Author Topic: Mary Poppins Returns - review (mostly spoiler free)  (Read 803 times)

Offline Dan Berry

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Mary Poppins Returns - review (mostly spoiler free)
« on: December 16, 2018, 01:59:38 PM »
So, I saw Mary Poppins Returns a few weeks ago, with the movie coming out this week I thought I'd share my review: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
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Offline DRWHO42

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Re: Mary Poppins Returns - review (mostly spoiler free)
« Reply #1 on: December 18, 2018, 05:55:57 PM »
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So, I saw Mary Poppins Returns a few weeks ago, with the movie coming out this week I thought I'd share my review: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
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Re: Mary Poppins Returns - review (mostly spoiler free)
« Reply #2 on: Today at 04:04:32 AM »

Offline Zero

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Re: Mary Poppins Returns - review (mostly spoiler free)
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2018, 01:28:18 AM »
Thanks for sharing your review, [member=310]danberry75[/member].  It's interesting how Disney has been on a "grown-up" sequel/story line kick as of late (first starting with the live-action Winnie the Pooh movie Christopher Robin).  Ha ha.  XD
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Offline perc2100

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Re: Mary Poppins Returns - review (mostly spoiler free)
« Reply #3 on: December 20, 2018, 09:46:57 AM »
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Thanks for sharing your review, [member=310]danberry75[/member].  It's interesting how Disney has been on a "grown-up" sequel/story line kick as of late (first starting with the live-action Winnie the Pooh movie Christopher Robin).  Ha ha.  XD
and both w/similar themes of an adult with major life issues having to be reminded of the fun and whimsy of childhood (MARY POPPINS RETURNS does it far better, IMO)

Offline perc2100

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Re: Mary Poppins Returns - review (mostly spoiler free)
« Reply #4 on: December 20, 2018, 01:04:25 PM »
Some of my thoughts; I'll keep it mostly spoiler free as well, until I discuss a BIG issue with the ending that I'll keep in spoiler bar mode.

I haven't seen the original MARY POPPINS in a loooooong time.  I of course love the music and recognize that film as a classic/masterpiece.  But I don't have nostalgia attached to it like I would for, say, a Star Wars movie or something.  I say this only because my thoughts will ONLY relate to RETURNS, mostly free of correlation from the original.

MARY POPPINS RETURNS is a bonafide, old school Disney classic musical.  As someone who is an ardent fanboy/admirer/man crash of Lin-Manuel Miranda, it is fun to see him in a huge Disney musical.  Unfortunately, as he would be the first to admit that he's MUCH better at rap/hip-hop than he is as a singer, and he is therefor overshadowed by most of the cast.  He's not bad, not at all: he's serviceable for most of his number.  He does, however, shine like one of the brightest lights ever during a sequence he's featured in an animated musical hall.  He's telling a story from a book (the song is "A Cover is Not The Book"), and they set it up by saying it's a lengthy story so the pace needs to be picked up a bit.  He goes into full-on "Hamilton" mode (or at least, as full-on as that goes in a classic Disney musical) and you can see him 100% in his element and KILLING it!

One of the bigger surprises to me personally was how amazing Emily Blunt is as a singer.  She is incredible, and to say that she out-shined Lin-Manuel in the singing department is probably an understatement.  She likely captures Poppins the character just as Julie Andrews did in the original, with the mannerisms, body carriage, etc.  It left me a little bit cold at times, but I suspect the "matter-of-fact/never-bats-an-eye" attitude of not really reacting to events is in character and I get that.  I'm sure when I re-watch the original I'll remember how Poppins was.  I 100% get the intentions, and Blunt pulls it off well: it just feels a little bit coldly unemotional at times.  Lin-Manuel, however, has the opposite mannerisms: seemingly ALWAYS super jovial and positive and excited to be along for the Mary Poppins shenanigans.  The two characters do make for a good pairing in that respect.

One of the obvious huge highlights in this are the craft aspects.  The costumes are never short of gorgeous, with impeccable style and awesome colors/design patterns that pop splendidly against the drab background of London.  The production design is also really solid.  The film takes place during the British version of the Great Depression, The Great Slump, and thus the city looks grey and drab and often cloudy, thus allowing the characters' wardrobe color palette to really pop on screen.

But what we all come to the film to see is that good ol' Mary Poppins whimsy, and the big set pieces are pretty great.  There's an extended "underwater" sequence which is, unfortunately lit and color-corrected to look exactly like cool choreography with all actors in front of a green screen.  Luckily, that happens early and the rest of the film looks much more natural lighting/color-wise.  The other big sequence shown off in the trailers is the animated sequence.  At first, I was worried RETURNS would be little more than a re-do/copy of the original POPPINS, complete with the "oh, they brought back dancing penguins."  Luckily, that's not the case at all.  The animated sequence, represented on the soundtrack as the two numbers "The Royal Doulton Music Hall" and the aforementioned "A Cover is Not the Book."  The setup for how the humans entered/interact in the animated 'world' is pretty brilliant, IMO, and the events that happen in said world feel fairly organic to the story, and not just "we have to do the live/animation mix number so here we go."  It's by far my favorite set piece of the movie, with amazing production design, especially when inside the Music Hall during the    "A Cover is Not the Book" number.  I dunno if it 'feels' as mind-blowingly inventive as the original idea in MARY POPPINS, but the sequence is fun, wildly entertaining, and impeccably staged/animated/choreographed/shot.

