How Bad Is Mamma Mia Here We Go Again
This long-awaited follow-upwards to the musical striking is energetic, extremely fun, and wastes one-half of its runtime.
One-half sequel, half prequel, and almost entirely disconnected from the moving picture being sold by its trailers, Ol Parker'south "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Once again" is an amiable, energetic followup to the 2008 nail hit. It's too missing its biggest star, Meryl Streep as Donna Sheridan, and her absence is keenly felt. Give thanks goodness so for Lily James, whose performance equally a young version of Streep's irrepressible heroine finally seems similar the one to catapult the actress to the next level of her career, while besides keeping the dizzy (and boundless) musical afloat.
Gear up five years after the events of the first moving-picture show, "Here We Become Again" returns to the picturesque Greek island of Kalokairi, where Donna'southward girl Sophie (a returning Amanda Seyfried) is attempting to make her mother's long-running dreams of turning their rustic farmhouse into a glitzy hotel come true, though noticeably without the help of her mom or Sophie'south boyfriend, Sky (Dominic Cooper). While Heaven's absenteeism is explained away through a fraught phone telephone call (he's boning up on his hotel management skills with a quickie gig in New York Metropolis), what'southward become of Donna is kickoff visually telegraphed through a cinematic mainstay that'southward never a good sign: a giant portrait of her face up. Cue the saddest ABBA vocal y'all can recall of. Play it twice.
Donna may be gone, only she's not forgotten, and "Here Nosotros Go Again" presently splits into ii decidedly Donna-centric plotlines: Sophie and her hotel-opening preparations (complete with plenty of appearances past the original movie's many,manyreturning co-stars, plus Andy Garcia having merely the all-time time) and flashbacks to immature Donna making her mode to the remote island that volition eventually become her home. James' Donna is introduced by way of a full-scale song-and-dance caricature, set during her higher graduation and somewhat worryingly scored to ABBA's "When I Kissed the Teacher," where she'south joined by younger versions of both Christine Baranski's Tanya (Jessica Keenan Wynn, turning an impersonation of the older extra into a hilarious functioning all her own) and Julie Walters' Rosie (Alexa Davies).
"Mamma Mia! Hither We Get Again!"
Universal
"Here We Become Over again" hinges on a few important Donna takeaways, including that she'salwaysbeen prone to performing inventive versions of ABBA songs whenever the occasion remotely calls for it, that she's consistently the most interesting person in whatever situation, and that her female parent is Cher (no, really, her mother is a globe-renowned pop star too busy to mother her, and she's literally played by Cher in the picture). The first "Mamma Mia" was a present-24-hour interval feature hamstrung past the events of the past – remember how it was all about untangling the intricacies of young Donna's love life, all the ameliorate to figure out just who the heck is Sophie'due south dad? – yet the second film is at its best when really dramatizing what happened, when, how, and (mostly) with whom. Information technology's the rare rehash that works.
The same can be said of the copious ABBA songs that reappear in "Here We Go Again" subsequently rounding out the stacked soundtrack of the commencement picture. Classics like "Mamma Mia," "I Have a Dream," and "Dancing Queen" are given new life past a game cast and the film's indefatigable energy, while other bangers like "One of Us" and "Fernando" are gussied up with inventive (and just plain fun) vocal-and-trip the light fantastic toe sequences, though information technology's "Waterloo" that steals the show with a rendition ready inside a French eatery. James' version of Donna both nods to Streep'southward before performance and allows her to make information technology her own, charming as anything and vivacious enough to tug forth the film'south more than limp moments.
Unfortunately, most of those limp moments happen when James isn't onscreen, cheers to a brusque-shrift storyline regarding Sophie's quest to open the Hotel Bella Donna. While that portion of the film'due south bisected storyline is responsible for bringing back a slew of returning faces — including Baranski, Walters, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgard, and Colin Firth — it'southward also the i most lacking in both joy and actual stakes. (Information technology'south also what the marketing plays up every bit plot points, although they don't actually get important until the film's final fifteen minutes.) Ultimately, throwing the same people in the same place with little to do and even less time to do information technology is emblematic of the sins of far worse, much less worthy sequels. Without Streep there to tie it altogether, well, information technology but doesn't sing.
Grade: B-
"Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again" volition be in theaters on Friday, July xx.
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and Television receiver news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters hither.
Source: https://www.indiewire.com/2018/07/mamma-mia-here-we-go-again-review-sequel-meryl-streep-1201984270/
0 Response to "How Bad Is Mamma Mia Here We Go Again"
Post a Comment