It is a perfectly cute, heart warming family film to watch over the holidays but it falls short, especially when you compare it to the original. Emily Blunt is great here, commanding the screen whenever she is on the screen. Unfortunately for the viewer, in the second half she takes a bit of a backseat and watches the action more than anything. There is no surprise that the second half is where I really had issues with the film. It's fine for sure, but it needed a lot more Blunt and a bit less of the dull plot line.

I'm a huge Broadway fan and a huge fan of Lin Manuel-Miranda as an artist, but not as a performer. I saw him twice in Hamilton and both times he left me cold. He was not good in this at all and it is shocking that he was nominated for a Golden Globe (I know, I know. Globes mean nothing but still). He cannot carry much of a tune and does not have much stage presence. I would have liked to see someone like Matt Smith or Benjamin Walker in the role.

The supporting cast is nice - Ben Whishaw delivers a moving performance and his song near the beginning of the song is great and made me tear up a bit. Emily Mortimer and the children also give nice performances. Meryl Streep is horrible and her song is terrible and she serves little point to even be in the movie. Angela Lansbury proved to be a highlight near the end of the film, as did Dick Van Dyke.

The songs are disappointing. They were fine and serviceable but nothing that will leave you humming them on the way out of the theater.

Overall, if you don't compare it to the original, you'll enjoy itself. It's fun, it's splashy and it is so nice to see the animation on display. It's definitely a bit disappointing and with more Emily Blunt in the second half, it would have been better but I definitely recommend you check it out with your family this holiday season.

B

This was just alright. The material here just doesn't justify a sequel. Emily Blunt is good and she doesn't really emulate Andrews which I liked but I agree that she kind of takes a backseat for the last third which is unfortunate.

This needed one big, memorable song/number and it doesn't have one.

I think comparing this to the original is unfair considering how it’s basically considered a perfect movie by many and it’s not fair to expect any movie to be perfect. It has also been out for 54 years, and people have a nostalgic attachment to it. This is brand new, obviously it’s not going to be considered as good as the original right off the bat.

I thought it was excellent after having my expectations lowered by publicenemy and movies35. Every sequence was highly entertaining and creative, and there was a smile on my face throughout the entire thing. My favorite scene was definitely A Cover is Not the Book, followed by Can You Imagine That?

The songs are also quite good. It’s not fair to compare the new songs to th original songs which are permanently engrained in the public consciousness. The best song is Nowhere to Go But Up. I liked all the songs. If I had to pick the weakest, Trip a Little Light Fantastic seems like it was trying too hard to be THE song. It’s still highly entertaining and catchy, but the other songs seem more genuine.

All the actors play their parts well. Colin Firth’s character was definitely the most cartoonishly evil villain I’d seen in a long time, but it worked considering the whole world of the film is cartoonish, and it portrays the adult world as not as pure as a child’s. I hope the film gets tons of tech nominations and a nomination for Emily Blunt, who was excellent. And she can really sing! Marshall’s direction is also much better here than for Chicago. Nine or Into the Woods. It truly felt cinematic and not at all like a stage play.

Overall I don’t know what people were expecting with this film and it’s obviously a passion project for all involved. I believe everyone put in their full effort and the end product is excellent.

A-

PS I enjoy the original but don’t have any particular affinity for it so that certainly affected my enjoyment. Maybe if I loved the original a lot I’d be more critical of this

Well, that's what you get when you make a sequel to a beloved classic. Comparing it to the original is the only feasible way to judge its quality. Or should people compare it to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse?

They should judge it on its own merits, not how it compares to something else.

Who made you captain of the Thought Police? You just don't like it because EVERYONE is saying it's not as good.

This film is very much like a Force Awakens type of sequel. It's not a complete copy but it takes after the original a lot. Unfortunately it just doesn't work as well.

Force Awakens is way closer to A New Hope and doesn’t work nearly as well in my view, but I guess that’s just my opinion. I think the overall structure is similar where a fantastical nanny takes the kids on adventures in the hope of fixing family drama. But all the adventures are different, the family drama is different, and the finale is especially completely different.

All Force Awakens changed was character genders, races and names. Not to mention the original Star Wars holds up perfectly today whereas Poppins is still great, but a tad slow paced.

Returns is also the first Poppins sequel. Force Awakens had 5 examples of where to take the franchise in a different direction. It felt like backwards progress. There’s no previous great Poppins sequel to be like “how could you do something so safe while Poppins Strike Back took so many risks!”

That's such a bull shit response. Poppins had like 7 other books and countless knockoffs on where to take it. TFA just did it better.

Saving Mr. Banks is better than both. And honestly while I like the original I always preferred Bed knobs and Broomsticks or Willy Wonka.

Acting is fine, but seriously a major missed opportunity for an iconic character. I actually think Solo did a better job. And the Globes are such a joke that this isn't in the same category as BR or a Star is Born. That show is getting ridiculous.

I think kind of drags at times and I don't like that they made her magic more a of a figment of imagination. I thought the songs were good if forgettable.I already can't remember a single catchy line. Something about balloons?

