“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” hit theaters Wednesday to a familiar split: Mainstream film critics largely panned the animated sequel as a noisy, hollow exercise in fan service, while gaming-focused outlets and audiences offered far warmer receptions, echoing the divide that greeted the 2023 original.
The film, produced by Illumination Entertainment in partnership with Nintendo, carries a Metacritic score of 37 out of 100 based on 35 critic reviews, lower even than the first film’s score of 46, and a 44% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Gaming outlet IGN gave it a 6 out of 10, while Game Informer awarded it an 8.5, writing that audiences are “likely to emerge with a smile” even if the experience can feel “fragmented.”
Variety’s chief film critic Owen Gleiberman, who praised the 2023 film, called the sequel “frenetic in such an impersonal way” and said it treats its story as “a threadbare adventure, a mere throwaway.” The Wrap was blunter still, with critic William Bibbiani writing that “any iota of imagination, anything actually cinematic has been carefully removed,” likening the filmmakers’ approach to treating creativity “as an infestation of ticks.”
RogerEbert.com’s Clint Worthington said the film “moves through you so briskly that you’ll get whiplash by the time the film reaches its deeply abrupt ending,” ultimately describing it as “cute, and breezy, and rock-stupid.”
On the more charitable end, M.N. Miller of InSession Film called it “a far superior sequel” that features “some of the most beautiful and dazzling animation you will ever see.” Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the film “hits the sweet spot in terms of what its target audience wants,” though he added that “adult non-aficionados will find little of interest other than the starry vocal cast.”
The voice cast — which includes Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Jack Black and Benny Safdie as Bowser and Bowser Jr., Donald Glover as Yoshi, and Glen Powell as Star Fox’s Fox McCloud — received some of the film’s strongest notices. The Hollywood Reporter called it “an embarrassment of vocal riches,” singling out Black and Glover as outstanding. Powell’s debut as McCloud was described by Movie Marker’s Katie Smith-Wong as appearing to reprise his “Top Gun: Maverick” energy in space-pilot form.
Wilson Chapman of IndieWire offered one of the harshest assessments overall, writing that the film “never stops feeling like the product of someone mashing lifeless action figures together” and that its planets, however meticulously crafted, offer “no sense of discovery.”
Where critics widely agreed was on the film’s visual ambition. David Gonzalez of The Cinematic Reel called it “one of the studio’s best-looking efforts yet,” and Screen Rant’s Jordan Williams wrote that the animation remains a highlight. The film runs 98 minutes and is rated PG.
Despite its critical reception, the film is projected to open to roughly $350 million domestically, potentially on track to approach the $1.36 billion global gross of its predecessor, which holds an audience score of 8.1 on Metacritic despite its mixed critical standing. Nintendo is also capitalizing on the film’s release with a new Switch 2 edition of “Super Mario Bros. Wonder.”
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