Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is directed by Oliver Parker and it’s the sequel to the ten year old hit musical Mamma Mia!. This movie shows an older and pregnant Sophie who is the closest right now to her mother. The movie shows the Donna’s past and explores the parallels this mother and daughter go through when they are both pregnant. The movie stars: Amanda Seyfried, Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski, Julia Walters, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard, Cher and Dominic Cooper. There is also another cast which play the younger versions which including Lily James, Jessica Keenan Wynn, Alexa Davies, Jeremy Irvine, Hugh Skinner and Josh Dylan.

If you read my review for the first Mamma Mia! you would know that I think of that movie as a guilty pleasure movie. Thankfully Here We Go Again doesn’t fall into that category. This is a well-made and well-written movie. In my opinion this is the feel good movie of the summer. This movie has so much to offer from the cast to the musical numbers to the characters and more. The best part is that even though it’s a much better movie than it’s predecessor, it keeps all the iconic things from that made it memorable. The aesthetic is there, from the heavy use of blue to the beautiful gorgeous scenery.

I was really impressed by the actors who portrayed the younger versions of the main characters. Particularly, Lily James as Donna and Hugh Skinner as Harry. Skinner nails the awkward nature of older Harry. Lily James although, she steals this movie. She was amazing in this movie, I was shocked by how much I loved her performance. She is truly the younger version of Donna. She got Meryl Streep’s movements and speech pattern spot on. She almost always reminded me of Streep’s portrayal of Donna. She brings so much charisma and energy to this movie. Also her singing was amazing, I loved when she sang Mamma Mia. Amanda Seyfried was good as Sophie particularly in the emotional scenes towards the end.

Since this is a musical, I have to talk about the music. The first movie had all the popular songs from ABBA since they didn’t know if they were doing a sequel. That being said, this movie uses the songs so much better than the first movie. Everyone does a stunning job. My personal favourites are Waterloo, I Have a Dream, Dancing Queen, Mamma Mia, Fernando and Super Trouper. Scratch that, all of them were awesome. Also there is this emotional final scene with a wonderful song and the stars included are so emotionally powerful in it, it almost brought me to tears. It’s an incredibly beautiful song, you’ll know when it you hear it.

The only flaws in this movie is a rather small one. There are two different tones in this movie since we are constantly going between present and past. One one side, it’s a wonderful, carefree and fun tone and the other is more sad and a bit dull at times. The movie did lose a bit nearing the end of the first half. All that I’ll say is that the first hour took really long to pass. So there is also a bit of a problem with the pacing because not the whole movie is slow paced, the second half was fairly fast paced. That’s really it for flaws.

Overall, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again improves heavily on it’s predecessor and focuses more on the story. I highly suggest you watch it. The stellar cast bring these characters to life. Lily James is truly incredible as Donna. It’s beautiful story is elevated by toe tapping musical numbers. It’s emotional, funny, infectious and just an all around great time.

RATING: A-