The Book of Life - Analysis and Review

Color me...confused

About 1/3 into the movie, I was asking myself this question: Why does this movie have a 79% certified fresh critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes?

The Plot

Two deities, voiced by Kate Del Castillo and Ron Perlman, make a wager involving two young men, voiced by Diego Luna and Channing Tatum, on which one of them will marry their childhood crush, voiced by Zoe Saldana. The stakes? The kingdoms of the dead.

Analysis

Theatrically released kids movies, pretty much have a standard. That standard is, can adults find some form of enjoyment too? That standard for American cartoons was created by Walt Disney. His animated films contain heavy amounts of depth that didn't shy away from dark things, but was able to balance it well by sugarcoating the product into something kids can enjoy. Then Pixar took it a step further by having the notion that they make adult animated films that kids can enjoy and then fully understand once they grow up. Dreamworks accomplished this early on by being a little bit too adult, but eventually found the right balance once Guillermo Del Toro joined the group to oversee projects like Kung Fu Panda, Puss in Boots, and How to Train Your Dragon. 

That is what separates American animation from the highly popular Japanese anime. Good american animation hides mature themes with visual splendor and incredible storytelling. Japanese anime does this too, depending on what type of genre they're dealing with. If anything, the one Japanese studio that has mastered, and outclasses, this American form of animation is probably Studio Ghibli. Their films are just as whimsical as any Pixar or new age Dreamworks film, yet they don't hide being mature. Rather, they have it in the right places and utilize them in the right ways. Because in the end, incredible storytelling is what counts.

That's not what I saw here.

Review

This movie is boring. Plain and simple. It is really boring. Which given all the talent behind this film, I'm astonished. But then again part of me should be surprised. 

Guillermo Del Toro is one of my favorite directors, and has made one of my all time favorite comic book movies in Hellboy, but he attaches his name to a lot of things. And most of the time, just because his name is attached to it, does not mean it is good. It's a lesson that I should've learned whenever I saw the "Produced by Steven Spielberg" title card appear in the Transformers films, but perhaps I kept thinking because it is Del Toro, it might be different. I know that he wants to bring awareness of Mexican Culture to the states in a colorful way, and this project by animation director Jorge Gutierrez would've definitely been the best way to do so. If only the movie wasn't so... cliche.

Now, I like a lot of cliche movies. Just look at my reviews for Dracula Untold and Hercules. Both are really predictable and filled with cliches that are used only somewhat effectively. But while they are pretty bad movies, they are pretty damn good entertaining movies. This isn't. Now that sounds like a bad comparison because this is a kids film. But from my analysis section, you can pretty much pick up why I'm going to say this is a bad film: There is no subtlety or depth.

The characters, Manolo (Diego Luna), Joaquin (Channing Tatum) and Maria (Zoe Saldana) are extremely cliche. By extreme I mean you can predict already who is going to do what and even what a character is going to say. While each of them are distinct, they're more like caricatures of the cliches they are. Manolo is the dreamer, Joaquin is the macho hero and Maria is an independent woman who loves books. If you know the cliches of those characters, now think about what lines those cliches usually say and you'll be surprised when they say all the lines you predicted they'll say. While it's okay to have stock characters say cliche things, there at least has to be a lot more creativity with how they're said or even a few tweaks to the stock characters. Not only that, the supporting cast was extremely cliche. And you can probably predict what they're going to say as well and be right. This automatically kills any sense of character depth because it makes them all feel like they're picked up from a toy box. In fact, the frame story is they come from a toy box. But Toy Story did not feel this cliche and predictable. And they had way more personality than these puppets.

And the story. My god the story was just not paced well at all. Some portions of this movie was dedicated to having it being told as a story to detention students by a sexy museum tour guide. And yes, it is made clear that she is sexy from how all the male character act around her. Then nearly 20 minutes of the movie is spent with the characters as children, which was highly unnecessary when it could've been summed up in just one to five minutes. Then almost 45 minutes of the movie is dedicated to the adult main characters as they childishly fight over Maria. Which honestly should've just been the first 20 minutes of the movie. Then when the interesting part that takes place in the two Underworlds happen, it is only the last remaining 20 minutes of the movie. That portion should've been the entire run time of the movie. The trailers make it seem like an hour of the movie will take place in the Land of the Remembered and the Land of the Forgotten, but nope, it just sped right through. This is mainly because it was trying to be epic by telling the story over decades when it really just needed to be told when Maria becomes a woman and the two guys are fighting over her. To put it simply, if you saw the trailer for the movie, you've seen the whole movie, and the trailer was better.

