For over a year, the internet has gone wild about The Super Mario Bros. Movie. With every announcement, the internet has found something to obsess over. Whether it was Chris Pratt's Mario impression, the Japanese dub's "sexy Mario", or simply the mere existence of an animated Mario movie, the internet found something to talk about.
However, the wait is finally over and the film, starring Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Jack Black amongst a host of others, opened for general audiences on April 5. Along with fans being able to watch the film, review embargos were lifted, allowing the internet to see what early preview audiences thought. The result? According to Rotten Tomatoes, critics are fairly cool on the film while audiences love it. The exact numbers, at the time of writing, have the critics score at 53% on 111 reviews and the audience score at 98% on 100+ verified ratings.
Strong Showing For Mario Movie
While critics were never going to adore The Super Mario Bros. Movie, a 53% rating is a strong showing for a video game movie. It is especially strong considering that the infamous 1993 Super Mario Bros. sits at a critics rating of 29%. 53% puts the 2023 Mario Movie on par with the likes of 2018's Tomb Raider and 2021's Mortal Kombat. However, unfortunately for Illimuniation Studios and Nintendo, it falls well short of rival company SEGA's recent movie outings, with Sonic the Hedgehog's two recent films rated at 64% and 69%.
Despite the critical reception, The Super Mario Bros. Movie appears to resonate with early audiences. While the number is likely to fall from the lofty height of 98%, it just goes to show that the critic's word is not everything. Furthermore, there has been some fan criticism of early reviews. With some reviews criticizing the feeling of watching someone else play a video or overly explaining ground-level Mario lore, some fans argue that the critics are out of touch. On the other hand, there were those who rejected the tomato meter altogether, citing that critics will always undervalue while fans and audiences do the opposite.
Twitter Reacts To Mario Movie And Reviews
[via]