The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Universal Pictures | Release Date: April 5, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
46
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 53 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
24
Negative:
13
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
38
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoApr 5, 2023
The latest animated blockbuster from Illumination is their most soulless to date, a film that feels like ChatGPT produced it after data and imagery from the games were fed into a computer. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonApr 4, 2023
The best I can say for The Super Mario Bros. Movie is that it’s infinitely better than its predecessor. But you don’t need a power-up to clear that bar. Read full review
38
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenApr 4, 2023
Although the sense of being inside a video game is strong, one critical element is lacking: interactivity. Players are always working their controllers to send characters on their complicated journeys. They’re participants. A movie, by its very nature, turns everyone into spectators. We watch, but have no control over what we see. And what we see in “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is nothing more than empty-calorie visuals. Read full review
38
Slant MagazinePaul AttardApr 4, 2023
The film feels like it’s content to check off to-do notes and scratch the viewer’s nostalgia itch. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreApr 5, 2023
The Super Mario Bros. Movie, an almost impressively generic kiddie movie re-skinned with characters and concepts from one of the most famous video game franchises in the world, might as well have been assembled by a focus group. Read full review
30
The New York TimesCalum MarshApr 5, 2023
While the details are meticulous, the attitude is all wrong, trading the simple, unaffected charm that has served the character so well since his introduction in 1981 for a snarky and fatuous air that leans hard on winking humor and bland, hackneyed irony. Read full review
25
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiApr 5, 2023
For all its detailed worlds, like the Mushroom Kingdom and Jungle Kingdom, the Nintendo film is just another soulless ploy to sell us merchandise that doesn’t bother to disguise its creativity-starved greed. Mostly the movie comes off like a video game we’re unable to play. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleZaki HasanApr 4, 2023
Occasionally amusing but rarely engaging, it leaves one feeling like they’re standing to the side and watching someone else play a video game. Read full review
25
Original-CinChris KnightApr 4, 2023
As is often the case with a not-so-great film, I can report that I wanted to like it more than I did. But I just couldn’t. Read full review
25
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 4, 2023
The few laughs kind of die of loneliness, in what is allegedly a children’s animated comedy. And without laughs, all this ill-conceived animated replacement for one of the most infamous live-action flops of the ’90s has to offer is nostalgia for a simple game of a simpler time. The eight-and-unders this is aimed at are way too young to get that. Read full review
20
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeApr 10, 2023
The Super Mario Bros Movie is a frantic Easter egg hunt of a film that does the bare minimum to please its loyal existing fanbase. Those less enthralled by the antics of the moustachioed Italian plumber will wonder which of Donkey Kong’s weaponised barrels this joyless, noisy mess was scraped from. Read full review
20
The TelegraphRobbie CollinApr 4, 2023
Somehow, this new animated adaptation of the video game is even worse than the abominable 1993 live-action. Even the CGI is second-rate. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesApr 4, 2023
But in going to such great lengths to avoid that film’s grim weirdness, the Super Mario Bros. Movie filmmakers have flattened the concept into benign nothingness. They’ve course corrected into the side of a mountain. There’s no heartbeat here. Read full review
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