Review of Super Mario Bros. (1993) by Linkdk59 — 04 Mar 2023

I watched this in the theaters in 1993. I was 7 years old. The thing about me is that I knew nothing about Mario, and I had never played the games at the time. I actually got a game boy a few years later. Anyway, considering all that, I actually liked this movie a lot at the time. I thought it was a great Sci-Fi Dino-Punk adventure. I enjoyed the concept of this alternate dino-universe, and I enjoyed the characters. I also loved the crazy design of the city of Dino-Hattan, and the ambiance was like nothing I had every seen in any other movie (well, at 7 years old, I didn't know about Blade Runner).

Nowadays, I have played all of the main Mario games, but I still have a lot of nostalgia for this film. But I can see more faults now. In retrospect, sure, it's not faithful to the lore because it went in a weird direction. Some of the major plot points are not very solid. And considering how the movie was made, it's actually amazing how watcheable and decent the final product is. Perhaps its weakest trait is that it's linked to the Mario franchise. On its own, without the Mario name, this movie might have fared better based on its Dino-Punk novelty alone. But of course, Jurassic Park would have destroyed it a year later.