Mamma Mia! Una y otra vez

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again fails to bring anything new to the table. It is made purely based on the success of the first film. Hollywood tend to do that a lot. When a film becomes successful, they make a 2nd film out of it, which lacks pretty much everything. First of all, if you want to go to see this film because Meryl Streep is in, don't bother, because she has a scene of 5 minutes in the end. She just sings two songs and that's pretty much it. She is in the front row of the film poster, she is the main image of the final trailer, because production company uses her image to attract audience. These kinds of tricks can be seen a lot, while advertising substandard quality films. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again has one purpose, and that is to make more money by using the fame of the first film. I failed to understand why they even bothered making a sequel when everything was wrapped beautifully in the first film. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is written and directed by Ol Parker. I said written, but I really don't know what he has exactly written, because in the means of story there is nothing.

The people in this film are like from a different planet. They live in a parallel universe or something. There is no one ugly in the film. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is all about beautiful people, their artificially created problems, fake tears, sadness and meaningless joy. They are all very successful, their secret bonds don't have a resource. We don't know why those characters love each other so much, but they do. The film takes place five years after the previous events. Donna is dead. Sophie (Amada Seyfried) takes over the hotel and builds it from zero. While they prepare for the grand opening, we go back to 1979, where everything starts for Donna. She is claimed to be a free soul and an independent woman, but someone must tell the writer of this character that having one night stands with handsome men on your way to Greek Island is not independence. Young Donna (Lily James) is presented to be a very different girl, but when you watch her behaviors, she is pretty much superficial. She falls in love with a man, gets depressed after he leaves, and in the very same day, she has sex with a different guy because she is very sad. Sophie and her problems regarding the hotel in the present day are told in parallel with Donna's youth and her story, how she met Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Harry (Colin Firth) and Bill, (Stellan Skargard) how she moved to the island of Kalokairi and how she built the hotel.

Young Donna's friends Tanya and Rosie, as well as her lovers, Harry, Bill and Sam, are played by actors and actresses who have nothing to do with the actual characters. They all look very different. The story takes place in a Greek island but the film was shot in Croatia and Shepperton Studios in Surrey England. Set up of the sequel is pretty much similar with the first film. There is a song for every situation. The story was created based on the situations in those songs, and there is a song for every character, problem and situation. That's the reason why I said there is no story. It is time for a sad song, a sad situation is created. It is time for a joyful song, and something happy happens. There are very few scenes that can be compared with real life situations. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is a complete waste of money and time. I had a good taste in my mouth after the first film, but now that is all gone thanks to this useless film that was made just because of financial matters.

The strongest point of the film is its songs. It is satisfying in the means of music. You get to hear songs mostly from ABBA, as usual, and Arrival. After all, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is also a musical, but even so, some songs are really bad for my taste. When I Kissed the Teacher from Arrival is one, for an example. Just to be able to sing this song, they created a graduation scene. This is what I meant when I said, circumstances are created based on the songs in the film. I have never seen such a thing in my life. I haven't seen an acting performance worth mentioning. This film was released on July 16, 2018 in Hammersmith Apollo and on July 20, 2018 in the United Kingdom and United States. It has 114 minutes of runtime and made with a budget of $75 Million. With a forced story and meaningless characters, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is a film that I will never watch again. Having actors and actresses in the film just because they look beautiful shouldn't be a criteria while choosing your characters. This sequel is so hopeless that even the presence of Andy Garcia and Cher couldn't save it.

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, takes place five years after the original movie, as Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) prepares a party for the grand reopening of her mother's Hotel Bella Donna on Kalokairi. Through flashbacks, a second plot-line set in 1979 reveals how young Donna (Lily James) met and romanced the young Sam, Bill, and Harry who became Sophie's fathers.

The 1979 plot-line, which was written to fill in the long-awaited details of how Donna became involved with Sam, Bill, and Harry, was, for the most part, uninspired. The attraction between Young Donna and the charming Bill (Josh Dylan) was believable, and a bright spot in the movie. The development of Donna's feelings for Sam (Jeremy Irvine) and Harry (Hugh Skinner) were unconvincing, though, and it seems that the songs in these scenes were used to cover up for the lack of chemistry between the characters.

Cast-wise, the lovely and charming Lily James carried the show. She sang beautifully, turned in an outstanding acting performance, and most of her scenes made for striking cinematography. Cher (as Ruby Sheridan) rode the strength of "Fernando" to one of the musical's highlight numbers, but her performance in "Super Trouper" was lackluster.

Director Ol Parker did not measure up to Phyllida Lloyd's impressive directing in the original Mamma Mia! The supporting players, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Stellan Skarsgard were not well portrayed in some scenes by Parker, and the actors looked awkward at times. Lloyd's use of facial close-ups and angles in the original were brilliant by comparison.

Five songs; Waterloo, "I Have a Dream," "The Name of the Game," "Mamma Mia," "Dancing Queen," and "Super Trouper" from the original Mamma Mia! are featured in this prequel.

The dance scenes mostly looked bland in comparison to the original. The "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" -- "Voulez-Vous" party sequence of the original movie was spectacular in comparison.

There are a few good songs that were not used in the original. Early in the movie, Lily James turns in a sexy performance with "When I Kissed the Teacher," wearing retro-style pinstriped pants that accentuate her curvy hips. Mostly, though, the writers reached pretty deep to present music in Here We Go Again that wasn't sung in the original. Unfortunately, this resulted in many of the musical segments feeling forced into the story line. Also, Director Ol Parker falls well short of achieving the enjoyable visual and audio quality of the original film's musical numbers.

