Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again is my biggest movie surprise of 2018!  I went into the theater fully expecting to hate it and I ended up loving it!  I loved it so much that I canceled my plans for Friday night and saw it again with my Mom and sister and then the three of us saw it yet again Saturday morning.  I am a huge fan of Abba's music and I absolutely love the stage musical (I've seen it countless times including on Broadway and in London's West End).  Because I've seen incredibly talented Broadway stars perform this music live I was so disappointed in the movie adaptation because I thought most of the singing was awful.  Listening to Pierce Brosnan sing was actually painful and Colin Firth (whom I love) was not much better.  I know I had unrealistic expectations but I didn't like it so I dismissed the sequel out of hand.  The only reason I decided to see it was because the trailers intrigued me.  Before the first number was over I was completely enthralled.  Donna Sheridan (Meryl Streep) has been dead for a year and Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) has rebuilt the hotel to continue her dream.  Everyone has been invited to the grand opening including Tanya (Christine Baranski), Rosie (Julie Walters), Harry (Colin Firth), Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) and Sam (Pierce Brosnan).  Since Sky (Dominic Cooper) is away, she is helped by her hotel manager Fernando Cienfuegos (Andy Garcia).  As she thinks about her mother's dream there are flashbacks to when Donna (now played by Lily James) comes to the island, meets Harry, Bill, and Sam (Hugh Skinner, Josh Dylan, and Jeremy Irvine, respectively), and discovers that she is pregnant.  When Sophie discovers that she is pregnant, she finally understands that her mother's dream was all about her not the hotel.  What drew me in was the charismatic performance of James who can really sing and dance.  In fact, I loved all of the younger versions of the characters, especially Jessica Keenan Wynn as Tanya (she looks and acts so much like Christine Baranski that I thought they had digitally altered her to look younger).  I really loved all of the Abba songs, especially some of the more obscure ones like "Why Did It Have to Be Me," "Andante, Andante," "I've Been Waiting For You," and "My Love, My Life," and I loved how all of them were staged, particularly "Waterloo" and "Dancing Queen" which is so fun (watching Colin Firth's antics on the boat had me laughing out loud!).  The singing in this movie is so much better than the original because Lily James and Amanda Seyfried, the best singers of the group, do most of it with other characters singing with them or as an ensemble.  Finally, I need to gush for a moment about Cher who plays Sophie's grandmother.  When she sees Fernando across the crowded room I started laughing out loud again because I knew what was coming and it was everything I could have hoped for!  I had so much fun watching this movie, much to my surprise, and I highly recommend it!