I’m just going to come right out and say it. I had so much fun watching Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. I was hoping for just a slight improvement over the first one, but what we have is so much more. I was genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed watching it. It’s easily the surprise hit of the year for me so far. Yes, it has its fair share of faults, but there’s no mistaking it: this movie, plain and simple, is fun. And sometimes that’s all you need.
*This post will not contain spoilers for Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, but certain plot points for this movie will give away/spoil parts of Mamma Mia! The Movie.*
Here We Go Again follows Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) as she plans a big re-opening for the hotel as one of the main plots. The other is a prequel story, showing a young Donna (Lily James) as she graduates college and proceeds to meet Sophie’s three potential fathers. While the present day story was fine, the young Donna story was the real meat of the movie.
Going into this, I was thinking back to the few bigger problems I had with the first Mamma Mia! that I was hoping would be corrected this time around. Some of the characters (in particular Meryl Streep’s Donna and her two friends) were too over-the-top for my liking. The green screen use was atrocious, shockingly bad for 2008. And perhaps the biggest of all: having non-singers sing. I mean, poor Pierce Brosnan. I love the man. He’s the James Bond I grew up on. But a singer he is not. Credit to him for giving it his all, but the result was still…not great.
And to my surprise, they (mostly) fixed all three. The movie takes place about a year after Donna has passed away, so Meryl Streep’s character’s involvement is limited. Christine Baranski and Julie Walters return as Donna’s long time friends Tanya and Rosie, respectively. And while they are again heavily involved, their characters were more subdued this time, which was a welcome change. The green screen use wasn’t as bad, but there were still a few moments where it looked like a low-budget film rather than the $75 million production it was.
The singers were the best improvements from the first movie to this one. Brosnan does get a chance to sing a solo, but it’s only a snippet of a song. And it’s not a real performance, but rather just a man singing to himself as he reminisces about his past with Donna. It still wasn’t great but it was a natural moment that any person could find himself in, so I was okay with it. Dominic Cooper, who plays Sophie’s husband Sky, also isn’t a great singer. But his only real moment comes in a duet with Amanda Seyfried, who is able to do most of the heavy lifting.
The younger versions of the fathers are fine singers as well, with Josh Dylan as Young Bill being the strongest of the three. None will blow you away with their vocal talent, but I had no issue with their performances. And then everyone gets involved in the big musical numbers, but there are so many people singing at that point that you don’t notice the weaker ones.
Speaking of the bigger numbers, there are some absolutely fantastic performances. The opening scene at Donna’s college graduation is a big production to “When I Kissed The Teacher.” The “Mamma Mia!” performance is in a smaller setting but that makes it no less entertaining. Of course the movie really blows it out for “Dancing Queen.” It’s a huge spectacle that is gold from start to finish. Plus it gifted us with this perfect gif of Colin Firth. This is my favorite gif right now and I will be looking for any excuse to use it.
There is also a performance to “Super Trouper” during the first part of the end credits that is a lot of fun too. And those are just the big ones. There are many others throughout the movie that — not to overuse the phrase — are just fun. And that’s the whole vibe of the movie. The actors are just out there having a good time, and that flows out into the audience.
As much as Here We Go Again has going for it, there are also clear problems. There is really no depth to the plots. Everything is very simple and straightforward. And we learned a fair amount about Donna’s younger days in the first Mamma Mia! so now we’re just seeing how those days played out.
The other two main problems somewhat go together. Here We Go Again is completely and utterly predictable. And there is no real drama or sustained tension at any point. Any dramatic points have a clear and obvious resolution; it’s just a matter of when in the movie it will happen. And for a fair amount of the tense moments, we were already told in the first Mamma Mia! how and/or when they were resolved.
Normally these would be big no-nos. Except that this time, for this movie, those were never going to be the selling points for the movie. And we were never made to believe they would be. Here We Go Again was always marketed as a fun, happy, energetic, feel-good movie. And that’s exactly what it is. Sometimes all you want to do is go to the theatre, turn your brain off for a couple hours, and just enjoy yourself.
I can’t leave without talking about Lily James. In the same way that Amanda Seyfried saved the first Mamma Mia! (make no mistake, she was great again here), Lily James carried Here We Go Again. She was phenomenal. Watching her, you can tell how much she is enjoying being in this movie. Her joy radiates off the screen and you can’t help but perk up a little bit more every time she’s on screen (which is a lot). There are other great performances here, but James is easily the best part of the movie. I would have watched an entire prequel of Young Donna. As far as I’m concerned right now, you can’t have too much Lily James. I’m not saying I think she deserves and Oscar nod, but her performance, for what the role called for, was picture perfect.
If you want to see how Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again compares to other 2018 movies, be sure to check out my movie rankings.
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