Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again (2018)

[msrachelj]

just saw it on satellite. horrible. cher is so fake and plastic looking it looked like a cgi version of herself. although i didn't much like the first one either. 

[memememe76]

I thought the first movie was hot garbage, but I quite liked the sequel. Lily James was fantastic. I also think besides Meryl Streep not annoying me, having Donna dead added an element of sadness to the movie. It had more gravity. Those sad buy happy songs are my favourite ABBA songs.

[methodwriter85]

On 8/15/2018 at 2:02 PM, Silver Raven said:

I do have to call shenanigans on the Cher character being this international superstar, considering in the original, Donna's mother wrote her out of her life for being a single mother.

I don't think they outright retconned this plot point, because they do mention that Cher was not part of Donna's life. In the prequel/sequel though, it really did feel like it had more to do with Cher just being an absentee mom in general and Donna basically being over it because she was building her life with her daughter. It could also be that Cher's character tried to convince her to get an abortion and she refused, although of course THAT point would never get brought up in a light popcorn movie like this. I also could see Cher basically being like, "You were given a top-notch education and everything in life. I did not spend that kind of money on you so you can be a single mom. Give up the baby, or you're on your own." We only really have Donna's version of the events and it was probably more nuanced than that.

The boys seem like they've kept up their friendship from doing this movie. It's freaking adorable.

As for the stylings of the guys, I do feel pretty much that they wanted them to look attractive to modern tastes and that's why they were kept as time-neutral as possible, save for the wigs they put on Josh and Jeremy. In Harry's case, I think they wanted him to be more mildly punk than fully into it (he does wear a leather jacket and a union) because they decided that Colin could basically just play a gay Mr. Darcy in this sequel. He wasn't nearly as buttoned-up in the first movie, if I recall right.

I mean, obviously, the sight gag of the guys dressed in 1970's styles in the first movie was just meant to make fun of the 70's. When it was decided that they'd actually make Donna's story into the movie, I think they didn't want these guys to look like jokes so they went for a more nuanced, flattering look from the 70's.

Edited to add: And by 1979, you WERE seeing more neutral looks:

Edited April 8, 2019 by methodwriter85

[blackwing]

17 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

I don't think they outright retconned this plot point, because they do mention that Cher was not part of Donna's life. In the prequel/sequel though, it really did feel like it had more to do with Cher just being an absentee mom in general and Donna basically being over it because she was building her life with her daughter.

I'm pretty sure in the first movie, Cher was dead.  I remember a scene of Donna and the Julie Walter character talking, and something had just happened, and Donna points to heaven and says something like "I think somebody up there has it in for me.  Maybe it's my mother".  And then Julie Walter said something like "Yeah, she was a piece of work".  Donna points to heaven and Julie Walter talks about her mother in the past tense... strongly implies that Donna's mom was dead.  

[Token]

I started watching this because I wanted some light, fluffy entertainment.  I had to turn it off after a few minutes because it was so bad.  Between Amanda Seyfried looking emaciated and skeletal, to the point that I don't know how she was even walking, and the scene with Lily James running around and singing a ridiculous song at her graduation ceremony, I couldn't watch anymore.  It was just awful.

[VCRTracking]