You know that a film is in trouble when the most entertaining thing about it is the company ident at the beginning, where the Minions are playing a version of Super Mario Bros. to tell us this is an Illumination production. Yes, we are back with a sequel to the Super Mario Bros. Movie from 2023, an even flimsier outing that is really just an extension of playing the game at home, without the fun.

Princess Rosalina is kidnapped by Bowser Jr., leading Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach on a journey through various galaxies to track down the missing princess and defeat the mini-Bowser.

When a plot can be described in a single line, you know you are not getting anything deeper than a mash-up of the things from the first film and the famous game that has led to this movie. The original directing team of Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, alongside original writer Matthew Fogel, has produced just a carbon copy of the first film, except with added chases, so we can all be amazed by the colourful worlds the various characters visit.

This is just not good enough. The animation is solid, and the designs are great, but you cannot spend a 90-minute-plus movie just showing a different world with the same repetitive attitude. The gang arrive in a world, and we get a bird’s-eye view of the land before they are chased by individuals from the computer game as it is being destroyed.

That is the whole movie. There seems to be nothing else. When you compare it to something like Hoppers, its brain is in its trousers. Hoppers is brimming with inventive ideas, a message about the environment, and enough humour to be relatable to young and old alike. This is just a boring, humourless journey that is childish and completely unimaginative. It doesn’t even have a moral that most family films will crowbar in.

I know I am not the target audience and I have never been a fan of the game, but even the half full cinema I saw this in, with a mix of young children and adults, the kids weren’t laughing and there were some who seemed bored, even with the continuous camera movement and editing to keep the attention span of the Tik Tok world.

Even the voice talent, most of whom are returning for the second time, seems to lack the energy they had the first time. Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy and Jack Black are back and are joined by Brie Larson, Benny Safdie, and Glen Powell, but nothing seems to gel with dialogue that is just a level of shouting.

This is a money-grabbing cash cow, nothing more, nothing less. It doesn’t have an ounce of creativity that even the low-budget animations try to achieve, and you end up feeling empty and a little annoyed that films like this exist. Yes, it will make a ton of money and get people back into cinemas, but it just feels lazy and angry that better things get ignored week in, week out.

1 out of 5

Directors: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, (co-directors) Pierre Leduc and Fabien Polack

Starring: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Benny Safdie, Brie Larson, Glen Powell, Keegan-Michael Key, Donald Glover, Kevin Michael Richardson, Luis Guzman

Written by: Matthew Fogel

Running Time: 98 mins

Cert: PG

Release date: 1st April 2026