Mjeteconer
Just perfect...
CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Plustown
A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
naturalgirlworld
Hated second part where new actors came in , this made no sense
oscarboy-28380
I am a big fan of Celia Cruz. I loved her. She was a unique world-class talent. I don't know where to start in listing the worst aspects of the telemundo series. But It may be helpful to start out by saying that, despite the fact, that they cast an excellent singer in the role, she rarely sang. I scanned through the ridiculous story line to find moments where she was actually singing. Not surprising they got the racial aspects all wrong for Cuba at the time. Celia was a black singer, singing an African based musical form they could've done so much to educate the audience about its origins and history. Despite the fact that Cuba has many people of mixed race at that time black people knew who they were and Sonora Mantancera was predominantly a black group. Almost all of the plot lines were ridiculous.But most egregious was the depiction of Pedro Knight as a horny buffoon. Shame on Telemundo!
Albert Vasquez
WARNING!!! MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!What started off as a promising biopic/series filled with energetic performances and musical numbers, tragically failed to get it right in the long run. The series was given 80 episodes to tell the story of a legend (80 EPISODES) and yet wasted most of the show's run showing us irrelevant character story lines of people that didn't even really exist; they were fictional characters. The director felt the need to fill in some gaps with stories that not only dragged, but had absolutely nothing to with Celia or her accomplishments. Eventually these story lines became the center of attention for most episodes. Mario, Raquel, Myrelys, Renee, Lola Calvo; all characters who pretty much took more screen time away from the principal artist herself. They wasted so much time on scenarios that weren't needed and characters that had no real meaning to the story line that sadly, the last 15 episodes were rushed. Jumping 10 years within one episode. One of the biggest disappointments was the portrayal of Celia's career with Fania Records in the 1970's. The 70's was when Celia Cruz was at her prime. I anticipated seeing her in that prime; perform at large venues (similarly to her Madison Square Garden concert scene in the first episode) I was hoping to hear all the great songs she recorded and performed with Fania. I wanted to see more of her friendship with Johnny Pacheco and others like Willie Colon, Hector Lavoe and Pete El Conde. We didn't get any of that in this show, instead we got 3 of her hits, 1 of which was only heard as background music. We had two archive concert footage of the real Celia performing in Yankee Stadium and Africa. No scenes recreated, no effort what so ever and her 1970's prime was only shown within 5 episodes, most of which consisted of Mario, Raquel and Myrelys love triangle story line that was not needed or wanted. I was hoping to see and hear more. It was way too little bit of music and performances for a show with so many time on its hands.I wanted to see more of Celia and her life. I get that supporting roles are needed and I would've wanted that as well, but with characters who meant something to Celia or her career. People who contributed professionally and personally like Johnny Pacheco. Why not show us more of the artists who were apart of her life and music? Those artist who were her friends? They did succeed in the beginning with the supporting roles of Myrta Silva and Rogelio Martinez; that's what we needed more of, those characters.Now Lola Calvo. This character was adored as a fictional secondary character. She was a friend who happened to be an aspiring artist as well. Then we find out she based on Latina legend soul singer, La Lupe. Then we see her character get treated with the utmost disrespect and become annoying, hateful and just pathetic. It was a slap in the face to La Lupe and her legacy. For starters, La Lupe wasn't raped as a teen or young adult; she didn't have a step father her real father loved her very much and was very supportive. She came from a happy family who adored her; her mother was always apart of her life. Her music career was the greatest of any Latino entertainer of that time in that genre of music. She was never friends with Celia. She never spoke bad of or even mentioned Celia ever. Their only negative encounter was in 1978 when La Lupe had jokingly remarked that Pedro Knight was a santero, which angered Celia. That was it. I had high hopes for this, they had so much potential. Most biopics get 2 hours or less to tell the story of a legend and many fail to tell the full story because of it. Celia had 80 EPISODES and ended up rushing through the years in the end. There was no need for that. It failed in many ways and I'm truly disappointed.
aawestchester
This was one of the worse novelas I have ever watched. It started great but as the ending is near...it is horribly portrayed. Has done no justice for Celia Cruz. Although we all know it is not a based entirely on true events the novela takes a bad turn once the lead actors have been changed and others have not. I think the original actress/actor were excellent. They portrayed Celia and Pedro excellently and we all fell in love with them. Once they changed them that was a big turn off for me and many. They could've used makeup to make them look older like they did with Norry and yesterday her character was changed to a different actress....another big turn off. To date they have left us hanging with Celia's cousin lost at sea. Omg it's just horrible the jumping from one decade to another This novela was so poorly made that the writers should be ashamed because Celia was an icon in the world of music and I would've liked if the novela would've been written in a great manner since it was a portrayal of Celia's life whether some of the events were actual or not. Very disappointed. Piece of crap although I have enjoyed the music since I am a big fan of Celia. Thumbs down all the way.