And what I'm flabbergasted by the most is the critical acclaim for this film. Most of the acclaim has the excuse that "the visuals are spectacular, even the story was so-so." In my opinion Sucker Punch had spectacular visuals and the story was so-so. Yet you don't see me giving that movie a positive rating, and I love Zack Snyder too. As far as the visuals go, this movie was not even anywhere remotely visually interesting. Yes, it does get interesting to look at once the character dies and goes to the Underworlds, but the movie doesn't spend too much time there. Instead it spends more time in the boring living world where boring dialogue just makes everything in this movie boring. And while the visuals of the Underworld was definitely something, it was not spectacular. A still image makes it spectacular, but in motion it is pretty bland. Compare the visual excitement of Rise of the Guardians' Santa's workshop to the "visual excitement" of the Land of the Remembered in this film and you'll notice that one is a million times superior to the other. 

There are some good things I should say though. Zoe Saldana is great and her voice is charming as the overtly cliched "I don't need a man" Maria. But Ron Perlman as the film's antagonist Xibalba was surprising for me. He nailed the Spanish accent and spoke with a cadence that made his voice unrecognizable for me. So that was a big surprise. But other than that, this movie was too short to have any depth yet felt like it was 3 hours long because of the boring characters and odd pacing.

Final Thoughts

If none of that made any sense then I'll just put it as this. It is a kids movie in the sense that only a child below the age of six will enjoy this movie. Meaning it is the type of movie you'd find as a straight to dvd release rather than a big theatrical one. Theatrical animated movies are indeed targeted for children, but the best animated movies are the ones made for adults yet children are capable of understanding them too. This movie fails in delivering a nice representation of Mexican Culture and as an animated kids movie. The feeling I had watching this movie was the same exact feeling I had watching Transformers: Age of Extinction. The only saving grace is that this movie was shorter, yet it still felt as long as Age of Extinction. Don't believe the critic ratings because this movie is trash. If you have a child though, this movie is definitely for them... but as a rental not a theater experience.

SCORE: 2/10 - Those two points are for Zoe Saldana and Ron Perlman's voice acting.

Guardians of the Galaxy - Analysis and Review

Hooked on a feeling. I'm high on believing!

Marvel Studios has reached the point where they can do whatever the hell they want. And by getting James Gunn to be the guy for their "whatever the hell we want" project... I'm so glad they did.

The Plot

After being abducted by aliens at a young age, Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) has now become a notorious rogue feared across the galaxy... according to him. But when his latest job to steal a mysterious object brings his weird world colliding into even weirder territory, he finds himself joining forces with an assassin (Zoe Saldana) sent to kill him; a pair of bounty hunters (Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel) who want to collect him; and a psychopath (Dave Bautista) who...is along for the ride for his own reasons. They will collide against a religious racist fanatic (Lee Pace) and a cyborg with daddy issues (Karen Gillan) featuring an appearance by Djimon Hounsou in order to save the galaxy.

Analysis

The fact that this is the ninth movie made by Marvel Studios and their biggest risk shows that they are fully confident with their properties. But the greatest showcase of that confidence was getting a talent like James Gunn on board. Rarely have I ever wanted to see a director succeed in the business more than Gunn. I was a huge fan of Slither and Super, so I knew right away that he'd be the ONLY guy who could pull off something this insane. Especially since this is not a big name property.

It's true. I may have a lot of knowledge about Marvel and be one of the few people to know who the Guardians of the Galaxy are, but I never read their comics. I know that there was a recent reboot a couple of years ago in order to gain interest in the property, which is how I learned about it. But from what I've been reading about it, it's not that interesting. Which is a shame because these are interesting characters. Yet apparently you have to be a really big supporter of Marvel in order to get into these characters. However, by interesting I mean there is something unique about them that makes them stand out from the cliche characters they are. But that doesn't mean none of them aren't unique. Namely Rocket Raccoon, the only reason people would take an interest in picking up the comics. Just to see a Raccoon wielding a gigantic gun. But other than him and maybe Groot, there really isn't much to do with them. 

The fact that they're not well known or well liked (aside from Rocket and Groot) becomes a major advantage for Gunn. The chance to do something crazy, while at the same time show that these characters can be interesting. Does he succeed?

Review

The characters in this movie are the reasons to watch this movie. Literally. With the dialogue of James Gunn's writing flowing through these characters, they become some of the most interesting Marvel characters to inhabit this Cinematic Universe in a long time. The fact that I stated they're not interesting in my Analysis section says a lot about how much they are definitely the soul of this movie.

