Critic reviews for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie have just dropped ahead of the film's theatrical release tomorrow, 1st April 2026.
And, folks, it looks like it's another mixed bag if early reviews are to go by. We haven't had a chance to watch the movie early, and we'll have our verdict in asap, so for now, let's see what the rest of the industry has to say.
Note that some of these reviews do contain spoilers for the film, so if that's something you care about, be careful clicking on the links.
Let's start off with Variety's Owen Gleiberman, who was a fan of the first movie. He came away from the sequel disappointed, calling the Mario Galaxy movie "one of the worst [animated movies]"
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is frenetic in such an impersonal way that it feels like the entire film should be put on Ritalin. Yet it may well be that as a commercial enterprise, this more-is-more Easter-egg hunt of a movie will clean up exactly as it’s designed to."
Robbie Collin at The Telegraph gave the sequel a slightly higher score than the first film at two out of five stars, but that doesn't mean he was particularly enamoured with the movie:
"Reader, I have honestly felt less advertised at while watching actual adverts. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie must be the most cravenly corporate film of any type since its 2023 predecessor: in terms of the sheer fang-baring zeal of its product placement, it makes A Minecraft Movie look like something Michael Haneke took to Cannes in 1998."
In her review for The Independent, Clarisse Loughrey also gave the movie two out of five stars, calling it "the first film intentionally made so it can be divided into parts and uploaded to TikTok with the caption “prime mario aura farming [flame emoji]”:
"You really get a sense in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie of how homogenous our sense of nostalgia has become, to the point that a generation of kids are being robbed of art that encourages curiosity and imagination, in order for adults to be reassured that the passions of their lost childhoods were very cool and very important."
Total Film's Bradley Russell is a bit more positive, awarding the sequel three stars out of five, noting that while it doesn't reach "Galaxy's gravity-defying game heights", the newcomers shine and the references are the stars (again, there are minor spoilers in this review):
"While kids are likely going to revel in the bright lights and even brighter colors as Mario and company leap through constellations onto their next destination, long-time fans will feast on the smorgasbord of nods, references, and surprise tributes to Mario and Nintendo's past."
Soren Andersen at The Seattle Times feels similarly in another three out of five review, and is one of the few reviews to praise the plot, while also recognising that this is a movie for those who love the games:
"Watching it is akin being inside the 2007 Super Mario Galaxy game itself. Which is why it needs to be seen on the big screen. Seeing it on a phone or a laptop wouldn’t do it justice."
Back to the more negative, and The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw does not hold back in his one out of five star review — a lower score than he gave the first — calling it a "bland screensaver of a movie":
"The last film gave us a concerted attempt to spoof the game’s 2D graphics and its left-to-right gameplay movement, with all the running and jumping, making a comic virtue of how absurd it looks. There’s little or nothing of that now, just a pretty uninspired variation of the first storyline..."
Over at The Wrap, William Bibbiani is equally unimpressed, praising the visuals and respect it has for the source material, but stating that "none of these things prevent it from also being terrible."
"So yes, this movie is very pretty. But we don’t need pretty. We already have pretty. We can access the world of “Super Mario” whenever we want, through games and cartoons and action figures. “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” has the word “movie” in the title, and that’s where it wets the bed. "
Let's end things on a more positive note, perhaps? Clint Cage over at IGN Movies gave the film a 6/10, calling it a movie that "focuses squarely on all the stuff" while praising the action sequences:
"It’s bigger and shinier than the first, visually speaking. While it loses points for not engaging in a strong emotional core like its predecessor, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie racks up some extra lives by stuffing Easter eggs into the runtime to the point of bursting."
There are still lots of reviews to come in, of course, but right now, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is tracking around the same (or slightly lower) as The Super Mario Bros. Movie, sitting at a 45% average on Rotten Tomatoes (after 60 reviews) and a 35 average on Metacritic (after 32 reviews).
That's bound to change, of course, as the first movie originally started around 46% but with 288 reviews, is now around 59%.
But, let's be honest, the reviews don't really matter in this instance — the first movie made well over a $1 billion USD, and the sequel is on track to make over $350 million over the Easter weekend worldwide, and $175 million domestically.
Are you surprised at the consensus? Will you still be heading to the movies this week to see the sequel? Let us know in the comments.