to rescue his father and conquer the galaxy, Mario and friends assemble to stop Bowser Jr’s plans and save the Mushroom Kingdom once more.

The movie expanded its universe with the cinematic debut of long awaited Mario classics such as Yoshi, Bowser Jr, and Rosalina alongside icons of the Galaxy franchise such as Queen Honey, Gearmos, Whittles, and power ups like the spring and cloud mushrooms. 

Though what was quite surprising was the appearances of other Nintendo franchises in the film. Most notably was Fox McCloud from the Starfox series who, despite coming from a completely separate universe, takes on a major role alongside 

the brothers, Toad, and Peach. 

With all these cameos all about, one has to wonder how the story is able to seamlessly fit them all in. Unfortunately, that is where the movie begins to run into problems.

Pacing is an important part of any narrative and the first half of the movie does a solid job at slowly building up the tension and conflicts within the story. However, the story begins to move at a somewhat rapid fire pace marked by the introduction of the Gateway Galaxy. 

Adapted from the games, the setting acts as a bustling spaceport city making it a perfect place to showcase all the aforementioned characters. The problem comes from how much time the movie seems to want to dedicate to showing each and every minor character pulled from the franchise. 

Some scenes tend to dedicate too much time to showcasing the movie’s niche character inclusions such as the casino fight, serving little plot development besides being a fun set piece filled to the brim with references. As a result, other plot points like Mario, Luigi, and Bowser being stranded on the Honeyhive Galaxy are handwaved a shallow solution in order to move along the story. 

The issue of references overtaking the movie even bleeds into the climax as unlike previous fights who had amazing and fluid choreography, the final battle awkwardly pauses to point out reference after reference. In turn, these cameos diminished all the tension that had been built up over the course of the runtime. 

While it is fun to point at the appearance of your favorite franchise appearing for a moment in a movie, they are not a suitable substitute for a story. In sacrificing a coherent narrative in exchange for fanservice, the Mario Galaxy Movie as a result falls short of the high expectations that its games have given it.

Rating: 5/10 2.5 stars