Marco 5: Epilogue

Marco 5: Epilogue (most commonly known as Marco 5, and originally titled Marco 5: Family Staycation) is a 2022 Marcanese computer-animated dystopian science-fiction mystery romance film produced by Anaya Animation and released by Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and Amazon Studios. The seventh and final installment of the Marco franchise and the sequel to Marco 4 (2017), the film is directed by Kevin Armand (in his feature-length directorial debut) from a screenplay by Gennedy Tartakovsky (who served as director of the Hotel Cloudylandia movies and the 2021 Marco Toon Family Staycation), and produced by Cody Cameron, Mike Rianda, & Joe Murray. It stars the voices of Adam Sandler (replacing Hugh Jackman as the voice of Marco), Joseph Gonzales Jr, Tina Fey, Selena Gomez (who replaced Julia Sawalha as the voice of Melissa), Pierre Coffin, Anna Faris, Mel Gibson, Renee Zellweger, Jason Sudekis, Kristen Bell, Danny DeVito, Andy Samberg, Ed Helms, and Tony Hale. In this film, Marco and his friends enjoy retirement until one day, their world gets changed to some dystopia, which forces Marco and his remaining crew to stop an evil algorithm clone he made from launching some tech uprising to save the world.

Originally planned to be released theatrically in the United States on June 4, 2021, Sony Pictures Releasing cancelled the film's release plans in favor of Joaquin & Emiliano: The Rise Of Marco, and sold the film's distribution rights to Amazon Studios for $100 million, due to rising cases of COVID-19 in the United States and troubled production delays. The film was released exclusively on Anaya+, Paramount+, and Amazon Prime Video on January 14, 2022. The film received mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike.

Plot
The film opens with Marco himself as he explains the whole film, and later plays freeze tag with his friends at Zube Park. Suddenly, he meets Aileene and both remember past memories together, ending up as they dance along Broadway Street. Four years later, Marco gets depressed after Aileene left him in favor of someone else, thus forcing him to design some algorithmic clone named AI as his new friend.

In the present days, Marco and his family attend an Astros game and rest at Hermann Park afterwards. Two weeks later, they take some trip to Schlitterbahn New Braunfels with their church group. The next day, Bom Bin invites Marco and his family as they attend his grand circus festival held in Houston. Arriving at home, they get surprised when their friends host yet another party in dedication to Marco and his total retirement from espionage. However, when everyone complains about the Internet going slow, Marco stops the party and goes to his basement where AI has been hiding for a long time. Marco introduces AI to his friends, much to their amazement, and later hosts a fireworks party to keep everyone engaged. After having spent time at Juan Angel's ranch the previous day, Marco convinces his friends to take a tour around Galveston for one last trip together during spring break, but without AI as he plans to sabotage Marco for leaving him. During their voyage towards Galveston, Melissa & Isabella spot Kemah Boardwalk and the crew decide to go there instead. Upon arriving to Galveston, they stop at Guido's for seafood but later encounter some giant thundercloud in which AI commands Marco to let go of his friends. Marco refuses to let go, but AI kidnaps them into space cubes and destroys Galveston, only for him to notice Aileene as she gets taken as well. Marco and his remaining crew: Pepe, Isabella, Melissa, Joaquin & Emiliano, Juan Angel, and Miguel Angel, decide to seek help with their Silver Springs friends via the Zbylot SUV.

Meanwhile, AI orders everyone to stay in their assigned cubes while performing some microchip injection towards Edgar, to which he returns in his monster form and much to everyone's utter shock. As they saw what happened on AI-5000 in the news, Marco and his crew build some rocket to get there. After some tumultuous voyage across outer space, they arrive at AI-5000 and encounter Camerabot, who guides them to AI's base. They get pushed back by members of The AI-5000 Games, in which they participate against the Holograms, AI's sports team. After having won a game of basketball with the Holograms, Marco and company attempt to seize AI but ultimately fail to do so. AI knocks Marco unconsciously with his ray and plunges him back to Galveston while the others get stuck somewhere in Uganda, where they find a crystal that could defeat AI.

