The Super Mario Bros. Movie | 2023 Movies RANKED - Episode 14

Follow along as RANKED reviews a new movie release every week of 2023, slowly compiling the best films of the year into a sacred hierarchical list.

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Previous Episode RANKED List:
1. Infinity Pool
2. John Wick: Chapter 4
3. Creed III
4. Shazam! Fury of the Gods
5. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
6. M3GAN
7. missing
8. Scream VI
9. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
10. Magic Mike’s Last Dance
11. Knock at the Cabin
12. Plane
13. Cocaine Bear

The Super Mario Brothers Movie is joyous for those of us who grew up playing Mario games. The music, the colorful worlds and characters, all brought to you by the original creator Shigeru Miyamoto. It’s a funny movie, and kids are sure to love it, but it’s not great, in fact it falls a little flat.

Mostly because the Mario world has always been fueled by imagination and gameplay, not meaningful story. This ain’t Final Fantasy or Halo. There isn’t much to work with in the story department worthy of an entire film, especially because Mario’s sole motivation has always been to get the girl. Apparently you can’t do that today. So what’s left?

Rope in as many different games as possible into a loose plot. Mario, Mariokart, Smash Bros, Donkey Kong. All of those are fun games to play, but here are just fancy cutscenes of a video game I’d rather be playing. Everyone’s motivation is loose and there’s no character arc for anybody, so there’s no purpose, no punch, nothing that elevates this outing from a video game to a movie. It’s more akin to watching someone else play your favorite video games on twitch. In fact the storyline is the same as Super Mario Odyssey, arguably the best Mario game ever made, and frankly I’d rather just play that instead.