Unworthy of it's merits

Rating: 3/10 (7 November 2019)

Frankly, this movie gets far too much credit. It's a movie about Nelson Mandela though, and Morgan Freeman plays him. So yeah, people are going to say they like it. Myself on the other hand, well, I turned it off halfway through. The story telling is muddled and confused, for the first hour all I could think was, what is this movie even about? What exactly is the plot here, and where is the character development? Is it about Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest peace makers of our time, or the rugby team he worked with?
The first 30 minutes are exposition, where nothing happens to any of the characters on screen. There's no moment of emotional impact on any characters in the cast for the first 40 minutes. The only information we receive for the first half is in the form of expositional dialog, characters saying, "The Spring Bucks are a sign of racial inequality. You can't break bread with them. I don't like you because your people are mean. Yada yada." But we as the audience only ever see the genuine inequality of the sport once, in the opening shot. And it's not the Spring Bucks being shown. We never see any direct discrimination from Caucasians at all, honestly. It's weird.
Aside from the rugby arc, we glimpse more deeply into Nelson Mandela himself. But these moments are short, and never focus on the subject at hand. The scenes don't link together properly, each one reiterating what we have already heard, or referring to something irrelevant. We spend more time on Mandela's body guards than could ever be necessary, when almost no time is spent on his work outside of his rugby centric social outreach.
Don't get me started on the sound track, my god it is appalling. There's this constant attempt to cause conflict where there doesn't need to be any. Body guards getting anxious about assassination, crowds booing Mandela out of arenas. But the music doesn't follow. The song at 1:07 is what forced my hand, I had to end it. It was then and there, that I slayed my own vessel to the abhorrent sounds of Colorblind, by Overtone. The "inspirational song" plays after Mandela gives a brief speech about change. Look this song up, try not to end your life, I dare you. It's not a terrible song, I don't like it, but it's cool if you do. However, to play this after a speech from NeLsON MAnDeLA, OOOOoo boy that really shirks my gherken.
Ok that's it, I'm out.
Oh yeah, one thing though. It is cool that this is a movie set in South Africa, for that, I am glad it was made. Solely for that reason though, am I ok with its existence. For that, I give it 3 stars. But that's it, for all the talent that went into this movie, it honestly deserves a 1... To, you know, set that average straight. This movie is bad, do not watch it unless it's all you got, or you live in South Africa.