Film Review: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

Just so you know what you’re in for, my sister called this “the best movie” she’s “ever seen”.

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is the sequel to 2008’s smash hit phenomenon of good vibes Mamma Mia!, which was the only thing that got everyone through the global recession. No one was expecting a sequel, but clearly once 2016 happened, the studio realised the world was going to be in need of an international pick-me-up once again and began production.

Boy howdy, do they deliver. Boy howdy, did this movie pick me up. Something that I really love is when a movie sequel just has more of the bits of the first movie that were particularly delightful. In Pitch Perfect 2 there’s a lot more Rebel Wilson, in Sherlock Holmes 2 there’s more rapid-fire banter, and in Mamma Mia 2 there are way more very elaborate dance sequences. The dance sequences are off the chain, I’m telling you. Waterloo in particular is exquisite. They also amped up the raw sexual magnetism of the incomparable Christine Baranski, and made Julie Walters’ character just fall down a lot more.

It’s difficult to say what the movie was about exactly. Just like the first one, it opens with Amanda Seyfried’s character Sophie considering whom to invite to an upcoming event while singing “I Have a Dream”. We then follow Sophie in the present day dealing with the death of her mother Meryl Streep; and young Meryl Streep in the past (played stupendously by Lily James) dealing with the events leading up to the birth of her daughter.

This movie is a damn good time and the only thing really wrong with it is that it’s a movie about Meryl Streep but without Meryl Streep in it. Also Andy Garcia’s character just disappears for large chunks of it. I guess he, like the rest of us, just wanted to escape all of the drama and go sing on the dock.