A bad sign watching a movie is thinking mostly negative thoughts and after an hour I was thinking: 1) This really isn't a movie for kids as it is too dark and somber 2) This really isn't a movie for adults as it doesn't capture what made the first film memorable 3) Emily Blunt has talent but she isn't a Julie Andrews or a Mary Poppins 4) Emily Mortimer has that certain smile and would make a better Mary Poppins 5) Will this film get any better? and 6) The songs are pretty lame. There was one positive thought and that was Lin-Manual Miranda was continuing his place on the top of the hill after "In The Heights", "Hamilton", his score for "Moana", being honored on The Kennedy Center Honors this week, plus winning an Emmy Award, A Tony Award, Grammy Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, about to reprise his role as Hamilton opening the show in Puerto Rico and now doing a good job as Jack, the man who lights and shuts off the street lamps in the streets of London during the Great Slump of the 1930s. Up to the hour and a half point--no pun intended--he is the only bright light. Julie Walker, as the housekeeper, is almost an afterthought while Colin Firth should have been given a mustache to twirl as the villain to do something with the role. As the Banks children Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh and Joel Dawson they are given little more than they are expected to while Emily Mortimer, as their aunt, lights up the screen here and there and Ben Whishaw, as their father, really is wooden up to and in the last half hour of the film when he really comes through in a moving scene. Oh, yes, the less said about Meryl Streep, her song and her time on the screen the better. The last half hour in no way makes up for the first 90-95 minutes but the screen does come alive with a song and dance by 93 year-old Dick Van Dyke up on a desk, with movie magic or not, reprising "Tripping The Light Fantastic" done earlier in the film by Miranda, along with 93 year-old Angela Lansbury as the Balloon Lady singing one of the better songs from the movie, "Nowhere To Go but Up" starting a full cast number. Lin-Manuel Miranda always talks about watching the old song and dance movies and in "Mary Poppins Returns" he has two numbers, the first being "Tripping The Light Fantastic" and the second, "Race To Big Ben", that fulfill any dreams he might have had and brings back the magic of "Mary Poppins". "Mary Poppins Returns" offers 30 minutes of entertainment in a film that is 130 minutes long and can probably watch Lin-Manuel Miranda, Dick Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury in their show shopping numbers on youtube! Movie trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3jsfXDZLIY