A place for those who "Trust the Fungus"

I've seen many, many reviews of this movie, and personally, most of them are downright terrible;commenting on such things as, "That's a King Koopa?! That's not a King Koopa! THIS is a King Koopa!" or "Where the hell did Luigi's mustache go?!". I made my own review to comment on the REAL problems with this movie, but don't get the wrong question, I do LIKE this movie, and therefore I wanted to give it a proper review.



It is a long, whopping 20 minute review, but I wanted to really talk about unlike many other people have.

Along with this review, I also bring a piece of artwork, I hope you enjoy

Hey, welcome to the boards, OniWolf! This is a really amazing first post. Many 20-minute or longer reviews of the film (or any film, for that matter) seem to end up rambling barely five minutes in, so I think you really accomplished something with your take. You said all that needed to be said and more.

I'll get in some comments, though I won't cover everything. I'm sure others will have more to say.

I would argue that the original games, despite their whimsy, were already pretty dark. Not necessarily in tone, of course, but definitely in concept. Mario and Luigi regularly massacre hundreds, if not more, of Koopa's army. Yoshi himself eats just about anything, including Koopa's aforementioned army that is clearly of human-level intelligence. (It always bothers me as a mammal and an ape to have Yoshi eat and digest into eggs the monkeys in Yoshi's Island )

I agree that Leguizamo's Luigi is often inconsistent in tone, though I also feel that his character is one of the best in the entire movie. He put his all in that role and really gave us a memorable Luigi, especially considering the official characterization that would come from Nintendo in later years.

Hopper's Koopa, however, is more disappointing in his tonal inconsistency. He's such a brilliant actor, especially in his villains, so you would have hoped for a better performance from him.

I'm glad that you were able to identify all the references in the film to the source material, especially the police chase scene and how it relates to Super Mario Kart. Many people don't catch that. The funny thing is that in the earliest version of the script Koopa actually held a "golf tournament of doom," which was obviously inspired by the original Mario Golf.

Finishing up, that artwork is the coolest thing ever! That was the best way to end this review.

I particularly like how you drew the reptilian Koopa. Still "human," overall, but with some creepy reptile traits. If you're interested, we'd be happy to showcase the piece on our site under the Fan Art section.

Ah, thank you for your nice comment A Golf tournament? Kinda a strange thing in a Mario movie, but I'm sure that would have been an interesting scene, least' it's referencing one of the games

That sounds nice, go ahead and post it up when ya' have the time

Pretty good review! I liked how you also showed the DVDs and action figures, that's a nice addition to the review that nobody really brings up in any other reviews. I do like the darker atmosphere of the film though, it makes a nice twist, but, I guess you're right about the younger audiences..the film should have been a little more lighthearted, but I wouldn't trade the movie for another Mario film, I even prefer this over the anime film

That artwork is great too! Nice use of shading

Redstar wrote:Hopper's Koopa, however, is more disappointing in his tonal inconsistency. He's such a brilliant actor, especially in his villains, so you would have hoped for a better performance from him.

I dunno, some villains need more subtlety, but others need a larger-than-life, hammy performance. For me, Koopa's the latter. All he needed was a "But for me, it was Tuesday"-type monologue and all would have been well.

It's the sign of a good actor who knows what kind of movie he's in, that's all.

OniWolf wrote:A Golf tournament? Kinda a strange thing in a Mario movie, but I'm sure that would have been an interesting scene, least' it's referencing one of the games

Yep. It was a fun scene that would have been interesting to see. We actually have some concept artwork that refers to it:

Prime Evil wrote:

Redstar wrote:Hopper's Koopa, however, is more disappointing in his tonal inconsistency. He's such a brilliant actor, especially in his villains, so you would have hoped for a better performance from him.

I dunno, some villains need more subtlety, but others need a larger-than-life, hammy performance. For me, Koopa's the latter. All he needed was a "But for me, it was Tuesday"-type monologue and all would have been well.

It's the sign of a good actor who knows what kind of movie he's in, that's all.

That's what I mean: Hopper wasn't as hammy as he usually is.

Redstar wrote:That's what I mean: Hopper wasn't as hammy as he usually is.

You know, you're right. Unlike something like Waterworld, Hopper's performance as Koopa really is more restrained than some of his other roles. IMO I think that makes the character all the more interesting. Still, I think there are some intense "Hopper" moments we've yet to see that were cut from the film.

I agree that Hopper's restraint lends a more enjoyable performance to his Koopa, though there are a few scenes where I would have totally loved to see him display a more sociopathic, deranged quality. (His character during those script-change freakouts would have been nice to see in the movie. xD)

You know, you're probably right. There's probably a lot of good scenes they cut because they were too violent, sexual or simply "intense" for the tone they finally wanted to go with.