Marco 5: Epilogue

***Marco 5: Epilogue*** (or also known as ***Marco 5*** and originally titled *Marco 5: Family Staycation*) is an 2022 Marcanese American computer-animated dystopian mystery comedy film produced by Anaya Animation (without any involvement from Actors 3D) and distributed by Columbia Pictures under Sony Pictures Releasing & Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by Kevin Armand in his feature directorial debut, produced by Cody Cameron & Joe Murray, and written by Mike Rianda & Gennedy Tartakovsky (who previously worked on the *Hotel Cloudylandia* films and the 2021 Marco Toon *Family Staycation*); the returning cast is joined by newcomers Jake T. Austin, Ben Mendelsohn, Jamie Demetriou, Chloe Garcia-Moretz, Abbi Jacobson, Johnny Depp, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Emily Blunt, Clint Eastwood, David Cross, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Wilg, Rianda (as the voice of Richard), Tommy Lee Jones, among others. The seventh and final installment of the *Marco* franchise, the film has Marco & his friends enjoying retired lives from espionage until Marco's menacing AI algorithm clone decides to take over the world with a tech uprising.

The film got released on January 12, 2022 following *Joaquin & Emiliano: The Rise Of Marco* and received generally mixed reviews from critics & audiences alike albeit being a box office bomb, grossing $150 million under its $475 million budget.

## Plot

After the events of *Marco 4,* Marco & his friends fully dedicate themselves to almost perfect lives of well-deserved retirement from too much espionage: they attend an Astros game that's kinda worth the watch, hop on a train ride through Hermann Park, ride on the waves at Schiltterbahn New Braunfels, attend Bom Bin's prestigious grand circus festival, among other fun things. Everything goes well and Marco creates his most recent high-tech creation: Marco's highly kind and intelligent AI algorithm clone. Impressed by Marco's newest creation, his friends take him back to his birthplace Galveston for a nice spring break vacation, until suddenly... Marco's AI clone becomes self-aware that he's meant to be Marco's most threatening arch-nemesis to date and abducts all of humanity, even Marco's family and friends, except for Marco & his siblings along with Joaquin & Emiliano and his new friends. Marco's world comes crashing down as he and his remaining friends must return their dystopian world back to normal, stop AI and some tech uprising while also destroying his semi-utopian planet, and most of all returning their missing friends back to Earth safely. And as Marco soon realizes that he's getting all lame... he's got plenty of cool superpowers too. However, he also encounters someone else who he could start a relationship with...

