Pelé

One of the best films about a real person. I was quite afraid of the fact that Americans would take it on, but after the first few minutes, my fears were replaced by amazement and wonder. I really liked that the film also captured Pelé's childhood, as I heard about many things for the first time. Overall, the treatment of the topic was top-notch, and the atmosphere of the 1958 World Cup was fantastic; I felt as if I was really at the stadium. I also praise the soundtrack, which was excellent and sometimes even moving. For anyone who loves soccer, the famous generation of players around Pelé, and Brazil, this film is perfectly suited for them. I give it 90%. (14/07/2016)

Pelé is a legend of football and so I’m surprised that they filmed the story of his life in such a mediocre and uninteresting way. For example, take the beginning of the movie and Pelé’s life; the movie sums up his skills at eight years old as the fact that he can do more than three juggles and that he can juggle all the way to the goal. But the directors and the editors have cut the movie in such a way that it looks like everybody’s standing completely still around the eight-year-old and nobody’s moving. The young Pelé then does one juggle after another, all the way to scoring a goal. It’s approximately as interesting as watching paint dry. But later, when Pelé’s older and plays for the national league, that’s way more interesting. But the overall atmosphere can’t really convince you that this biographical film is any good. (11/08/2017)

Do you know such beautifully shot promo clips for the "celebration of football across the world, regardless of social background", which are regularly produced by FIFA, Adidas or Nike during the big matches? So this is the same case, just in a form of a full-length movie with the "story". It is a pure fairy tale that only pretends to be based on Pelé story. Definitely don't expect anything that would reflect his real life story or his career. However, it's nice to watch, but you can't expect anything from it other than the roller-coaster-ride of fun, five minutes of piffle about nothing (I mean about responsibility, motivation, purposefulness, etc.) and five minutes of nice (however unrealistic) football moments and so on until the end. (15/08/2016)