Weekly Wednesday: The Book of Life is misleading
Graphic by Arimeta Diop
October 22, 2014
More beautiful visually, than emotionally The Book of Life succeeded in creating a stunning visual masterpiece, but sadly failed to deliver the compelling story to compliment it.
The tale follows a Hispanic man named Monolo, who was having a conflict with his friend Joaquin because of a woman they both wanted to marry. While having this fight on his mind, he also has to deal with his family frowning upon his dream to become a performer and musician. Now as a story The Book of Life is a cliché classic tale of two friends Manolo, and Joaquin fighting over the same woman. What makes this movie stand out from the others, was that Maria, the Damsel in distress was really their friend, who didn’t care if she was married or not. Along with the clichés, the story was incredibly slow. The movie spent the first hour of the story to build up for the plot, and then handed the viewer everything at the last half hour. It was very frustrating having to wait until the last third for the story to fully begin. An example of this, was the entire back story of the main characters. It is always great to have a back story of characters, but it seemed to have ran too long for many viewers.
With voices by Latino actor Diego Luna, and surprisingly Channing Tatum, the characters were given a true Mexican feel through the accents, and dialogue, through the occasional use of basic spanish. However, a very poor choice was made by casting rapper, Ice Cube to play the divine character, Candle Maker. Along with the poor actor choices, the characters seemed to have little to no development from the beginning to the end. Manolo, who should be the main dynamic character, seemed to be more of a static character, because the only apparent change in him was the fact that one moment he is kind of scared to perform, and then is slightly less scared to perform. This causes the audience to lose interest in the character’s story, and inevitably the entire story itself.
The unique art design of The Book of Life brought a jaw dropping experience that completely redeemed the clichés of the story, and the static characters. The bright and colorful scenery really brought out the inner fiesta, and gave the viewer a true Mexican experience.
If one is looking for an artistic experience, and a visually beautiful time, then this movie is for them, but if they are looking for an in depth story, and an emotional journey, then they better look for something else.
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