Marco awakens in an enormous junkyard and arrives to Hotel Iandonia with an old GPS he found there. Having been turned to a monster, Marco uses a secret vanishing cream that relieved him back to human, and stops at a nearby restaurant in Tomball where he meets Talia, who welcomes him with her signature frappe. Meanwhile, Pepe and his crew navigate from the Sahara Desert to Dubai, where they attempt to build another rocket. Wanting to kill Marco, AI orders Madcap to summon all AI-5000 Max Prime robots to go after him. After having survived the robot apocalypse, Marco & Talia take a tour around Silver Springs, where Marco develops a love relationship with Talia after explaining his affair with Aileene to her. On the news, AI lies to Pepe and his crew saying that Marco is "presumably dead" and Pepe holds a grudge against him, to which Isabella & Melissa calm down Pepe and tell him that AI's statement was a lie. Still worried about Marco and his whereabouts, Pepe and the crew search for him in Galveston while Marco & Talia drive there. Now together, Marco and his friends get teleported by Melissa back to AI-5000 since they couldn't afford to build another rocket, and disguise themselves as robots in order to sneak in AI's base. AI learns about Marco and his friends still being alive and sends a second wave of robots to attack them. Reinvigorated, Marco keeps his new identity as Marcoman and, along with Talia, confronts AI and Madcap after his friends take down the robot army. As Marco tries to expose AI with the crystal, Talia throws Madcap down a digital suspension bridge by means of telekinesis, which she also gives to Marco through her DNA. Unfortunately, AI steals the crystal and uses it to weaken Marco's special powers. AI breaks the crystal and commands his guards to lock him in the dungeon, where he sees Aileene once again. Marco tries to comfort her, but Aileene accuses him of having made AI in the first place. Feeling ashamed of his apathy towards Aileene, Marco comes to an agreement with her and together they save Talia, who was getting tormented by AI's human extractor. Aileene joins everyone else as they head back to Earth safely with the rocket, while Marco & Talia get challenged to play a game of hopscotch with AI, in which Marco attempts to vacuum him through his laptop. AI breaks Marco's laptop, and both seize him with the ray as they escape AI-5000, which explodes into several cubes. Back at Galveston, Marco's friends congratulate him and accept Talia as part of their family, and they celebrate Juan Angel's birthday at his ranch afterwards.

With everything having been turned back to normal thanks to the ray, Marco and his friends arrive to Hotel Iandonia, only for them to see the hotel being destroyed. Marco bemoans his loss, and decides to say one last emotional goodbye to his family and friends as he leaves with Talia, much to Aileene's sorrow.

One year later, Pepe builds the newly made Hotel Galveston and shows it to Marco & Talia, which they come to enjoy.

Voice cast
Main article: List of Marco characters


 * Adam Sandler as Marco
 * Joseph Gonzales Jr. as Pepe
 * Tina Fey as Isabella
 * Pierre Coffin as Joaquin & Emiliano, Brian, Marco's kids, and Mateo.
 * Chloe Garcia-Moretz as Talia
 * Selena Gomez as Melissa
 * Mel Gibson as Kevin
 * Anna Faris as Aileene
 * Renee Zellweger as Marlene
 * Jason Sudekis as Josue
 * Danny DeVito as Derek
 * Ed Helms as Bom Bin and Pohlino
 * Kristen Bell as Fabi
 * Andy Samberg as Bradley
 * Tony Hale as Mr. Mime
 * Ben Mendelsohn as AI
 * Jamie Demetriou as Madcap
 * Mike Rianda as Richard Zimmerman
 * Keegan-Michael Key as Justin Zimmerman

Production
Plans for a fifth Marco film in the series were in the talks after the release of Marco 4 (2017). Steve Burke, the CEO of NBCUniversal, confirmed that the film would be released on August 2020.

Release
Marco 5: Epilogue was released by Amazon Studios through Prime Video on January 14, 2022, as well as streaming services Anaya+ and Paramount+ by Paramount Pictures, who won a bid against Lionsgate and Warner Bros. Pictures for the film's distribution rights in May 2021. In February 2019, Sony Pictures Releasing scheduled the film for release in August 2020. In April 2020, the film was moved up to June 4, 2021 due to rising cases of COVID-19. However, due to production issues and the completion of Joaquin & Emiliano: The Rise Of Marco, the film got pushed back to October 1, 2021 in order to avoid two Marco movies on the same day.

In August 2021, Sony Pictures Releasing cancelled the film's theatrical plans and went into negotiations with Amazon Studios to release the film by streaming on March 4, 2022. In October 2021, the film moved up to a February 16, 2022 release to celebrate the 17th anniversary of the original film. Later, the film got released on January 14, 2022 according to Amazon Studios.


 * Marco 5: Epilogue is rated PG by the MPAA for "action, some rude humor, brief language, cartoon nudity, and thematic elements"

Critical reception
Marco 5: Epilogue received mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike, who praised its animation, writing, and emotional depth but criticized its humor and story. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently holds a rating of 63% out of 147 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "This Epilogue to such a beloved animated series has gone to a middling, if dreary, conclusion." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 52 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.