Is Mamma Mia Here We Go Again a Prequel

All Abba songs kind of start in medias res. Sometimes information technology feels like the vocal itself starts in the middle — listen to the opening of "Dancing Queen" or "Waterloo," which feel like they just plunged into the vocal midway through and took off running. Just more often, it'due south the lyrics.

Abba's frequently relentlessly upbeat, earworm-y melodies incorporate songs that suggest something quite horrible has happened offscreen before the song starts — breakups, betrayals, or only generally unhealthy attitudes toward romance and attachment. Barry Walters summed upward their itemize well in 2015, when he wrote that "they whispered individual anguish in the midst of the political party."

The commencement Mamma Mia! film, released in 2008 and based on the Broadway show of the same name, followed suit. The story jumped right in, filling in just plenty backstory to lend credence to its barely plausible plot and allow us proceed full steam ahead with the singing and dancing in the sunshine.

Mamma Mia! Here We Get Again is kind of a sequel and a prequel to that picture show (and you'll probably enjoy it more than if you lot meet the first pic besides). It tells the story of what brought Meryl Streep's Donna to the island in the offset place, and how she met each of the three men whom her daughter would anytime call her "dads." At the aforementioned time, we see what'south happened five years afterward the events of Mamma Mia!

All that happens with the nearly necessary elements: lots of flick stars, a beautiful Greek island, and, of course, the timeless tunes of the Swedish pop grouping who inspired the whole thing. The event is sublimely ridiculous, or perhaps ridiculously sublime: the very definition of frothy summer amusement, moderately (if unevenly) well-directed by Ol Parker, that works best if you just suspend your need for information technology all to make sense.

Young Tanya, Donna, and Rosie in Mamma Mia! Here We Get Once more.

Universal Pictures

Mamma Mia! Hither We Go Again tells what came before, and what comes later on, the commencement moving-picture show

First things showtime. This is not a spoiler so much as the setup for the unabridged film, but ...

... yes, as the trailers for Here Nosotros Go Over again hinted, in the five years or and so since the events of Mamma Mia!, Donna (Meryl Streep) has passed away. Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) has renovated the inn and named it La Bella Donna in her honor, and, with the help of her hotel manager Fernando (Andy Garcia), is preparing a big party for the reopening, with wealthy guests en route.

Sam (Pierce Brosnan) has stayed on after Donna's death, working from the railroad vehicle house. Sky (Dominic Cooper) is off in New York for a vi-week hotel direction form, though he's been offered a task there and is thinking almost taking it. As Sophie prepares for the festivities — and the arrival of her mom's former bandmates Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Rosie (Julie Walters) — she reflects on her female parent'south past, and the film floats back to 1979.

And that'due south where things starting time to get wild, from a movie standpoint. In 1979, Donna, Tanya, and Rosie were graduating from New College at Oxford, with their whole futures in front of them. The path for Donna from Oxford to a footling island in Greece is not littered with many obstacles other than travel troubles, but it's definitely littered with handsome young men — first Harry in Paris, then Bill on a gunkhole in Greece, and finally Sam on the island.

All of these characters are played by younger actors in the prequel segments. Every bit young Donna, Lily James is resplendent: a anarchism of blond wavy hair, a huge smile, and a gorgeous voice. She'due south also doing a Meryl Streep impression that, if not subtle, is still effective (and frankly, subtlety would exist out of place amid the spangles and Swede-pop covers).

Her companions are similarly recognizable: Alexa Davies apes Julie Walters's pixie cutting to play Rosie, and equally Tanya, Jessica Keenan Wynn nails both the Christine Baranski wig and the Christine Baranski vocalization.

Lily James and Hugh Skinner in Mamma Mia! Hither We Get Over again.

Universal Pictures

Of course that'southward all a trivial silly; there's almost no way these iii women would have the aforementioned mannerisms and (especially) haircuts 25 years afterward.

But let u.s.a. never forget that Mamma Mia! Here We Go Over again is the sequel to a movie based on a Broadway musical, which in turn is based on a very theatrical band. Some goofy, corny farce is part of the theatricality and the fun. Who wants a somber realistic drama based on the songs of Abba?

So when Hugh Skinner, who plays young Harry and thus a young Colin Firth, imitating Firth's mannerisms, launches into a full-scale production of "Waterloo" in a French restaurant to woo Donna, information technology's stagey, yep, but information technology'south awfully fun. Same with Josh Dylan as young Bill/Stellan Skarsgård, and Jeremy Irvine every bit young Sam/Pierce Brosnan (though he sings better than Brosnan).

There are large dance numbers and seductive fiddling ones, and on the whole, this film is a lot like the kickoff, with some big winks at the audience and some shiny spandex to proceed information technology all sparkly.

Mamma Mia! Here We Get Again is laced with more sadness than its predecessor

But there are a couple of songs rendered equally sad ballads too. The fun waxes and wanes a chip more than than in the kickoff Mamma Mia!, which is probably fair for a pic whose premise is built on the death of its central effigy.

The inherent pathos of the passage of time is the theme of Here Nosotros Go Over again: the fourth dimension since they all were young, and the fourth dimension since the last film, too, when Donna was still with them, and when Sky and Sophie's marriage was fresh and new, and when — equally a running joke from a ferry operator underlines — anybody looked a little, well, meliorate than they do at present.

The dads are dorsum.

Universal Pictures

Fifty-fifty the Greek economic crisis gets a glancing nod, indicating not all paradises are purely paradisical. (Side annotation: If you do the math, this film is set roughly in 2005, which is technically earlier the first of the Greek economical crisis, and yes, there are iPhones, which didn't launch till 2007 — merely then, it'southward a musical based on songs from a band from the 1970s, so it'due south best not to get as well hung up on the details.)

And fourth dimension inevitably brings loss, though it brings new birth and new relationships as well. It besides brings surprises. (Yes: Cher is in this motion-picture show, and yes, she sings.) Here We Go Again feels a tad more than mature than Mamma Mia!, which ended in a double wedding ceremony and the hint of more romances to come up. At present, five years on, relationships take changed, shifted, and matured.

By telling the story on two timelines, Donna's and Sophie'due south, nosotros can easily come across all the means that history repeats itself, filtered through all kinds of love — betwixt friends, between romantic partners, and betwixt mothers and their daughters.

Cher, too.

Universal Pictures

And so sure, Mamma Mia! Here We Become Again is even so at heart a kooky, poppy, lighthearted romp in the Grecian sun. Information technology's not a great film, or even a especially great musical, but at least it delivers on its promises.

But if you find yourself sniffling unexpectedly, then yous're probably merely feeling your ain mortality in the eye of the free-flowing wine and dancing. Which, in the cease, is probably exactly what Abba would want.

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again opens in theaters on July 20.

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Source: https://www.vox.com/summer-movies/2018/7/18/17582300/mamma-mia-here-we-go-again-is-meryl-dead-cher

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