You have Star Lord aka Peter Quill played by Chris Pratt. The once chubby guy on Parks and Rec is now on the road to becoming a huge movie star. His devil may care charm will remind many of Harrison Ford's two legendary roles as well as a remembrance of the magic that Robert Downey Jr. brought to the role of Tony Stark. He played the role brilliantly with a lot of wit and flair. Then there is the now official modern queen of sci-fi Zoe Saldana who takes on the role of Gamora, daughter of the Mad Titan. While her character may be the weakest of the bunch as she's more subdued as being a violent person who wants to be a better person, it does not take away from the fact that Saldana can convince you that she is a monster (a sexy one) who wants to change her ways. Then there's a surprisingly great and funny performance by wrestler Dave Bautista as the crazy literal Drax the Destroyer. He may not be as great of an actor as his fellow wrestler Dwayne Johnson, but in the role of Drax he delivers as a psychopath with a singular goal. But all out honesty, the real stand out performances of the film are its two CGI characters: Rocket and Groot.

Rocket and Groot were not motion capture like the way Andy Serkis has been rolling, but that doesn't exempt their respective actors Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel from delivering great vocal performances. Cooper does an amazing job as the angry sarcastic raccoon who doesn't know he's a raccoon. He was definitely the scene stealer of the movie, along with his house plant Groot. While I'll never understand why Vin Diesel was chosen to play a role that only required him to say three words, he still did a lot with his voice to make sure the innocent creature in a bad crowd comes to life. Though it does seem like a waste to have Vin Diesel and not exploit what he's good at, he still does a good job. Which brings me to another point: This movie is a waste of talent.

By talent I mean the actors and actresses playing the villains and background characters feel like wasted opportunities. First off you have Lee Pace, an incredibly underrated actor who auditioned to play Star Lord but instead plays the film's primary villain. Did not care about him. Did not buy his political views. Did not buy his racism. Did not even buy his radical religious views. All I saw was a really talented guy that Marvel felt sorry for not giving him the lead role but instead put him in the movie as a rather dumb evil villain for the sake of being evil. Wasted. Then there's Karen Gillan from Doctor Who fame playing Nebula, Gamora's sister. Again. Do not buy her motivations against Gamora. Do not buy her need to betray her father. I do buy her as evil and easy on the eyes despite being half robot. Wasted. Djimon Hounsou plays Korath. Shows up for the opening scene. Shows up for the middle important scene. Shows up for the end battle. Does nothing impressive. Wasted. Then you have background (I'd call them supporting but eh) characters. Glen Close as Nova Prime. Could've gotten any woman to play that role. Wouldn't have made a single difference. John C. Reily playing a Nova Corps. officer. Anyone could've played that role. He does something important, but then again an extra could've played that role. Benicio Del Toro as The Collector. The most interesting thing he did was not in this movie but in the post credits scene at the end of Thor: The Dark World. Was he good in here? No. Was he important? Yes. Was he still wasted? Definitely. It seemed really pointless having all these talented people in this movie only to have them do small stuff that wouldn't have made a difference to the movie if not cast. The Winter Soldier had Robert f***ing Redford in the movie and he's not a waste of talent. This just feels like a bunch of famous or talented people wanting to be in the movie just because its part of Marvel. While it makes sense career wise, this just seems dumb.

The only supporting character (see that I said supporting) played by a talented actor who is not wasted is Michael Rooker as Yondu. He was definitely one of the many surprises of the movie and he's in the movie a lot more than one might think. Which is why he doesn't feel wasted, because he's given a lot more to do.

And the story is nothing new. It is a standard Marvel story. If you watch it then you'll notice a huge pattern in Marvel movies now. However that doesn't prevent it from being fun. Because believe me, the movie is really fun.

Final Thoughts

Despite my qualms with the waste of a talented supporting cast, I have to once again bring the praise back to the main cast. Pratt, Saldana, Cooper, Diesel, and Bautista are the main reasons you should watch this movie. Even though Saldana and Cooper are proven powerful actors, it is incredible to watch them with a rising star and two genre actors who are giving it their all. Sure, the story is not great. Sure, the villains are not impressive. But watching a movie about the interactions of these characters is way more entertaining than watching the interactions of The Avengers. Yeah, they're that good. So watch for these incredible characters brought to life by these great actors.

SCORE: 8/10 - The best cast of characters ever assembled, versus dull wasted talent

PS: The after credits scene is of Howard The Duck. Just saying that because if you're expecting something awesome, there isn't anything awesome. It is just Howard the Duck. Funny, but only to people who know who Howard The Duck is. If you don't know who that is, don't stay for the post credits.