MAMMA MIA: HERE WE GO AGAIN! (2018)

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again (let’s be honest, it’s a great title) continues the stories of both Amanda Seyfried’s Sophie and Meryl Streep’s Donna Sheridan, albeit with a Godfather 2-esque narrative manner. At the beginning of the film, we learn of Donna’s death and while Sophie attempts to deal with that and the opening of her hotel in the present, we follow Lily James’ iteration of Donna in the past. The Lily James strand of the story serves to remind us mostly of the circumstances that led to the plot of the first film. She graduates and journeys to Greece, meeting the three potential fathers of her daughter, Sophie, along the way. All whilst having a good song and dance, of course. Unfortunately, young Donna’s experience with men isn’t exactly the greatest and she decides to stay in Greece, alone and pregnant.

Meanwhile, in the present, we’re introduced to even more characters - namely Andy Garcia’s Fernando and Cher’s Ruby Sheridan - who will no doubt have younger versions of themselves portrayed onscreen in the next movie. The conflict in this narrative strand is that a storm has come along and ruined the grand opening of the hotel. The present drama can’t quite match the drama of the past as we barely have time to sympathise with Sophie at having her dream crushed when everything is reversed and all is well again. And yes, this is expressed with more singing and dancing.

On the surface, it would be quick to dismiss Mamma Mia 2 as an unnecessary sequel. However, it is a feel-good one and deserves a lot of credit for avoiding the pitfalls of most sequels of this kind, by crafting a story that really does feel like it had more to tell. Score: 60/100