Bob Marley - One Love

The acting was good, the scenes regarding the music and the artistic creativity involved in the endeavor were good, and every scene individually was fine.

What this film lacks is actually direction. It felt disjointed and choppy from the very beginning. It was hard to keep straight what was going on and why. The motivations of events were hard to follow, and conflicts appeared and disappeared without a trace. The actual flow and arc were kind of non-existent in this movie.

I felt the scenes between on-screen Bob and Rita and Bob with the band were the absolute strength. There was chemistry there that felt natural and that felt like I was really getting a glimpse into Bob Marley at this period of his life.

It's so close to being a really good movie, but the lack of continuity in the storytelling robs it of reaching the potential.

I wish I knew superstar Bob Marley better after seeing the biopic, Bob Marley One Love, but I don't. For such a music legend, the greatest exponent of reggae and a tireless promoter of peace for Jamaica, director Reinaldo Marcus Green and his host of writers patch together impressive music and a few poignant scenes from 1976 to 78 into a whole that doesn't give the sense of his greatness before he died of cancer in 1981 at age 36.

As Marley, Kingsley Ben-Adir has the star power of the original Marley with a casual charisma that convinces us he could bring peace to the two warring factions in post-colonial Jamaica. Because Marley eventually leaves home to tour the world and land in London, we are limited in learning about the close connection to his homeland from his birth on.

A reason to see this unimpressive bio is to watch the inception of the album, Exodus, which Time Magazine called the best of the 20th century. As successful as that was, peace was not to be so, an impossible task even the great Marley couldn't pull off.

Lacking throughout is an intimate look into his psyche, such as we did get in the recent Oppenheimer. Both bios dwell on a few key years (a blessing rather than trying to depict the whole life), but One Love never goes deeply except in the successful scenes with his wife, Rita (Lashana Lynch), which have the kind of soul revealing power lacking in most other scenes which too often scan the surface.

The lesser dramatic revelations such as his passion for soccer, Africa, and the genesis of the simple Exodus album cover are well represented. Less so is insight into reggae while he lived in his homeland. The most we get serves just to verify that he was a charismatic cross between Mick Jagger and Freddie Mercury. The real Bob Marley is yet to be seen.

When watching the trailers I was scared they were gonna focus more on the music than on the man, and that's exactly what happens.

I feel like they remained só surface level on Bob Marley, the man, and focused more on what his music brought. And I think that's what happens when family is heavily involved in the movie, because they will want to play safe, and that's what this movie does, with the character of Bob Marley.

The screenplay also didn't feel like a final draft, some of the dialogue felt repetitive, and some of it, quite cringy. And for negatives that's what I have.

Kingsley Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch absolutely kill it, they are fantastic and an early Oscar contender performances. Another thing I was scared was the accents, because at times they can go to over the top and make it feel like a parody, but they weren't they nailed it.

The music was also emaculate, if you're a fan of his music, you'll love what they did, and how they paid their respects.

I feel like for the right audience this definitely will be amazing. It's a cool movie, fun time. I just wish we could learn more about Bob Marley, not just his music.

It's fine, just nothing all that memorable.

I had a pleasant enough time viewing 'Bob Marley: One Love', though it does kinda seem a bit hollow post-watch - as in I don't feel like I've learned much nor actually seen that much, the movie has like three noteworthy events but then that's kinda it. The music from those involved also didn't feel amazingly utilised, I guess they didn't want it to be too jukebox-y.

Kingsley Ben-Adir does well in the lead role as Bob Marley himself. I'm not a Marley superfan or anything close, I basically only know his biggest hits, but the resemblance of Ben-Adir seemed off to me - a thought that was only solidified when the real Marley appears via archive footage at the end. Perhaps that's just me, though.

Lashana Lynch gives a good performance, spearheading the rest of the cast who are alright; interesting to see James Norton, Michael Gandolfini too... even if I didn't realise it was Gandolfini until the credits. Overall, it does feel like the film only scratches the surface of Marley's life. I wanted more from it, but to be fair it is still a decent flick in my opinion.

Bob Marley is one of the most recognizable names in the world, whose music, cultural influence and message of unity transcends borders. And while Reinaldo Marcus Green's "Bob Marley: One Love" tries to portray his influence and legacy on screen, the movie's low-risk conventional approach makes it a rather hollow experience.

The movie is as vanilla as it gets, with nothing really standing out. And that extends to lead actor Kingsley Ben-Adir, who while I think is a great actor, just isn't able to make the character work. He seems to be trying his best to replicate the legend, but is quite not all there with his portrayal that we're always aware we're watching an actor play Bob Marley and not Bob Marley himself.

While "Bob Marley: One Love" is not as boring as some of the other musical biopics I've seen (like 'I Wanna Dance with Somebody' or 'The United States vs Billie Holiday'), it surely doesn't do enough to be worth recommending. It's yet another biopic that plays like a collection of vignettes than an actual narrative story, with some 'greatest hits' backing tracks. It certainly doesn't do Marley's legacy any justice.