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Ali A Review by |
| Let's get right into
the meat of this review; we all know the story of Ali. This movie chronicles around a
decade of his life: from his first title win through his refusal to go to Vietnam all the
way to the Rumble in the Jungle versus George Foreman. This was a completely solid movie,
I just have a few complaints with it, let's start with those... Despite the movie clocking in at over 2 and a half hours, I still felt we only got a few minutes when we actually got a glimpse into Ali's mind. The entire movie felt like a torrent of still images pieced together with one hell of a soundtrack. The images, sights, and sounds were completely on point, but I wanted to know more about this legend that came before my time. When Ali was told of Malcolm X's assassination, he simply stopped the car and let out a few tears. Never once did we really learn how this affected Ali. Or why did Ali turn his back on Malcolm in the first place? Why did he follow around the Nation of Islam like it's little lap dog? Why did Ali constantly use one-liners and comedy, when his personal life was falling apart around him? Many people would just say, well, "That's just how Ali was." Well explain it to me, this is a biopic..tell me what the man actually thought. We all know how history unfolded, we can read it in a library of books, hell we can even watch old fight footage. We don't just want still images brought to life, we want to know what made Ali tick. The part of the movie that got to me the most was Ali's refusal to enter Vietnam, not that I disagree with his stance or am informed enough to really know what he I would have been thinking in his shoes. But this movie showed the decision to be simply made so Ali could continue fighting and making money, or it almost felt like the director (Michael Mann) said, "this is how it happened, deal with it." When Ali was finally acquitted he gave an amazing speech about why he refused to fight, but when it came so late it seemed like more of his usual impressive improv. For years (movie time) he never uttered one reason, and now it suddenly comes in floods. A voice-over narration by the real Ali would have made this movie a thousand times better. I know he's not up to that, but perhaps there's another way to do it. All in all, those are my complaints with the movie and they were enough to drag it down into another disappointing trip to the theater. Will Smith was completely believable as Ali and should be commended for the role and especially the bulking up he went through to really fill the gloves of the GOAT. But the real performance, in my opinion, came from Jamie Foxx as Bundini (one of Ali's trainers), he was as serious as cancer when he needed to be, and as hilarious as always when the movie needed some punch. All in all, I see Ali as some great individual performances that just didn't fit well enough together to do the "Greatest of All-Time" the justice he deserves. Rating:  1/2 out of four. |
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