Review of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) by Judith R — 22 Jul 2018

We saw this last night and I found myself going over in my mind exactly what was wrong, and what was right with this film. First the good news; Lili James as young Donna was superb and well able to express youthful joy and some real depth as well as she suffers the betrayal of a lover.

Most of the cast was wonderful, both young and old, even though you do not see much of young Sam . Meryl Streep stole the show (of course) with the most heart felt song and moment in the film, where I found myself crying uncontrollably.

OK, now the bad news. Who the heck directed and edited this movie? I don't think I want to know. The story had potential but was fragmented and had lots of loose ends that did not make sense, and I am not sure if this is the fault of poor editing, or directing.

The first song with Amanda Seyfried was embarrassing and insincere. I am sorry to say that she felt miscast and shallow throughout the film. I was never convinced that she felt much, or really cared about the other characters.

It would have been much more interesting if Donns's daughter did not try so hard to look like Meryl, and borrowed a bit more from at least one of the fathers. Then there was the lovely Greek island with almost no greeks at all, and certainly not much culture.

When you did get a brief whiff of local character it was wonderful, but much to brief. began to feel as though they just put songs in to fill space, and a couple could have been cut for the sake of the story.

Poor Sam comes looking for Young Donna and then disappears without much explanation. Just one of those uncomfortable and vacant holes in the story. I did see the first one and was hopping for the same wonderful escape.

This is no La La Land, and lacks the polish it needed to offer anything like that musical finesse.With a cast this great what a shame to throw them into so lazy a production, that could have been wonderful.