Review: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again Is Twice As Bad And Three Times As Fun
- Jul 20, 2018
- 3 min read
Ten years on from the original, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again continues the story that was contrived solely to squeeze as many ABBA songs in as possible. And once again, everyone can tell. But somehow, despite the film being maybe the worst one I've seen this year, I can't ever remember having so much fun at the cinema.
The story takes place in the present and in the 70s. In the past, Donna Sheridan (Lily James / Meryl Streep in the present) graduates college and heads towards Greece to start her new life. Along the way, she meets and falls for three handsome young men - Harry (Hugh Skinner / Colin Firth), Bill (Josh Dylan / Stellan Skarsgård), and Sam (Jeremy Irvine / Pierce Brosnan). The rest of the movie takes place in the present day, where Donna's daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is planning a party that none of her loved ones are actually able to attend. Basically nothing happens in the current day but then there's a party at the end with Cher and there's some pretty cool musical numbers.
The thing that many critics miss with Here We Go Again is the satirical element to the writing - I'm not claiming that the movie is satire, rather that the very existence of a sequel is a satirical joke. After the first movie, not a soul who watched it would have missed the fact that the plot isn't the point. It's a story in the same way that a blanket haphazardly thrown over an upturned table is a blanket fort. Only this time, the table's legs are the ABBA songs and the blanket is the love story, with absolutely no form to it other than that which is created by the ABBA songs.
But that's the point - no-one sees the films for the sake of the story. They want to see singing, dancing, Lily James (or maybe that's just me), and ABBA songs. The mere fact that Mamma Mia! received a sequel despite the negative criticism shows that the executives who allowed it to be greenlit are aware of who the films appeal to, and why they even have appeal at all. And Here We Go Again really embraces this - as I touched on earlier, the present-day plot is all but absent. The only actual event that occurs before the guests arrive is a thunderstorm. Instead, the film mopes about the Sheridan family's hotel while Amanda Seyfried talks to her friends, her Brosnan dad, and looks at pictures of Meryl Streep. But there's plenty of ABBA songs, so it doesn't matter.
Something I didn't expect was to laugh so much - between actual comedy moments (Jessica Keenan Wynn does a fantastic job as a young version of Christine Baranski's comic relief character), unintentionally hilarious moments (like Cher yelling out "Fernando!" across the square, blatantly setting up for the ABBA song of the same name), or the sheer stupidity of whatever's happening at any given point in time. I wouldn't recommend going into the film expecting a comedy, but rather a movie that draws laughter in the same way as The Room or Super Mario Bros.
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is exactly what you'd expect if you've seen the first, but with better singing, more funny moments, and an even dumber plot. All three of these elements work together to make honestly one of the most fun musicals I've ever seen, even when it's genuinely terrible. If you don't see the appeal in films like The Room, or you want more to your films than just ABBA music and Lily James' fantastic singing and dancing, this isn't for you.
Comments