Respect

Recently I saw a great TV series, Genius: Aretha Franklin, which offered the width and breadth of Aretha Franklin, showing the myriad experiences that made her who she became.

The Genius series was ambitious with its shifting time and harsh moments, but Respect is a more traditional biopic, with many of the edges sanded off. It's not that there aren't good moments - Aretha creating in the studio or putting on a fabulous show can be electrifying - it's just that those moments aren't used to build anything. Genius suggested that Aretha's life was worth telling because she was interesting, Respect tells you Aretha's life is worth telling because, well, she's famous, and people like to learn about famous people.

Jennifer Hudson is excellent. Respect makes you wish you could go back in time and see Aretha in concert in a way Genius didn't. But in the end there's a "so what" quality to the endeavor.

I have to be fair; these are different movies with different subjects, "Respect" attempts to follow the same format but fails. I saw the movie last night, and as most have stated, Jennifer Hudson's vocal skills are unquestionable. Her acting was satisfactory. The major problems of the film were casting, bad acting, and lack of flow. Forest Whittaker was fine, but Marlon Wayans attempt at bringing out his "Inner Ike Turner" was - almost laughable. I couldn't take him seriously, no matter how hard he tried. Also, the actor portraying Dr. King damn near had a handlebar mustache, that ain't right. The movie tried so hard to make the audience feel a certain way during scenes that it felt awkward. The ending appears as though it was an afterthought, "Just have her singing Amazing Grace and throw up a bunch of lifetime achievements..." In short, this movie could have been a parody of how to not make a bio-pic of a great musician. Where "Ray" set the standard, "Respect" hasn't earned it. Aretha Franklin deserves better, much better.

A biopic about Aretha Franklin and her journey to find her voice.

Honestly I was not excited much for this movie, and only watched it because of the T-Mobile Tuesday ticket discount. The plot of the movie was done many many times before. We have a character reached their highest, then lowest, and then redeeming themselves. Recent movies like Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody had this plot and were executed better.

The best part of this movie was the lead actress Jennifer Hudson, who had an amazingly powerful voice. This made all of the songs in the movie enjoyable and empowering to hear.

Talking more about the plot, towards the end, for some reason the pace sped up too quickly. I only know that she had reached her best and worst, but I didn't know exactly why she got to those points. It felt like out of nowhere she just reached her lowest point. Also, even though the first hour or so set up Aretha's struggle pretty well, there were still some parts that moved too fast and became disorientating.

Overall, a plot that I have seen before, but wasn't executed as well as it could. 6.5/10.

Jennifer Hudson is stunning as the Queen of Soul. But let's not overlook Dakota Skye Turner who plays young Aretha with so much depth in her eyes that blow away all the adult performances.

Despite all that, the unfortunate thing, as most have mentioned is that it is bits and pieces of Aretha's life. Perhaps it is because she was so internal with her pain and told most of it in song. But it soon becomes a droning cliched trip until the next powerhouse tune Jennifer is to belt out. This is obviously on the same playing field as "What's Love Got To Do With It?" With the Ike Turner character played wonderfully by Marlon Wayans. Again....same road traveled. All which culminates in a spiritual re-awakening concert recorded live church service (which people may not know was attended by Mick Jagger).

All in all a very large scope film by director Liesl Tommy that duffers from too many directions and not one which encompasses the very complex woman.

To mention, a nice breathing light hearted moments with podcast celeb Marc Maron as Jerry Wexler. The catering record producer who saw the real genius at work. A nice respite from the heaviness of the flick.

I went to see this film today and was really excited, but this film didn't deliver what I thought it would.

Jennifer Hudson is phenomenal as Aretha Franklin, she has an incredible voice and portrayed her really well.

But there wasn't too much plot to follow, and if you're gonna put Mary J. In a biopic about Aretha, make her do more, she pretty much appeared and disappeared.

Also, Marlon Wayans could've been better, the scene in the hotel where he keeps calling that guy a redneck felt tacked on and cringey.

This film is also way too long, at least 20 minutes could've been cut, the opening was way too stretched out and the church scene was the same.

In the end respect was a bit of a disappointment, and I'm gonna give it a C+