I probably don’t need to go into the history of the Super Mario Bros. live action film at this point. It is notorious for being considered one of the worst films ever made. It currently holds a 24% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is often used as fodder for online comedic ridicule. It was the first and last live action Super Mario movie Nintendo ever allowed to be made. A mistake they will likely never make again.
But the film is not without its value. Yes, it’s bad. It doesn’t look or feel at all like anything Super Mario related. Bowser is Dennis Hopper who goes by the title President Koopa. Something about evolved dinosaurs. Rather than the Mushroom Kingdom—a bright place full of greenery, blue skies, and colorful characters—the film takes place in Dinohattan, a dark, dirty, rundown, crime-ridden city.
If that last part perked your ears up, you’re not alone. It is precisely this setting which gives Super Mario Bros. live action film it’s few memorable moments. We can argue all day about how bad the film is, but there is no argument that the set designs of Dinohattan are top-notch. It’s a dystopian city and it looks the part.
I’ve long thought that the lovely set designs in this film were really well done. And so I’m really delighted that Twitter user Mangerive has taken all the best bits of the Super Mario Bros. film and made a homemade dystopian movie trailer with it by syncing it with audio from Cyberpunk 2077’s E3 trailer. And the result is. . .very good actually.
If it does make you want to watch the film, that is completely understandable. This trailer makes the movie look good. Way better than it actually is. And I would say go ahead and watch it. It wouldn’t be an experience completely without value, as this trailer proves.
As strange as it sounds, the Super Mario Bros. live action film can and should be considered part of the dystopian genre. I may go into that further in another post in the future. But for now, I’m just going to enjoy the gritty, dystopian madness of this trailer that I can’t seem to stop watching.
[Via Rock Paper Shotgun]