Other whimsy (I'm going to use this word probably more than a few times, but it seems the most apt in this case) production include a house with a room that turns upside down, a cool sequence with Jack's lamplighter friends that involves cool bike 'choreography' (think old timey BMX stunting), and people flying around on balloons (but ONLY if they can embrace their inner child - a topic I'm about to dive into).  This film doesn't rehash old ideas (AFAIK) form the original film, but at the very least the riffs they do on older themes/ideas are done in fresh, inventive ways.

The true beauty for me, though, is the theme of how important it is for adults to embrace their curious, feisty, inner child that isn't afraid to jump into action or try new, absurd things.  Once again Poppins is talking to a father figure about this, and showing him the way via his kids.  I don't remember the specifics of the original to know how much of this is same old/same old, but RETURNS handles this really well.  The movie got me more teary-eyed than I care to admit near the very beginning, detailing papa Michael dealing with the lost of his wife, and how that loss effects the family (I'm seriously getting a little misty thinking about that beautiful little song "A Conversation."  It's heartbreaking w/out feeling "cheap" (i.e. it doesn't feel designed JUST to mess with emotions), while also feeling like an incredibly honest representation of a widower father discussing how his wife's death has impacted the family.  This very subtle moment is an early number and I love how it sets the tone early for the "real world" side of the story: making the father not a caricature of "stuffy older guy who needs to get over the toils of life and really have fun 'living' again" trope but someone you actually believe right off the bat is a human being dealing long-term with unfathomable tragedy.

Obviously there is a significant threat that looks to cause the family to lose even more than they've already lost (in this case, losing their family home that we came to love in the original), and while Michael is working on the adulting side Poppins and the children work on their own way to solve the problems.  Of course the father wants to believe the bank looking to repo their house (he works at the bank, and the chairman is the nephew of the original chairman who was a close family friend of Michael's father) is doing everything they can, blames the children for 'meddling' when they try to help and annoy the boss, etc.  And of course in the third act Michael comes around to trust in his kids and believe them over the evil bank chairman. 

This is all standard stuff for a Disney film, especially a POPPINS sequel.

The portrayal of Michael Banks by Ben Whishaw keeps the character feeling like a real human, helping to make the situation not feel too contrived.  When he comes around to the side of Mary and the children, I literally applauded slightly, and it felt like a wonderfully earned moment instead of the cliched one we all knew would be happening.  After the problem is solved and Michael is having fun with the children, Mary, Jack, and the other local community members in the park at the end, which, of course, is a bright sunny happy day in London for a change - again something that's "of course it is" but thematically and visually works extremely well: maybe even slightly more than it has business working.  The featured singer in this moment, a 'cameo' I won't dare spoil, helps not only the moment due to the incredible singing voice, but also the performer hits a lot of nostalgia points that the audience is likely already going to be in a good place before the real whimsy starts to kick in.

The music itself is good.  "A Cover is Not the Book" is my favorite at the moment, though that could be entirely because of the production number and not necessarily the music itself.  It's hard comparing brand new songs to the timeless masterpieces of the original MARY POPPINS: the songs in RETURNS are fine, and work for the film, but I don't know how much I would revisit the soundtrack.  The score is well-down, though relies heavily on MARY POPPINS classic song callbacks.  As a music person (I'm a musician/HS music teacher) I'm a little surprised I don't have more thoughts on the actual music other than "it serves the movie well enough," but honestly no song really popped out for me as being an obvious 'new classic.'  I'm sure I'll be hearing this around the house/in the car during holiday break, as my wife absolutely LOVED this film.  Maybe over time the songs will grow on me.  I wonder if people in 1964 realized how iconic the music was for MARY POPPINS, or if the music for that film grew to be beloved over time; obviously the film won an Oscar for "Chim-Chim-Cheree" as well as for Best Musical Score so the music was at the very least highly respected in 1964.

And then, the very end happens, and it almost torpedoes my love for MARY POPPINS RETURNS.  I LOATHE when a movie gets everything right, and excels in most aspects, and then can't stick the landing.  RETURNS has the ending PERFECT with the cameo featured performer, and the dad having family fun in the park.  Then,
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But again, missing the ending a HUGE movie pet peeve of mine, and my wife 'read' the scene differently than I.  She mentioned it correlated right with the original, so it's possible I'm way over-reacting.

Regardless, it didn't take too much critical thinking to realize MARY POPPINS RETURNS is a really good movie.  After seeing BUMBLEBEE, SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE, AQUAMAN, and now MARY POPPINS RETURNS, I think RETURNS is the movie I'd most recommend seeing this weekend.  Any negatives I have are FAR outweighed with positives.  It was nice to see 1) an old-school musical done really well 2) a movie that reminds adults to be a little less overwhelmed with adulting. 
Oh, and I didn't even mention Dick Van Dyke's minor role/pseudo-cameo!  For me personally, seeing him on the screen again is worth the price of admission, but I never knew how much I needed to see him go full-stop Dick Van Dyke,
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  If you love old school musicals, want a bit of that ol Marry Poppins whimsy, MARY POPPINS RETURNS is a great ride.