Post by Komori on Sept 25, 2014 21:37:00 GMT -5
I was fortunate enough to see an early screening of this movie, so I figured I'd give my impressions of it:
NON-spoiler summary:
Overall, I liked it. The visual style was wonderful, probably the best-looking film I've seen in years, and SO refreshing to get away from the "standard Disney/Pixar character design." There were unique cultural themes that you never see on the big screen, and they treated the Day of the Dead like an actual holiday to be respected, and it wasn't just used as a gimmick. Some of the characters were interesting and complex, while others were so painfully tropetastic I almost made myself dizzy from all the eye-rolling I was doing. The pacing was a little bit too quick for all the story they tried to tell, and they completely could've done without the narrative framing device. The humor was a lot of puns and slapstick, but they had good timing, so it may or may not be your bag.
I just wish they had faith in the story they were telling, because there were pop culture elements that felt thrown in for the benefit of people uncomfortable with watching a movie about someone else's culture, and they were jarringly distracting.
Now all the spoilery parts:
Oh Maria. Maria, Maria. This movie tried SO hard to not have the "prize to be won" girl character, but it really DID just have a prize to be won girl character. I mean, it's the entire plot: two gods make a bet over which guy gets to marry the girl. She is literally the prize at the end. But they tried SO hard to make her a "strong woman TM" to compensate that she just felt like Trope upon trope. Gasp, she reads books? Yeah, that has nothing to do with anything, but let's throw that in there. Also she supposedly can swordfight, but doesn't really. She gets to have her indignant-Jasmine moment when she baits Joaquin with the "Oh, lemme cook and clean for youuuuu... YOU CAD!!" moment. She was just... bleh. It felt like the writers were trying, but it wasn't working for me. At least there's no harm in little girls watching this movie and seeing her as a role model.
Thankfully, I think La Muerta and even Manolo's mom were more interesting female characters.
And man, that framing device with the kids at the museum. That was just all sorts of distracting, and did NOTHING for the movie. If they really felt they needed a narrator to introduce these cultural elements to the audience, I would've preferred to just have bookend scenes on both sides of the movie, then just voiceover narration to explain things. But popping back to the museum every so often so the kids could say some stupid thing the audience already understood? Totally disruptive of the flow.
Plotwise, too, I think they were just trying to fit in too many characters with goals. I mean, both gods had their own motivations for winning their bet, Manolo had two goals (both winning the girl AND trying to be a singer instead of a bullfighter), Maria had hers (balancing being her own woman and protecting the town), Joaquin had his (winning Maria AND trying to get out from under his father's shadow), Manolo's dad wanted his son to be a bullfighter, Maria's dad wanted to protect the town. Heck, even the bandit had some elaborate backstory about stealing the life amulet and then losing it and going crazy because he lost it. HOLY CRAP that's a LOT of plot! No wonder everything seemed so fast-paced and some elements barely touched-on.
Also, can I say how much I hated the Candlemaker? Ugh, he reminded me of those hiphop birds in Rio. Like, totally unnecessary and distracting. And like, kind of offensive, I guess? Why the heck does this Mexican story have Ice Cube voicing this god who's fist-bumping and using slang? Is he supposed to be like the Genie of this movie? Cuz it isn't working.
ALSO! See this movie in 2D! (As in, without 3D glasses). I had to watch it in 3D, and the 3D effects aren't NEARLY good enough to warrant missing out on like 40% of the vibrancy of those colors! I kept lifting my glasses and lamenting how much of the color I was missing out on. ;_;