callichair
This is one of the greatest animated films I have ever seen and with 5 kids, I see a lot of them! Our whole family enjoys it - there's a little something for everyone. It's visually captivating and very funny. The music is another winning aspect. There are some old favorites, Mexican style, and some very touching love ballads as well. It's just an all around great story. Do yourself a favor and watch it!
SquigglyCrunch
I went into the Book of Life with very little expectations. I didn't even know what it was about, I was just curious. Unfortunately I have very mixed feelings about it. The plot is great. It's a romance where a woman must choose between two very different men, meanwhile two gods have placed bets on who will marry the woman. It's a twist on the romantic genre that I really appreciated, and it satisfied for the most part (although we've seen the whole 'woman must choose partner from two men' scenario before, but it's not something we can really complain about, so long as it's presented well). The first hour of the movie is absolutely stunning. The plot is done so perfectly that I couldn't wait to see the outcome. But during the last half-hour it declined into a very, very average movie. I saw great potential in how the story would continue, but sadly it was unable to do so. It suddenly indulged itself in some horrible clichés that were unbelievably ill-suited to the previous hour. The characters are quite great too. While some of them are cliché, they're presented in such a way that really doesn't emphasize that fact. But once again, in the last 30 minutes some of them slacked off a little, which was a real downer. Now, since I've gotten the main stuff out of the way, let me elaborate on the last 30 minutes. By that time the awe of the visual style had worn off, so it was suddenly less impressive. Not only that, but the movie suddenly became much more action orientated. Now I think that the action could have been used very effectively, but it wasn't taken seriously enough (I'll come back to this later). Now I know that the whole movie really wasn't taken very seriously, but they were little jokes that were still amusing and although not laugh out loud funny, still fit the movie. It managed to maintain a relatively serious tone throughout the movie, and by the hour mark it looked to be taking a much darker turn that I knew would be for the better. Unfortunately, it didn't take that darker turn, and instead became way more light- hearted and 'fun', only it didn't suit the rest of the movie so it really wasn't that fun. I saw serious potential in how the rest of the story would play out, but instead it went for some less dark, less serious, and more predictable path. Towards the end, when the climax happened it was very unoriginal and boring to watch because I'd seen it all before in other kid's movies, where even then I hadn't been impressed (as a kid). Still, the last 30 minutes weren't awful...or so I thought. To avoid spoilers I'll just say that something so stupid, so unoriginal, and so ill-suited happened that it really hurt to watch. And then something even worse happened, and suddenly The Book of Life had gone from one of the greatest movies I've ever seen, and probably the best romance I've ever seen, to just a good movie. Normally I might just give this movie a 6/10 and be on with it, but with the absolute awe I was in at the beginning of the movie, I had to pay this movie some credit. While the first hour was a solid 9.5/10 and the last half hour was a 4.5-5/10, I decided to do a bit of rough math and settled upon a 7.5/10, because the majority of it was fantastic, but 1/3 of the movie was garbage. Weighed in with the bitter disappointment of the ending I'd say that that's a pretty accurate rating for it.Overall The Book of Life was impressive to say the least. Never have I ever seen a movie go from phenomenal to absolute trash so abruptly. It didn't gradually become awful, it was just suddenly awful, and then it just kept getting worse. I understand that its a kid's movie but jeez, you could have made it dark and still child- friendly. Not all animated movies have to be child-friendly either. Nevertheless, the movie was, for the first 2/3, fantastic. The visuals were flawless, the plot was driven fantastically well, the characters were cliché but still great. The last 1/3 was blatantly cliché, predictable, disappointing, lacking in character, lacking in cleverness, lacking in tone, and lacking in originality. It was a complete disappointment. In the end I'd recommend this movie, but only for the visuals and first hour. After that you might as well finish it, but don't be surprised if you find yourself scratching your head and wondering what the heck went wrong in the writer's mind.
