disjointed

Rating: Null/10 (16 May 2004)

I read the Autobiography of Malcolm X and really looked forward to seeing this film. Unfortunately, I saw only about an hour of this before turning it off. Besides starting off with the much taken out of context Rodney King beating, this film makes me wonder if indeed Spike Lee knows how to tell a story. His camera movements might be good, but I found myself very confused by how the story line kept jumping across. I remember one scene where, out of nowhere, the scene cuts to X's father being killed.
The best way to have done this movie, in my opinion, would've been the way the book did. Start it with X meeting Alex Haley at the end of his life and have the movie go chronologically with X providing voice-over narration. The acting I did see was good, so out of four stars, I'd give this film two.