Effective biography of sports legend(Warning: spoilers below)

Rating: Null/10 (28 June 2002)

One of surprisingly only a few motion pictures made about the man who dared call himself The Greatest, "Ali" is a good but unremarkable film. It sticks to a pretty formulaic structure, outlining the ten years between Mohammed Ali's first defeat of Sonny Liston to the final "Rumble in the Jungle" with George Foreman.
The first part of the movie deals not so much with Ali's sporting career but more his social and political convictions, in particular his involvement with the Nation of Islam and his refusal to be inducted into the United States Army to fight in the Vietnam War. Later on the film deals with the man's troubled personal life and his apparently waning sports career.
Director Michael Mann has fashioned these story elements to show Ali as a hard-headed, occasionally quite arrogant man who nevertheless had strong beliefs and was prepared to fight for them against seemingly insuperable odds. His final victory over George Foreman concludes the film with Ali triumphant over all opponents and critics and assured in his status as "The Greatest".
As fascinating as the historical detail is within the movie (which also makes nods at other black historical figures of the period like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King) the plotline, particularly towards the end, is a little formulaic. In this film, social and political detail aside, Ali could easily be just another everyman "overcoming all odds" and some further exploration of his life after the Foreman fight could have maybe helped to rectify this.
The boxing scenes, especially the last one, are very well paced and choreographed and build a strong sense of suspense. A nice touch is during the second Ali-Liston fight where a camera lightbulb flashes as Sonny hits the mat. The resulting photograph is now a classic Ali picture.
Performance-wise, Will Smith puts in an overall solid performance as Ali. It is clear he trained very hard for the role and his preparation shows in the fight scenes. His dramatic moments, especially the induction scene in the gym hall, are also very well done. The only possible flaw in his performance comes when he's being cocky or throwing around Ali's wisecracks. When this happens, his performance feels too similiar to parts he has played before. All other performances are satisfactory.
All things considered, "Ali" is a very good film that provides some intriguing insight into the motivations of a 20th century icon.