Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

HomeyTao For having a relatively low budget, the film's style and overall art direction are immensely impressive.

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

thwheeler-44699 What could have been a really great movie was ruined by ill-timed and lengthy flash-backs and entirely too many gratuitous slow-motion edits, and choppy camera work. Had the movie been created by seasoned professionals, it would have been 50 minutes long, instead of an hour and half plus.

Sandra Milner This is a family film more than a football film. In case you were unaware, family films are not just movies that can by watched by anyone of any age, but specific genre film that can be watched by everyone at the same time, as in a family, often at home.As such, don't expect much depth or drama. There is a death, but it's early on so that it doesn't "hurt" too much. The Lion King and Bambi had early deaths too. This is just like that. The story has a lot of clichés, poor-vs-rich, black-vs-white, South America vs Europe, players too poor for shoes, children committing minor theft, parents against the game (but then changing their minds), Pele's style criticized (but then it turns out to be the best style), the bad (evil, not quality) players turning good, child Pele promising to win the World Cup for his crying dad, practicing with fruits, etc. I'm not going to list them all, but if there is a cliché in this film, they most likely have used it.Although they are clichés, it's not a bad thing that they mentioned them. The rich-poor divide is real, so as the racial divide in Brazil, but this film doesn't shy away from these issues. It comes out as a Brazilian nationalist film "We're all Brazilian, rich or poor, black or white, born here or elsewhere" but it's more heartwarming than chest-thumping. Europe still thought of South America as a colony and Italy, for example, was notorious for poaching South American players with Italian heritage to play for the Italian national team. The even poached previous world cup winners from Argentina, which is illegal now.This film is more like one of the many films of orphans or street kids doing cute things, but with a football flavor.I don't blame this film for this family-oriented direction. Brazil also made a dark football film, Heleno, but it did not receive a lot of success. The family-oriented market is a lucrative one. Watch Heleno if you want a real biopic about a footballer, even though there's even less football there.If you like a feel-good family movie about the adventures of street kids, watch Bekas (2012).If you want a football movie from the same era (also set in South America in the same time period) then watch Montevideo: Taste of a Dream (2010).These are my wine-pairing recommendations.As for Pele: Birth of a Legend, it is what it is, a cute, family football film about poor kids that speak English. The fact that they speak English tells you about the target audience more than anything my review ever could.

voxrockulis A generous 6.5 for a Disney-fied feel-good drama of Pele's life story. The story goes exactly as you would expect it.The writing is a bit weak and lacking experience. For example (This is the spoiler), a young Pele plays with a bunch of rich kids who daydream of playing like famous footballers, each saying "I'm this guy" "I'm that guy" - Pele interjects and says "and I'm Pele!" to which the other kids ask: "Who?"Pele explains that he's pretending to be the Vasco de Gama keeper and the kids laugh at him and correct him, "It's Bilé."Then they say "Hey, let's call this boy Pele" - in real life (or in a better script) they would not have this "decision" moment, but would just start calling him Pele, like a "see you later, Pele!" not something as contrived as "Hey everyone, we have decided to call this boy Pele because it's funny. This is a good idea." Poor script-writing. The did this same thing with "Hey let's all call this team the shoeless ones" instead of just going straight for shoeless jokes like "lace up!" or more cruel jokes like "If you beat us I'll lend you my old boots."An even better story for the Pele name sticking would be for the rich kids to completely forget the boy until they meet him in a tournament match. When they were talking about him, the rich kids could say "Who?" (are we facing?) because they didn't actually know his real name and one of them could say "that Pele boy" which is the way people actually talk.This movie was filled with these lots opportunities and weak moments with unnatural dialogue. The scriptwriter can't hide behind language issues because the dialogues sound contrived even in Portuguese. Bullies don't say "hey, what do you guys think of this nickname for this boy we could all start using? Do you agree that it is a good one to use to taunt him?" They just use it, they don't have a meeting or vote about it. It felt like those anti-bullying educational videos they show to kids where the bully says "I do not like you because you look different. From now on I will do this to you." "I want to smoke because I feel like an adult doing it and it is cool." Pele's football skill also makes no sense. His skills fluctuate from world class to garbage class and back with no explanation whatsoever. They could've made it about the pressure of the national team, locker room problems, family problems, love, something that explains his drop, but nopes. His skill just drops in the second act so that it can come back at the right time "because 3 acts."Even as a Disneyfied feel-good story, they could've done a better job.I started the review giving this film seven stars, but the more I thought about it the more it felt too generous. I dropped it to 6.5.Don't get me wrong. It's enjoyable, but it's two wasted opportunities - they could've made a great, hard-hitting dramatic biopic (something similar to, but better than Heleno) or they could've made a better feel-good film. They didn't do either. They chose the easier option and still failed. This film will surely have cooled any interest in making a better Pele movie of either variety.

tonyfor I watched this film (or at least as much as I could take) on a plane journey today, and was appalled how what was clearly an amazing story of (literally) rags to riches was given a total Hollywood make-over, for example, the bullying, much older rich kids making fun of the poor kids and (almost) getting their comeuppance as soon as the poor kids took off their football boots (OK, Pele did start playing barefoot, but why overdramatise it? Oh, let's not forget the inevitable fat boy and the compulsory short-sighted kid. And it was full of anachronism - I mean, Brazilian kids in the 1940's getting together for pre-game American- sports-type huddles? Pele's story was fantastic enough without the overdramatic hype.