Why ?????
Where do I begin to describe my disappointment ? Let me start with the good first. The acting is awesome, the location is excellent, the era, the costumes, are all great.
Now for the bad: the plot is weak at best, terrible at worst! The plot starts out very intelligently, with the rags to riches story of Xica Da Silva. The problems start when they let her fall from the grace of the Commander Joao Fernandez, only to rise again! Why go through a "rise and fall and rise" story ? If the story ended here, it would be great, but then they go on! Pretty soon, the story gets too long and too boring. Soon afterwards, it gets downright ridiculous, with vampires and witches, the sucking of blood, and putting spells on people! Is this a soap opera about colonial times in Brazil or a dungeons and dragons story, with black magic and witchcraft? I don't know. The other problem this soap opera suffers from is repetition: how many times can they tell the story of a mother being separated from her child by force? They tell that same story, no less than three times, with two different characters! And that brings me to what I think is the weakest link of all: the characters. Usually in a story like this, there are good and evil characters. Not in this story: all of the main characters are either evil or weak, and all are very unsympathetic! Even the weak characters are forced to do evil, and because of their weakness they can't avoid this! There are some good characters, but they are all minor. Most of the time one can only choose between the lesser of two evils. Certain crimes undertaken by some of the "good" characters early on, are completely glossed over later in the story, to make them look good to the viewer again, but I think this ploy fails miserably. All in all a very convoluted story, with big plot holes, too long (are we at least through the first half yet ???), too much fantasy and unsympathetic characters, with the only saving grace being the acting and the scenery. The only way to get out of this one, I think, is at the end to kill all the major characters through some big bloodbath or something. That at least would do the story some justice. Four out of ten......
Where do I begin to describe my disappointment ? Let me start with the good first. The acting is awesome, the location is excellent, the era, the costumes, are all great.
Now for the bad: the plot is weak at best, terrible at worst! The plot starts out very intelligently, with the rags to riches story of Xica Da Silva. The problems start when they let her fall from the grace of the Commander Joao Fernandez, only to rise again! Why go through a "rise and fall and rise" story ? If the story ended here, it would be great, but then they go on! Pretty soon, the story gets too long and too boring. Soon afterwards, it gets downright ridiculous, with vampires and witches, the sucking of blood, and putting spells on people! Is this a soap opera about colonial times in Brazil or a dungeons and dragons story, with black magic and witchcraft? I don't know. The other problem this soap opera suffers from is repetition: how many times can they tell the story of a mother being separated from her child by force? They tell that same story, no less than three times, with two different characters! And that brings me to what I think is the weakest link of all: the characters. Usually in a story like this, there are good and evil characters. Not in this story: all of the main characters are either evil or weak, and all are very unsympathetic! Even the weak characters are forced to do evil, and because of their weakness they can't avoid this! There are some good characters, but they are all minor. Most of the time one can only choose between the lesser of two evils. Certain crimes undertaken by some of the "good" characters early on, are completely glossed over later in the story, to make them look good to the viewer again, but I think this ploy fails miserably. All in all a very convoluted story, with big plot holes, too long (are we at least through the first half yet ???), too much fantasy and unsympathetic characters, with the only saving grace being the acting and the scenery. The only way to get out of this one, I think, is at the end to kill all the major characters through some big bloodbath or something. That at least would do the story some justice. Four out of ten......