## Good Qualities

1. The animation is very vivid and expressive with even more flashy colors as always despite the film's animation style *completely* being copied straight out of *Hotel Cloudylandia*; however, this *Marco* film arguably has the best if not the most impressive photorealistic visuals and animation. The animators also take full advantage of Marco's superpowers and limb movements in such a fun way.
2. The new characters are really amazing additions to the franchise, much in part thanks to the residents of Silver Springs and Princy:
	* The residents of Silver Springs are very kindhearted and overly sympathetic church members whom already knew Marco & his friends and still treat them well regardless of their differences; essentially, they are good-natured optimistic Christians whom have lots of enthusiasm, care much about the people around them, and have strong faith in God while not being the stereotypical "highly religious" people: which include the Zbylots, the Zimmermans, and the Crowells.
	* Marco's new friends are also great characters for this film: Justin & Socky make great comic reliefs, Richard and Peter make a great dynamic thanks to their clever tactics of helping Marco's team and Peter's several quotes, Emily makes for an overly kind and sympathetic character, and Juan Angel serves as a decent comic relief although not as good as Justin or Socky in terms of character.
3. Very cool soundtrack once again from Mark Mothersbaugh and Mark Ronson, with songs such as "Ain't We Going To Walk The Moon?" by DJ Rapper and "Something's Crazy Here" by Jake; as well as excellent choice songs like "24K Magic" & "Wake Up In The Sky" by Bruno Mars, "I Hate Everything About You" by Three Days Grace, and "New Day" by Danny Gokey.
4. The idea of Marco & his friends saving the world from a tech uprising while also returning the world back to normal, although the execution being similar to that of *Hotel Cloudylandia 3: Traversmania,* is very cool yet interesting at the same time. Also, the concepts of two alternate universes (one being completely dystopian, the other being a semi-utopian planet driven by artificial intelligence) and that of Marco gaining his own superpowers are very fantastic.
5. Awesome voice acting from the returning cast as well as newcomers Ben Mendelsohn, Jamie Demetriou, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Emily Blunt, Abbi Jacobson, Kristen Wilg, Kathryn Hahn, screenwriter Mike Rianda, and especially Tommy Lee Jones & David Cross as Agent Clark and Peter respectively.
6. Some funny if hilarious moments in this film; such as the scenes with Justin, the dinner scene in which Marco & his new friends attempt to eat crawfish with chili, whenever Madcap interrupts AI's evil plans or tries to correct AI's errors (a really good example of this would be when AI orders Madcap his crown despite the fact that they are both holograms), the scene where Marco plays with himself after being lame (also worth mentioning the Columbia Pictures opening scene), and this gem whenever Princy requests Marco to have her "frequent espionage victim" card stamped.
7. The Astros opening scene, the Hermann Park scene, Bom Bin's grand circus festival scene, the Schiltterbahn scene, the Kemah Boardwalk scene, and the Galveston scene are very memorable, with the latter scene having us wonder what would've happened if Marco visited his birthplace for the first time.
8. AI is a very threatening and kinda funny villain who comes off as a major threat for Marco & his friends like or even more so than Edgar; his motives for destroying Earth are justified since he only wanted to transport humanity to a much better planet despite his sole purpose of eradicating them for his desired revenge on Marco, who deprogrammed him although his primary intention was to make AI kind and smart like him. He is the prime example of how artificial intelligence could affect people's lives in negative ways, and also someone whom people try to make him good but later becomes evil due to his self-awareness. Even better than AI would be Madcap, since he is technically the "kinder" version of AI despite him being inept if maniacal and provides the best jokes in this film concerning AI and his planet; he also has very cool features such as his verbal mouth expressions and fireball weapon like that of Sir Clay Moriarty from *Animated.*
9. Several emotional moments throughout the film that either come off as heartwarming, impactful, or just downright sad and tearjerking; like the film's opening scene in which Marco says goodbye to Aileene after she decides to leave him alone in favor of her new boyfriend, the coffee shop scene when Princy welcomes Marco with her signature frappe drink, the dungeon scene, the Thanksgiving scene, the scene when Marco falls down to some landfill, and the film's ending scene.
10. It's very nice to see all of the other *Marco* characters from the previous films making cameo appearances here in this film, and also some fan favorites such as Edgar, Ian, Bradley, and Marlene.
11. Very nice and different if unexpected twist on the Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and Anaya Animation logos referencing *The Matrix*: the Sony logo gets pale and the "O" transfers to the Columbia Pictures logo (now black and white) in which the Torch Lady, after getting herself reflected by the sun, gets blue glitches only for Marco to show up as the Torch Lady; the Paramount Pictures logo seems normal but seconds later turns pale with the stars and mountain disappearing; and the Anaya Animation logo is shown with white font over a black background in which some (and then all) of the letters disappear by the blue glitch.
12. These quotes became instant memes even before this film got released to theaters:
	* **"Gee, it's like Resurrection Sunday but only on a Friday"**
	* **"*JUST GIVE ME MY CUP OF COFFEE!!"***
	* **"Whoa, that was just a tiny *explosion!*"**
	* **"Why... *why* am I so *bleh?!*"**

## Bad Qualities

1. This film somewhat rips-off *Hotel Cloudylandia 3: Traversmania,* which came 6 months earlier although that film received even worse reviews. However, that statement can't save this film as it has a similar animation style to the aforementioned film and almost has the same premise; and on top of that, this film doesn't actually feel like a *Marco* film at all, as the previous films got used to Hanna Barbera-style animation, not Tex Avery-style.
	* Doesn't help either that the song used for the trailers and this film is actually Blackpink's "How Do You Like That?" as *Hotel Cloudylandia 3: Traversmania* already used that song before, despite it being catchy and fit for this film.
2. The action scenes are somewhat lame compared to the previous films, especially when compared to *Marco 3* and *Marco 4,* despite this film having a great finale.
3. Some of the new characters, such as Miguel Angel and the Trashbots (whom serve as blatant rip-offs of the ones from *Robotman*), are either pointless comic reliefs or just serve as unnecessary filler.
4. There's even more awkward moments in this film than in the previous ones, one obvious example being the scene when Marco gets transformed to some lame monster-like being and another one being Miguel Angel eating sand at AI's stolen section of the Sahara Desert. Still, there are also moments in which the film can get *way too* dark for its target audience, such as when AI & Madcap impose Edgar the microchip.
5. While some moments in the film are very funny, there's also some or most instances in which the humor could be hit-or-miss for the most part, or even downright terrible to a much greater extent.