Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, takes place five years after the original movie, as Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) prepares a party for the grand reopening of her mother's Hotel Bella Donna on Kalokairi. Through flashbacks, a second plot-line set in 1979 reveals how young Donna (Lily James) met and romanced the young Sam, Bill, and Harry who became Sophie's fathers.
The 1979 plot-line, which was written to fill in the long-awaited details of how Donna became involved with Sam, Bill, and Harry, was, for the most part, uninspired. The attraction between Young Donna and the charming Bill (Josh Dylan) was believable, and a bright spot in the movie. The development of Donna's feelings for Sam (Jeremy Irvine) and Harry (Hugh Skinner) were unconvincing, though, and it seems that the songs in these scenes were used to cover up for the lack of chemistry between the characters.
Cast-wise, the lovely and charming Lily James carried the show. She sang beautifully, turned in an outstanding acting performance, and most of her scenes made for striking cinematography. Cher (as Ruby Sheridan) rode the strength of "Fernando" to one of the musical's highlight numbers, but her performance in "Super Trouper" was lackluster.
Director Ol Parker did not measure up to Phyllida Lloyd's impressive directing in the original Mamma Mia! The supporting players, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Stellan Skarsgard were not well portrayed in some scenes by Parker, and the actors looked awkward at times. Lloyd's use of facial close-ups and angles in the original were brilliant by comparison.
Five songs; Waterloo, "I Have a Dream," "The Name of the Game," "Mamma Mia," "Dancing Queen," and "Super Trouper" from the original Mamma Mia! are featured in this prequel.
The dance scenes mostly looked bland in comparison to the original. The "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" -- "Voulez-Vous" party sequence of the original movie was spectacular in comparison.
There are a few good songs that were not used in the original. Early in the movie, Lily James turns in a sexy performance with "When I Kissed the Teacher," wearing retro-style pinstriped pants that accentuate her curvy hips. Mostly, though, the writers reached pretty deep to present music in Here We Go Again that wasn't sung in the original. Unfortunately, this resulted in many of the musical segments feeling forced into the story line. Also, Director Ol Parker falls well short of achieving the enjoyable visual and audio quality of the original film's musical numbers.
While the on-scene sets were mostly in Greece in the original, most of the on-scene sets in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again were in Croatia. Although they tried to achieve similar scenic effects in Here We Go Again, the scenery is better in the original.
The original Mamma Mia!, with an excellent cast, superb directing, intense face close-ups, choice song selection, beautiful scenery, and superbly-produced musical numbers resulted in a huge smile factor for me throughout the movie. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again fell well short of the original in all these aspects, with few smiles.
