Aaron's Thoughts
As someone who will defend Mamma Mia 2 to the death, I have never been able to pinpoint why exactly I don’t feel so strongly about the first one. It finally clicked this rewatch.
There are moments that are spectacular throughout (for example “Lay All Your Love On Me” is one of my favorite sequences in any Mamma Mia movie), but they never amount to more than just some fun moments. In fact, my big problem is that it plays it too safe for far too much of the movie. You don’t really get a signature go for broke musical number until about 40 minutes in. From there it takes off with the “Dancing Queen” number, “Lay All Your Love On Me”, and then “Voulez-Vous” a little later on, but most of the audience has probably checked out by then. If they haven’t, the numbers that aren’t big and flashy are just really brought down by the vocals and lack of staging/choreography. The Mamma Mia movies are at their best when they are just really going for it, so it’s a bit confusing why they hold back from that so much in the first. It makes even less sense given that the big numbers are where you can bury the poor vocals on the cast of the first film.
On the other hand, Mamma Mia Here We Go Again gives us “When I Kissed The Teacher”just 4 minutes into the movie. No sitting around and waiting for the films to do what they do best, we get it immediately. It also helps that people who can actually sing were cast. It also helps that the songs serve the story better in the second one than they do the first.
I get that many will think it’s controversial, but the first one is no more than fun while the second one remains a gem. Excited to see what they do with the third!
