This movie met most of my expectations.

Rating: 2/10 (1 February 2006)

When I first heard that Will Smith, a mediocre actor at best, was chosen to portray Ali, my first thought was "What are they going to have to do to his ears so Ali doesn't look like Dumbo?". I could not imagine how Smith would ever be able to give a convincing performance as Ali. And, as far as I am concerned, he didn't. One of the first scenes of him walking down the corridor to the arena made me laugh as I saw a scrawny legged Will Smith trying to imitate Ali.
While the movie only dealt with 10 years of Ali's career, I think the attempt to include as much detail as it could caused the movie to seem disjointed. Sometimes I felt that I was fortunate to have lived through all of those events because it helped me to keep the story line straight. It was a turbulent time and I think the "spirit" of the time was captured well in the movie. Not being a big fan of Mohammad Ali, I didn't see him as someone who did much to further the cause of the civil rights movement. (Unless of course it was to benefit him in some way) I think his egotistical, self-serving three ring circus behavior was an embarrassment to professional boxing. His manipulating the media spotlight by being in cahoots with Howard Cosell is another example of his being more of a showman than an athlete. One thing I did admire about Ali was his refusal to enter the U. S. military. The movie portrayed the consequences of such a decision in a realistic way. I feel the strongest aspect of the movie was how it showed Ali as a human. A real person faced with may of the same obstacles and frustrations that most of us experience. Sure most of us don't experience things on the same scale as he did but the basic predicaments are the same. Loneliness, uncertainty, joy, love, excitement, success and failure are things all of us can relate to. My expectations of this movie were pretty low to begin with and it pretty much lived up to those expectations.