Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) [Movie Review]


Dir: Ol Parker
Starring: Lily James, Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Pierce Brosnan
Dur: 1 hr 57 mins
Genre: Musical-Rom-Drama
Rating: 6/10

This is the sequel of the 2008 film which set a very high bar. Sadly, this one seemed to fall on its face. When I first watched Mamma Mia I was so fascinated by the whole project. A beautiful story, tailored to fit in some of Abba’s greatest hit songs; it was just wonderful. So, I had pretty high expectations for this movie. I waited a long time for it and when I finally got a chance to watch it, I could hardly wait. But then as the minutes ticked by, I realized that my waiting was not so much for the film to be released as much as it was for it to end! Don’t misjudge my words; it isn’t a terrible film, it’s just that it didn’t have a similar feel like its prequel. The essentials were all there: the romance, the song and dance, the network of connections, but yet it felt empty.


I wasn’t too impressed by the plot. It seemed at certain points that the writers had run out of ideas and were just forging connections and twists to keep the film running. The song and dance choreography was just top drawer. Perhaps they are the real carriers of the film. The story is passé. Lily James, who plays young Donna, is brilliant. She delivers the most powerful performance in the film and perhaps one of her all time best. She has been nominated for her role and I sincerely hope she wins that award; she totally deserves it.

The film has a lot of crossing over: the present melts into the past which blends seamlessly back with the present. The editing, camerawork, choreography and perhaps even the direction, all create a magical feeling but the story is a let down. It tries to serve as the origin story of the first film, explaining the unexplained; again, something it does shoddily. It doesn’t give a good message but compensates with a grand finale. However, there again, the whole thing seems forced. So if you’ve seen the first film, don’t bother watching this one. If you haven’t seen either, then I suggest you begin with this film and then go back and watch the prequel.  

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd4cLL_MP7M

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Great Grand Masti 2 (2016) (Movie Review)

Image
Dir: Indra Kumar Starring: Vivek Oberoi, Riteish Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani, Urvashi Rautela Dur: 2 hrs 10 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: 1/10 Comment: The jokes, gestures and costumes are sexually suggestive. An absolute waste of time. “What an opening line”, you might think. But to say otherwise would be an absolute lie. This film is in fact, a great grand waste of time. It’s horrible whichever way you look at it. The story is weak and thrives on cheap thrills and sorry jokes. The actresses are no doubt eye-catching but the rest is all a blur. The comedy is in fact tragedy and the film attempts to play on the basest desires of man. It’s unbelievable that actors like Riteish and Vivek would do such a film. I am not a big fan of bollywood but I still feel bad when I see bollywood making films like these. All of a sudden, I see that sex is being propagated through Indian cinema. The views of sex are changing and filmmakers and actors are not hesitating to take on unconvent...
Read more

A Day with Don Bosco

                              Don Bosco was declared the Patron of Youth by Pope John Paul II in 1989. He received his mission: to be Father to the young, in a dream at the tender age of nine. He nurtured this call throughout his life and never wasted an opportunity to gather boys and direct them to God. He did not do this as a spiritual director, (at least no at first!) but rather as a friend, a companion and a seminarian. As a young boy, he would attract youngsters with his magic tricks, tightrope skills, games etc and then get them to recite the rosary with him or recount to them the Sunday sermon (which he remembered thanks to his prodigious memory). Already then, he had ingeniously found a way to combine religion and entertainment. His entertainment was necer for entertainment sake but rather a façade or an advertisment for religious instruction. Even as a young pries...
Read more

St. Joseph: A Father after the Father's Heart (Book Review)

Image
  St. Joseph: A Father after the Father’s Heart , Hyderabad: Don Bosco Publishing House, 2021, Rs. 150, pp. 240. The book is a compilation of articles from various authors writing about qualities of St. Joseph. They have used the litany of St. Joseph as an index and have put together articles on each of the invocations. All the contributors are Salesians from different parts of India but there a couple of contributors from abroad as well. The book lends itself to be a souvenir of the Year of St. Joseph that Pope Francis declared. Let me start out by commenting on the quality of production. The paper is of good quality and so is the design and layout. It is neat and has an attractive cover. Coming to the content, it gets rather repetitive but that is understandable considering that there is so little Biblical foundation for an exposition of St. Joseph. The articles often reference Pope Francis’ letter Patris Corde and extensively utilize Pope St. John Paul II’s apostolic exhort...
Read more