Mamma Mia! may have been one of the perfect summer counter programming choices in the last decade. With The Dark Knight and Iron Man redefining the superhero genre forever, the latter permanently, an adaptation of a musical from a band who’s popularity peaked well over twenty years proper wound up as one of the biggest films of the year as sheer counter-programming.
A decade later a sequel, Here we go again, picks up where the last ended. Donna is gone and Sophia (Amanda Seyfried) is pregnant. As we explore the ramifications of that we pick up with Donna (Lily James) in 1979, exploring the world after graduating from Oxford. While Sophia explores her pending motherhood Donna has the three great romances of her life.
Throw in Cher and some ABBA songs, of course, and you’ve got a mediocre sequel to a film that hasn’t aged as well as other films from 2008.
There’s nothing about the sequel that’s as equal to the fun of the original; it’s there just to be a sequel, nothing more, and doesn’t give us any insight into the original that we didn’t get before. Take away Meryl Streep in one of the more fun roles she’s had in recent memory and you’ve got a sequel that’s there for the same reason Marvel makes a sequel: because it can.
There’s a ton of insight into the film and the process, which is actually pretty interesting.
Universal presents Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Directed by Ol Parker. Written by Ol Parker, Catherine Johnson and Richard Curtis. Starring Christine Baranski, Pierce Brosnan, Dominic Cooper, Colin Firth, Andy Garcia. Run Time: 114 minutes Rated PG-13. Released on DVD: 10.23.18
