I’ve been reluctant so far to celebrate the success ofThe Super Mario Bros. Movie. I liked it well enough, being in the minority as a critic with a ‘certified Fresh’ review, but it’s not as if I personally gained anything from its success. Gaming audiences are quick to point out how much more revenue gaming makes over film and TV, conveniently overlooking the fact mobile games bring in the majority.It feels immature to be desperate for the validationof a movie doing well or a TV show pulling in a crowd - but one billion dollars is more than just ‘doing well’.
Grossing highly is not always a mark of quality. The highest grossing video game movie prior toMariowasWarcraft, and Mario also had to beat Rampage on its way to the summit. Mario joins the One Billion Club alongside Jurassic World,The Rise of Skywalker, the live-action remakes of The Lion King and Aladdin, and Age of Ultron. Better movies have made less money. But it’s the way Mario has made so much money that makes it a special case.
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Mario doesn’t have much of a story as a game. There’s some slim narrative justification for why Mario is jumping through a series of themed linear levels, but mostly he’s just jumpin’ jumpin’. Princess Peach has been kidnapped by Bowser, and that’s kind of it. The movie manages to make something of a fully fleshed story out of that while remaining very loyal to whatever it means to be Mario. Yes, it’s a little rushed in places, and the character development is thin, but it’s Mario. It’s not a version of Mario changed for cinema. It’s just Mario.
The reactions from those ecstatic that Mario has turned a profit, or thatThe Last of Usis garnering praise from wider audiences, are incredibly immature. Gaming is desperate to be taken seriously, but we do ourselves no favours in reacting like this. As a result, it has often seemed like there is a vast difference between the worlds of film and gaming, despite gaming’s consistent attempts to copy cinema. This has meant that most filming adaptations have considerably changed the narrative and tried to make it appeal to general audiences, often acting with contempt for the source material.
Clearly, this was a bad idea. While some projects, likeArcane, have elevated the narrative of the games, movie adaptations have mostly been messy (Resident Evil,Tomb Raider), near unrecognisable (Doom, the original Mario), or terrible (Assassin’s Creed,Prince of Persia), and often all three. The blame for cinema’s inability to make movies based on one of the most popular forms of entertainment rests with cinema itself. But now it has cracked the code and is swimming in money. Expect a lot more to follow.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie ends with a post-credits tease for Yoshi, suggesting a sequel is on the cards already.Maybe Toadsworth will even appear. There’s alsobeen talk of the Nintendo Cinematic Universe, but we don’t need to be so grand. We don’t needZelda,Metroid, andAnimal Crossingmovies that then all link up in aSmash Bros.movie. But if you can be this loyal to the source material and make this much money,it’s bound to start a trend.
It’s not just setting the stage for one type of movie either. While The Last of Us was for television, it was also extremely loyal. It involved the game’s creator andrecreated some scenes shot for shot. One of the few criticisms levied at the series was that it was too loyal, settling for simply putting the game on screen rather than building on it. But all in all it proves that if you stick to what a game is really about, if you understand the essence and not just some characters or narrative beats, you can have success.
Super Mario and The Last of Us are very different in terms of their story structure, colour palette, themes, target audience, characters, and legacy in gaming. Most importantly, they also differ on narrative weight. But because both movies see the games as a foundation to be built on, not an obstacle to build around, they appeal to the huge gaming audience while also bringing in large crowds of the general population. Mario hitting one billion in gross will lead to others paying attention. Hopefully they will learn the right lessons.
