Movie Debate #64: Super Mario Bros.

[SpoonMan Abrams X | 697]

Necro posting here (as was looking for a different thread) to say I totally just noticed that this thread is "#64" in the movie discussions. Well done @Reed Rothchild lol

[Reed Rothchild | 9,695]

[Gloves | 12,004]

I unironically really like this movie a lot. 

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

I gave it a 2/10 since it's awful, but there are slightly worse movies out there.

[fox | 1,713]

Such a weird and wild take on the games.  This has been way overhated on over the years.

With these new video game movies and tv show, the entire focus is just on making everything a 1:1 recreation, with nothing new to say or add.  It’s going to start feeling really bland really quick.

[DefaultGen | 5,575]

7/10 and not a 7/10 like “Battlefield Earth is a hilarious disaster but fun to watch 7/10”. It’s dark, funny, and a creatively outrageous adaptation. I can’t imagine seeing the two Mario movies side by side and saying “Yeah let’s watch the brand-safe kids movie made in a computer rather than the practical effects filled dark fantasy movie that feels like Ghostbusters”. It’s part acid trip train wreck, part legitimately good weird fantasy adventure, all entertaining. There will never be another movie like it. 

Edited May 29, 2023 by DefaultGen

[spacepup | 2,438]

Watching back this trailer is absolutely hilarious and definitely full of entertainment hah

 

[fox | 1,713]

Also it gave us this bop

[Brickman | 4,109]

5/10 I think sums it up well. It’s not quite the dumpster fire the reviewers make it out to be but it’s not some secret amazing hidden gem that everyone got wrong either.

If it was on TV I’d watch it and enjoy the weird and crazy ride but I’m not going out of my way to do so.

[nrslam | 477]

Been years, but I remember it as an entertaining watch. I tend to judge these kinds of things by how entertaining they are, and not at all whether they follow some 'canon', be it a videogame, book, or movie series. 6/10

[Brickman | 4,109]

I've been watching a YouTube channel called Gaming Historian lately and noticed he had one about this movie. It's a great watch and goes over how much of a disaster this movie was to make. Well worth a watch and I highly recommend his other documentaries.

 

[RH | 5,062]

On 5/28/2023 at 11:02 AM, Gloves said:

I unironically really like this movie a lot. 

Oh, there's no shame in that.  I saw it with my Dad and brother when it came out and I enjoyed it but thought it was weird.  I mean, even to me back then I didn't want to see cartoony characters looking like cartoons if they made a live action form, so even though this was dark and dystopian, it mostly felt solid.  Sure, Goombas were... dinosaurs?  But having King Koopa and his people be dinosaur descendance was a stretch but made sense as a way of making Bowser a humanoid, rather than having a guy dressed up in a silly costume (lol) looking like a dinosaur.  Of course, the sacrifice was that the "evil mushroom" goombas were instead over-sized thugs with shrunken lizard heads, but what are you going to do?  As a kid, I'd probably have given it a 7 of 10 walking out of the theater and after being "impressed" by my friends after talking about it a week in the school yard, I would have probably dropped it down to a 5.

However, the more I watch it, the more I love it.  It's not just because it dystopian in tone but it was creative and this is such a product of it's time.  The 90s alt-culture always kept a steam punk/goth vibe and this is right in line with that. Perfectly.  I kind of commend the director for wanting to take a chance and, in a way, this was a movie that made sense when you think about how Nintendo was having to start competing with the edginess of SEGA.  I'm not sure if that was intentional but it feels a bit like a response to SEGA's call out that "Nintendo is for babies!"

I watch this movie maybe once every now and then, usually by choice. I find it fun in a quirky and odd way.  It doesn't remind me much of SMB, but that's ok.  It's still and enjoyable film, that simply has multiple Mario Bros. touchstones, and I'm ok with that.

8 hours ago, Brickman said:

I've been watching a YouTube channel called Gaming Historian lately and noticed he had one about this movie. It's a great watch and goes over how much of a disaster this movie was to make. Well worth a watch and I highly recommend his other documentaries.

 

Fun fact, the two cartridges he uses for his New Leaf/Game Factory episode are in my collection!  Norm borrowed them from a collector who ended up selling them when I was looking for a pair of Green and Blue GF carts.  I picked them up and one day while rewatching that episode for some details, I was shocked to see that the two carts he used for display were the two I owned.

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by RH

[Reed Rothchild | 9,695]

I did it.  It took 400+ debate threads, but I finally did a movie/game/band I had already done 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,695]

Uh, guess I'll combine the tallies for both threads...

[Tulpa | 3,583]

Can a mod combine threads? I guess if they're polls it might not work.

 

Anyway, this movie was disappointing back in the day because kids were like, WTF? For obvious reasons.

But it is entertaining in its own way.

[Gloves | 12,004]

23 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

Can a mod combine threads? I guess if they're polls it might not work.

 

Anyway, this movie was disappointing back in the day because kids were like, WTF? For obvious reasons.

But it is entertaining in its own way.

If provided a link to the other thread, yes, but it may or may not fuck the polls. I imagine it'd just keep the poll questions separate. 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,695]

15 minutes ago, Gloves said:

If provided a link to the other thread, yes, but it may or may not fuck the polls. I imagine it'd just keep the poll questions separate. 

Let's find out

[Tulpa | 3,583]

Maybe screenshot the poll results of both just in case.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,695]

3 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

Maybe screenshot the poll results of both just in case.

Too late!  Chaos!

[RH | 5,062]

FYI, when you merged the polls, it took my earlier vote (unless you had to remove dupe options.)

I re-adjusted my vote to an 8 (formerly a 5).  After reading my original comment, I have to say this has moved up on my list.  I did rewatch it (multiple times since then) so I'd say it warrants a personal 8 at this point in time.

I don't mean to throw off your counts @Reed Rothchild but, eh, I guess since this was a double-post, I'd prefer my current vote to stand over my former one.

 

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

I suspect I would enjoy it more now for the sheer ridiculousness, but it was like a 5/10 movie when I was a kid.