And I'm guessing Julie Andrews was offered the Angela Lansbury role and turned it down?

I'm already not a fan of the original but I adore Emily Blunt and was really looking forward to this due to her involvement alone. Thought she was going to be an excellent Mary Poppins and it would be fun to watch her in the role. I was not wrong about that. Emily is indeed terrific in her "supporting role." Practically perfect in every way. Her mannerisms are delightful and she made me laugh quite a few times. I absolutely expected more with her being that Mary Poppins is the title character but she really took a backseat in the second half of the film. Why she was so under-used I don't know as she's the only real bright spot here. Where I really went wrong was expecting it to be fun. The storyline is mostly a bore and none of the songs are very good or memorable. By the time everyone was floating around in the sky in the park at the end Mary's door couldn't open soon enough for me. If you want a genuinely wonderful family film set in London look no farther than Paddington 2 from earlier in the year (Coincidentally the voice of Paddington bear in those films also stars in this). Mary Poppins Returns is a mostly unsuccessful and unnecessary retread. Maybe I'm just not the audience for this.


C


My rating may seem generous but it's not absolutely terrible. Emily is almost enough to recommend watching it. Maybe I would recommend it more if she were front and center for most of the film. There's certainly not much to see when she isn't.

It is incredibly strange how little Blunt actually is in this. She takes a backseat for so much of the second half after not showing up for the for twenty or so minutes. It was very strange. I enjoyed it but it would have been better with someone who could actually act, unlike Lin Manuel-Miranda. What a terrible performance.

I really don’t remember Blunt not being in it for a long stretch. Weird.

Yeah I was bored until she showed up. Then it got interesting for a bit. Then it stopped again. And I agree Miranda was pretty bad. And I almost feel he was in it more than Emily. Or at least the same amount.

This is Godzilla all over again.

I enjoyed it a lot. I thought it captured what one might term Disney magic. A sense of an old-fashioned, lavishly mounted show being on with the utmost professionalism and a sense of joy. Emily Blunt is splendid. She wisely does not try to 100-percent emulate Julie Andrews. Rather, she creates her own slightly sterner and more aloof, yet still spry and highly endearing version of Mary Poppins. I am not sure yet of Lin-Manuel Miranda's abilities as a traditional film actor, but he certainly has an amiable screen presence and shines in the musical sequences. I particularly loved he and Blunt's "A Cover Is Not the Book." Ben Whishaw is absolutely excellent; his portrayal of grief and self-doubt gives the film a degree of emotional depth and maturity beneath the camp and the pageantry and the whimsy.

The scene blending live-action and animated elements is gorgeously executed.

I would cut the Meryl Streep scene, though. Her character, a...Russian? second cousin of Mary, is odd and made me uncomfortable. And the scene runs too long and feels pointless, particularly since we never even see the bowl fixed and returned.

I don't, either. I am legitimately not sure what they are referring to.

She's in it but in the background mostly.

It might sound funny, but this reminds a lot of Wall Street 2. I liked everyone but once I left I was annoyed, forgot everything. And much like that film it's not pointless but it's going for a single when it should be swinging for the fences. I think I would have preferred a horrible film over this. Instead we get a Crocodile Dundee II of Mary Poppins films.

Well she’s not the main character. She’s a foil for the Banks family. I’m the end they use what they’ve learned from her.

I lowered my rating from a C+ to a C. The more I think about it the more I dislike it.

I had a fine time with this. It's perfectly adequate. Seeing it on Christmas day with Mom and Sister probably gave it a little more *magic* than if I had viewed elsewhere.

It really echoes the original film in a lot of ways, but I was less offended than the ways The Force Awakens ripped off the original Star Wars. It's got that old school Disney feel. I felt all the actors did a swell job. The music was good, the production was sumptuous. Story was fine.

I don't know what else to say.... This movie really doesn't need to exist but it does a pretty fine job doing what it set out to do.

B

A bit surprised, I actually liked Mary Floppins Returns, Blunt was gorgeous and flawless, acting, pacing and story were good, most songs were meh though.

if only disney hadn't been so selfish, they would have change its release date to either November or March.

B+

Wow I actually really enjoyed this. I remember not caring for the trailers at all and expecting the absolute worst, but surprisingly I found this really endearing and entertaining. I have no nostalgic ties to the original and I can't even remember if I've actually seen it all the way through, but Emily Blunt's charisma and charm is just infectious here and she brings such a pleasant, likable energy to the film overall. she was fantastic IMO and truly made the role her own and I even thought Lin Manuel Miranda was pretty great. The kids weren't annoying either and performances from Ben Winshaw and Emily Mortimer were equally solid. The Colin Firth character was pretty cartoony though, but I still thought he was good in the role.

As much as I'm not a big fan of the musicals I enjoyed all the musical numbers and I just loved the lavish, old school production designs here. I just wish we got more scenes like the one where the actors interacted with the 2D animated characters, because that was by far my favorite sequence in the film and it was beautifully executed IMO.

The only thing I didn't care for was the Meryl Streep cameo. They definitely could have cut that scene entirely or given more screentime to Dick Van Dyke.

B+