इमैन्सिपेशन

Will Smith stars in this Antoine Fuqua (The Equalizer/Bait) film from last year. Smith, a Haitian slave now in America, has just been conscripted to work for the south getting their rail lines in order but the keepers are especially brutal which spurs Smith to kill one of his minders causing him to flee w/some others while a slave hunter, the always reliable Ben Foster, hunts him down. What follows is a prolonged chase between Foster & Smith (since compatriots are lost on both sides) where Smith's innate sense of survival allows him to finally get his freedom, fight for the North & return himself back to his family. Smith in any other year may've taken this perf (just from its sheer weight & importance) to a nomination but then slapgate happened so, the film notwithstanding, feels like a mea culpa to the governing body of the Oscars to forgive him but until his own personal demons are addressed not even a cancer cure, well maybe that, will get Smith in the good graces of audiences & critics alike. Also starring Mustafa Shakir as a fellow slave & Steven Ogg, from the Walking Dead, as a Confederate sergeant.

Not a reference to the subject matter, but the cinematography. I get it... I get that sometimes black and white, or in this case, extremely low level of color saturation allowed, can, and has been used in an artistic way. But for the life of me, I cannot understand why such a masterpiece was done in it. This was a great movie. Great content. Great story, and based on a true story at that. WHY ON EARTH DID YOU SCREW IT UP BY REMOVING THE COLOR???? An otherwise fantastic piece. But ruined by sucking the life out of it. The imagery, and immersion that is created by films like this is wonderful. But due to no color, I felt completely disassociated from the plight of Peter. It was really hard to even stay in my seat to finish it. Stop it.... get some help...

First, the choice to film it in B&W comes hard, but probably they tried to achieve symbolism to give us a perspective of the hard life - hard times and where they focused on the hard work and survival instead of the colors of nature - life itself.

Second, there are just too many so-called coincidences and moments that make you ask yourself what were they thinking, how come a man that probably was born in slavery knows so much about running from it, how does he even know how to use a gun and to shoot anything with it.

Overall, it seems like the director forced himself and the entire movie, ruining the storyline and the continuity.

The character ark is so overdone, its like watching a handful of movies being regurgitated into something so unoriginal it hurts to watch. The feeling I had at the end of the movie was akin to watching Apocalypto, Django, 10 years a slave, My Way and I am legend all at the same time - but in black and white.

It was basic in terms of Direction however the cinematography and was pretty decent at times and so I consider it the only redeeming feature - making 2 stars of my 4 star review; the other 2 stars is split between the story and acting (1 star) and 1 star for the production quality.

I can't stress just how disappointing the story line and acting was - leaving a true disconnect between the viewer and the movie which was by far the biggest set back. Ben Foster was playing a character that we've all seen before. Charmaine Bingwa was the best redeeming feature in regards to the acting. I'm not alone in saying that Will Smith is now in the vain of Nick Cage and Jeff Goldblum, where I struggle to see him as the character he plays rather the person himself playing a character. Unlike Nick Cage and Jeff Goldblum though, Will Smith lacks any theatrical range and is now giving off the impression that his on-screen presence is that of an SNL actor.

If you want to waste 2 hours of your life for a half-assed Saving Private Ryan-esque-D-day-beaches battle scene, then this is the movie I would recommend. Very basic. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Will Smith died shortly after the last Oscars and this production was entirely created with AI and advanced CGI technology to sway us into believing he's still alive.

Unfortunately I was unable to deeply connect to the characters emotionally. Although the cinematography was excellent, I felt that the movie relied too heavily on it and it wasn't enough to carry the movie. I feel that it was the script/story that felt too simplified. It felt rushed and edited to pieces....and just not thorough enough.

The score was mediocre at best. Nothing new to help us connect.

Top notch acting here, but lack of full character exploration (again lack of good script) feels like a huge injustice.

It did make me want to find out more about this particular American Hero tho.