Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again movie review: Meryl Streep is missed but sequel boasts of a fresh verve

Talk about a sequel no one asked for and yet it turns out to be mildly fun. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again might have all kinds of red flags going for it at the onset but looked at as a purely escapist entertainment, it is a well packaged, carefully crafted piece of cinema that surprisingly will not make you regret your trip to the theater. Whether it is better than its 10-year-old predecessor is debatable but if you like fluffy music, youthful dancing, jukebox style of filmmaking and movie stars having some obvious fun, this is a serviceable diversion from reality. [caption id=“attachment_4757191” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  A still from Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. YouTube[/caption] The new film picks up quite a bit of time after the events of the previous move. Meryl Streep’s character Donna is now passed away and her daughter Sophie (Amana Seyfried) is busy finishing work on the ambitious Bella Donna Hotel on her picture perfect island paradise. As she prepares for the opening party, she invites her two dads (Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard), her husband (Dominic Cooper), and her hotel co-worker pals (Pierce Brosnan and Andy Garcia). Somewhere in the mental festivities, her thoughts hark back to the past when her mother (younger version played by Lilly James) first came to the island and decided to make it her home. Streep’s absence is naturally felt – her over the top shenanigans were the moments which made the first film more fun than other musicals of its time. Her character appears merely in photographs peppered throughout the narrative and James, although a much lesser star, does well by mimicking Streep’s mannerisms from the previous movie. The formula of injecting songs every two minutes in the narrative remains the same – but this time, new director Ol Parker (who wrote the Exotic Marigold Hotel films) finds some energy and verve that somehow seems updated well enough to reflect the passage of time, yet works as a harmless throwback. So even if the story beats are predictable, the music and the choreography are so overwhelming, it is difficult not to be swayed away by the good-natured intensity of the production. This is of course a very good watch for fans of Abba – all the songs that were notably absent from the original are played at full blast here - almost as a liberation. Director Parker also executes everything at a frenetic pace, making sure the dull moments are quickly eclipsed by another showstopping number bigger and more manic than the previous one. On the downside, the film is almost a reboot of the first film because once again, the narrative forefront is a woman having man troubles and a cascading overarching conflict that is only too reminiscent and unsurprising. Brosnan, hilariously, still cannot sing for nuts. Many of the familiar faces, though comforting in their familiarity, seem like they exist in this sequel for a quick paycheck. It is, however, unfair to nitpick a film that is made with so much joy and energy – and one which proves, despite having a potentially solid shelf life as a streaming pick, that big screen entertainment still exists. Abba’s pop music will remain bulletproof and critic-proof, and paired with such a large collection of charming actors and pretty locations, it is a no-brainer to give this one a chance.