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The official review embargo for the Super Mario Bros. movie has lifted, and unfortunately, it looks like the film is going to be quite divisive, at least with critics.

While the score is fluctuating a bit, Rotten Tomatoes is showing a score that ranges anywhere from 48% to 51% as of time of publishing. This is sure to bounce around throughout the day as more scores are aggregated, but nevertheless, it’s not a very auspicious start for the film.

In order for a film to be considered ‘Fresh’ on Rotten Tomatoes, it needs to achieve a 75% or higher score when averaging critic reviews. If the movie is starting out at roughly 50%, it seems very unlikely the critic score will reach that threshold.

Please remember that the audience score is completely separate from the critic score, and we won’t see that number until the movie officially launches on April 5th, 2023.

Speaking of reviews, if you’d like to see what some people in the game industry thought, you can check out their videos below.

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Comments (8)

thedestructo94

12M ago

Kinda saw this coming considering the embargo didn't lift until like an hour ago. Literally a few hours before release.

Obviously I'm still gonna enjoy this film regardless but I wonder if this will impact its box office potential. Us hard-core Nintendo fans will obviously eat this shit up but what about the general audience?


gybones

12M ago

I didn’t watch all of these reviews, but one review I saw said one of their least favorite parts was the use of licensed music, which I didn’t expect the movie to have really


tendonin

12M ago

If it’s mediocre, I hope people let it be mediocre rather than review bombing it into the ground and declaring it a fandom crime like certain other films and shows I could mention. This one doesn’t even have a cinematic legacy to live up to.

Or it could get an insufferable amount of praise just because people understood a bunch of references. Not a lot of in-between these days.

Edited 1 time

hawk

12M ago

I'm not watching any reviews yet... but there have been a few aspects that worry me about the movie, just from having watched trailers. Add to that Illumination's spotty track record. But I've already got tickets so I'll see for myself pretty soon.

I'll be disappointed if it isn't at least "okay."


riftsilver

12M ago

@rawmeatcowboy

Quick Correction RMC. A movie is classified as fresh when it reaches a 60% or higher score. You can verify this on Rotten Tomatoes "About" section. So there's still definitely a chance that the movie could settle as Fresh later in the week.

"When at least 60% of reviews for a movie or TV show are positive, a red tomato is displayed to indicate its Fresh status."

I'm personally not very worried about the critical score. There have been plenty of critic praised movies that I didn't love, and vice versa. Critics love when movies push boundaries, and I don't think I expected The Super Mario Bros Movie, to do that.

The audience score will be far more impactful here, and at least from what I've heard this is a movie that's for the fans . Maybe the movie won't gain Mario many new modern fans, but if the Mario fan reviews are anything to go by, I think I'll probably enjoy the movie a fair bit.


tendonin

12M ago

@riftsilver

It’s also crawled up to 56% since the original posting.


conangiga

12M ago

As soon as popular actors and comedians are involved (or popular people in general) the review bombing WILL happen.
Just look at Pokémon Scarlet/Violet: The first thing the modders did was getting rid of Ed Sheeran and his song. Those 'fans' are absolute twats who can't stand big names because they will feel smaller in comparisson.


golfdude

12M ago

ya, the critic score on RT is pretty much a garbage score.. nobody takes critic scores serious on there anymore after a number of "pay offs" that made legit bad movies have near perfect reviews on thr critic side, then the viewer score showing the true score.. the viewer score is the only semi legit thing on their site.. and even that score is altered and messed with by RT when they dont like the fact that they are proving the bogus critics wrong