This was not a bad movie; it just was not a special one. I have thought about this review for a few days. I give the movie a C+. I think if young people especially had not seen the first one, they may give this a higher mark.
Of course, a problem with most sequels, including this one, is that the originality, is gone. We have seen it before and this is a copy. Simply, what this movie is missing is Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and Ed Winn…and the humanity, joy and humor they brought to the original.
The story here picks up maybe 25 years after the last story ends. The Banks children, now adults, face the foreclosure of their house for not making monthly payments after his wife dies. The bad guys are the bankers who want to foreclose and they take joy in it. That’s right, we are supposed accept the fact that they want to evict a single parent and three kids even when they offer to pay up!
(Now this is not relevant: Banks hate foreclosures, even then, and try to avoid them. There is NOTHING to be gained finacialcially.)
So Mary Poppins shows up, played by Emily Blunt. Miss Blunt play Poppins more like the one in the books, withdrawn and with less emotion, rather than like Julie Andrews, who had brought great emotion, humanity and fantastic singing and dancing to the role. Simply Miss Blunt did not really draw me in.
Neither did Lin-Manuel Miranda, who played Jack, the replacement for Dick Van Dyke. The pacing here was hobbily off. It would have been a better movie if it were 30 minutes shorter. The songs go on tooooooo looooong. And, let us face it, we know how it will end.
The highlight is a singing and dancing 90 year Dick Van Dyke who has a cameo.
The video is fine and they did their best to make it look like the original. The audio and surround sound were fine, but nothing special….except when the cannons go off! I saw it in 4k but I bet the blu ray is close.
See this on Netflix before you decide to buy.
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