Fish and Cherries Productions

The Book of Life was a huge slog to get through. Granted, the animation was absolutely beautiful, especially in the Land of the Dead segments, and definitely deserves merits in its own right. But the script is a complete wash with clichés, arbitrariness, and inconsistencies abound. Also baffling was the use of contemporary music with a mariachi twist, when traditional Mexican music or more original songs would have been better. On top of that, rapper Ice Cube as the great spirit known as The Candlemaker was a huge misstep. He was so out of place and every scene he was speaking in made me cringe.

Perhaps the biggest flaw is how the film almost never has any quiet moments. There’s constant dialogue, noise, and unnecessary narration, like the film is afraid the audience would get bored if it didn’t. The key element of cinema is to show, don’t tell, and this film fails on that front pretty hard. It would have been better if they had allowed things to be delivered through visuals and teach kids to recognize that early in life. Children are smarter than we give them credit for and need to be treated with respect. You just can’t do that when the kids aren’t even allowed a moment to process things or figure things out for themselves. However, a few people I know seem to like it despite its flaws, so maybe I should leave this up to you guys. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend this unless you’re an animation enthusiast or curious about the cultural aspects, and even then I would wait for the rental.

Guardians of the Galaxy was, as expected, a lot of fun and a great direction for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to go. It’s interesting because apart from being a new, untested property, Guardians also has the least continuity connection with the rest of the movies (apart from one significant plotline), which was refreshing, but at the same time I sorely missed some reference to the Asgardians or having the only human scene have a Stark Industries billboard in the background. It’s also a new direction because this is the first straight up comedy in the franchise; while Iron Man and Thor definitely straddled the line between action and comedy, Guardians of the Galaxy dives in head first and decides it doesn’t want to come up for air. Sadly, though, the comedy water didn’t penetrate all of its internal organs, as the villains are both lacking in humor and personality. They’re cool, but that’s about it. While we’re on the subject of weak characters, I felt that Gamora was underutilized and didn’t really live up to her reputation as the deadliest woman in the universe. The rest of the main cast is great fun, though I have to give the award to Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon. That man truly nailed the part. With all that said, I’m worried that there’s a bit of a quirkiness to the directing, writing, and editing that may put people off a bit, though I personally enjoyed it. All in all, though, if you can get past that, you’ve got a great experience that I will personally recommend (could’ve used more “I am Groot,” though). Now, Marvel, if you could now do a Captain/Ms. Marvel and Black Panther movie, that would be great. Don’t keep me waiting now.