Will Smith made Ali boring

Rating: 3/10 (10 August 2002)

Considering how hyped this movie was, it was one of the worst. The writers of the script couldn't decide on the direction of the movie. Was it about Ali's history of his bouts with opponents like Joe Frazier, Sonny Liston, or George Foreman? Or was it about Ali's political views? Or was it about Ali's battle with the US government regarding his objection to the military draft?
The plot cuts between these 3 veins without a clear direction. You don't know what the movie is about. It certainly doesn't look like a biography of Ali.
To make things worse, Will Smith was seriously miscast as Ali. Smith tries to match Ali's dialect and mannerisms but without the excitement and energy that Ali had. Muhammad Ali was a controversial sports figure at the time, representing black Muslims, someone who would speak his mind before thinking. Smith tried to match that but instead his performance comes off flat. It's not all his fault - the script makes Smith pensive in far too many scenes.
All in all, a movie to avoid. A better movie for Ali fans is the documentary "When We Were Kings".