Feel-good, but not inspiring.

Rating: 5/10 (4 September 2016)

I don't want to say that this isn't a story worth telling, but it wasn't a story that needed to be told. Jackie Robinson had a huge impact on baseball for sure, and it took guts and everything to do what he did. However, the only valid reason to talk about the past is if it affects what we are going to do in the present, and I don't think this qualifies. You may feel differently, and if you enjoyed this movie or think that you will enjoy it, stop reading now so that you can remain motivated by whatever you find in this movie. And don't think that I can't ruin your view of this movie because I can. So do yourself a favor and keep loving this movie and all that it means to you.
Now that we have that out of the way, I can start talking. I liked this movie when I first saw it in theaters. But three years later, it just annoys me. As I watched it for the third time, I realized that it's really just two hours of the same scene being repeated thirty times over. We do feel for him after seeing the emotional abuse that he goes through, but they could have done more with the time that they had. Very likely, the people behind this movie made it because they wanted to make a difference to the lives of their audience, which is perfectly admirable. However, they confused inspiring with feel-good, as many people tend to do. This is a *feel-good* movie much more than it is an inspirational one. It's only inspirational if it makes you want to do something about what you see, and there isn't that much potential for that.
Also, Jackie Robinson helped end segregation, which is not the form that racism takes anymore in America. So it mostly serves as a pat on the back to Americans showing how far we've come in 70 odd years. Now, I know why no major studio has come out with a movie that deals with modern racism or Black Lives Matter or anything like that: they want to avoid public disapproval for whatever points or portrayals they make. It's understandable but sad. However, if you want a movie that is going to actually give insight about how to solve the problems of modern race issues, this isn't the one.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't watch it, but you might just want to rethink what you're looking for in your black history month movie. I wouldn't say that it's a bad movie. It has good intentions, but its heart is also stuck in the past and less capable of changing the present. Overall Rating: 6.3/10.