A few good moments, but generally disappointing

Rating: 5/10 (23 April 2013)

8 mile certainly started out interesting - we begin with Jimmy 'B Rabbit Smith' played by Eminem practicing rapping in front of a mirror. He then takes part in a 'rap battle' which he doesn't win as he 'chokes' or doesn't say anything. After the initial rap battle we start to learn a bit more about him and the problems that he faces - his girlfriend Janeane has dumped him, he's in a dead end job, he's forced to live with his mother and step father in their trailer park home and that his mother is facing eviction from her home. Whilst 8 mile started out great, I also had a lot of problems with the film which I'll attempt to explain one by one;
1) Jimmy's crew - they consisted of David 'Future' Porter, Cheddar Bob, & Sol George. OK, I can understand Porter being part of this film, but what purpose did the other two crew members serve? They were just spare parts and I think they were only there to make up the numbers. The other issue is that these 3 characters weren't developed at all (I had to go back to the cast list as I forgot what they were called as I think their names were only mentioned once maybe)
2) Music over dialogue - I realise that a lot of films have 'background' music whilst actors are having conversations, but to me the volume of the music during the conversations in 8 mile was ridiculously loud. At times, I couldn't hear what was being said so I tried turning the volume up but it just became unbearable. The conversations were doubtfully of any significance, but even so I found it very distracting and it made my head hurt.
3) Pointless and unnecessary scenes - what was the point of the scene where Jimmy and his crew are driving round and randomly shooting at people? It served no purpose and just added an extra 10 minutes to the running time which could have been spent more constructively by developing some characters in the film. Then later setting fire to an 'abandoned house' as they believe a rapist lived there. Whilst in this instance, I understand that they did this because a 'rapist' used to live there and wanted to destroy it, but I still didn't see the point in including it in the film.
4) The dialogue - hearing the words 'dawg' and 'man' every 2 minutes quickly became irritating. I know that's how rappers talk, but couldn't the writers have been more subtle?
5) Alex - I thought that her character was fairly poorly written. Once introduced to Jimmy, she tells him that she thinks that he's a good rapper and that he'll go far. The 2 of them have sex, fall out, she then has sex with another man (who is a rival from another rapping troop) and Jimmy catches her out and beats up the other bloke. Afterwards, she comes and sees Jimmy at his place of work, announces she's leaving but says she's going to the club and hopes to see him there. Jimmy decides to go to the club to perform the 'rap battle' and seems to be OK with Alex. Have I missed something? This is the women who we all thought he was falling for who slept with another man and got caught out by Jimmy and didn't even say 'Sorry' and then Jimmy acts as if nothing happened. This just seemed odd and both Alex and Jimmy came across as false in my opinion.
I didn't completely hate 8 mile and there were a few good moments. I enjoyed the 'rap battles' (particularly between Jimmy and the lunch truck rapper (played by Xzibit) and I liked the rap sequence that Jimmy and Porter did to sweet home alabama - I thought that was funny and clever. Eminem's acting was actually pretty good (much better than I thought it would be) and Kim Basinger also put in a good performance as Stephanie Smith (Jimmy's mother). Eminem's character Jimmy was the only character who was properly developed and thankfully his character was at least a fairly likable person (otherwise my rating would be even lower). He looked after his family, worked hard and was a decent person. The only problem was on a few occasions his fists were 5 seconds ahead of his brain. I gave it 5/10, mainly for Eminem's character and the 'rap battles'