While the on-scene sets were mostly in Greece in the original, most of the on-scene sets in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again were in Croatia. Although they tried to achieve similar scenic effects in Here We Go Again, the scenery is better in the original.

The original Mamma Mia!, with an excellent cast, superb directing, intense face close-ups, choice song selection, beautiful scenery, and superbly-produced musical numbers resulted in a huge smile factor for me throughout the movie. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again fell well short of the original in all these aspects, with few smiles.

I thought this is just a rehash of the 2008 movie but after watching the movie I would call out one thing: they really put in efforts into it. As the newly-added elements in this sequel, the young versions of six leads particularly, the newly graduated Donna had a eye-dazzling performance. The plot unfolds in a way interlocking with each detail given away in the conversations of the original screenplay. Maybe I should have conjured every scene here up in 10 years ago but this sequel really serves as a good testament to jolly wishful and vibrant young Donna being an innocent lady fallen into three serendipitous and romantic loves rather than a putative slut in some evil minds by any chance if this sequel had never been shot. When I heard the classic quote " life is short, the world is wide. I want to make some memories", it really struck my heart and invoked the sweet moments of my adolescence. As much as I got a ticket for the original 10 years ago even after watching the Broadway stage show, today I just want a mindless, escapist and entertaining night to reminisce some old unforgettable recollection of myself. "You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life", with such strong and positive notes hovering and whirling in your ears, who'd dare say such a task would have not been fulfilled?

Greetings again from the darkness. It's been 10 years since director Phyllida Lloyd presented the crowd-pleasing MAMMA MIA! movie. It was a box office hit (over $600 million worldwide) and was, for a few years, the highest grossing musical of all-time. Most importantly, it was extremely entertaining and a joyous cinematic romp for viewers. This year's sequel is directed by Ol Parker (THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL and husband to actress Thandie Newton), and though the melancholy is slathered on a bit too thick, it also fulfills its number one priority - entertaining the fans.

The story begins with Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) putting the final touches on the house-turned-hotel in preparation for the upcoming Grand Opening. It's named Hotel Bella Donna in honor of Sophie's mother (Meryl Streep). What looks to be a straight-forward story surprises us with a flashback to Donna's 1979 graduation, which features not only the first song-and-dance number "When I Kissed the Teacher", but also the first of two ABBA cameos ... Bjorn Ulvaeus as a professor. The young Donna is played brilliantly by Lily James, and she effortlessly captures the free-spiritedness that led to the conundrum of the first movie - 3 possible dads for Sophie.

Those 3 dads return not only as Pierce Brosnan (Sam), Stellan Skarsgard (Bill), and Colin Firth (Harry), but also as Jeremy Irvine (young Sam), Josh Dylan (young Bill), and Hugh Skinner (young Harry). In fact, most of the run time is dedicated to the backstory of these characters and how they first met as youngsters. Each has a segment (and song) with young Harry featured in "Waterloo" accompanied by Benny Andersson (ABBA cameo #2) on piano. Young Bill is the charming sailor who saves the day for Donna, while young Sam assists her with saving a storm-shaken horse (kind of humorous since Mr. Irvine starred in WAR HORSE).

Also back are Dominic Cooper as Sky, Sophie's true love, who can't decide between romance and career, and Donna's life-long friends Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Rosie (Julie Walters), who are also part of the flashback as Jessica Keenan Wynn (excellent as young Tanya) and Alexa Davies (as young Rosie). New to the cast are Celia Imrie in the graduation number, Andy Garcia as the hotel manager, and drawing the biggest applause of all ... Cher as Sophie's grandmother (and as my viewing partner commented, an early peek at what Lady Gaga will look like as a grandma)! It's best if you experience Cher for yourself, and it should be noted that this is her first big screen appearance since BURLESQUE in 2010.

Of course, the songs are key and many of the ABBA numbers from the first movie are featured again this time. In particular, "Dancing Queen" is a nautical standout, and "Fernando" is a show-stopper. While it may not be quite as raucous as the first, it's a treat watching Lily James, and there is a wonderful blending of "old" and "new" in the finale. The only real question remaining is, did the casting director do the math before casting Cher (age 72) as Meryl Streep's (age 69) mother?

This sequel takes place a year after the death of Donna. Her daughter Sophie plans to reopen her mother's hotel, on a Greek island, unfortunately it looks as if neither her three fathers nor her husband will be able to attend the opening party. Intertwined with scenes of her preparing for the reopening we see how her mother came to the island all those years ago... and how she encountered the three men who are Sophie's fathers. Of course at every possible opportunity the cast sing an appropriate ABBA song.

If you didn't enjoy 'Mamma Mia' you certainly won't enjoy this as it is more of the same; this of course means if you did enjoy the first you are likely to enjoy this too. The story is fairly simple but it is fun; especially the flashback scenes of Donna making her way to the island and meeting the younger versions of the 'three fathers' for the first time. The songs are fun even if things are stretched a bit to justify the inclusion of some well-known songs... particularly 'Fernando'. Of course the songs are a lot of fun, even the less well-known ones. The cast does a fine job and are clearly having fun; Lily James stands out as the young Donna. The setting, with its beautiful settings and mostly fine weather, only add to the pleasure provided by the film. Overall I'd say this won't be for everybody but it is good cheesy fun if you enjoy that sort of thing... and I did, more than I expected.