Viewers honed into social media to share their thoughts on the movie play by play. With expectations set high, viewers had no intentions on holding back one bit of their opinions. From the beginning to the end of the movie, expressions of disappointment fled social media. We broke down 5 reasons as to why the "Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B" was deemed an #EPICFail:
1. The Casting. The decision is unanimous, the casting for this film was terrible. Every actor needs their breakthrough role to become a star in Hollywood, but this movie did not provide that type of platform for its cast members as intended. Although no one really enjoyed having Alexandra Shipp playing the lead role of Aaliyah, she does have potential to have a successful acting career, but this may not have been the role made for her.
After many auditioned for the role, actress Zendaya was originally given the role and pulled out. Many did not believe she resembled Aaliyah any more than Alexandra, but fans of the actress believed she could pull off the role. As for the remaining of the cast, it was just down hill from there.
2. Lack of Support. No one close to singer Aaliyah was in support of the film! Aaliyah's immediate family absolutely was not in support from jump regarding the idea of creating a film around her life. They tried their best to keep production from happening, but was unsuccessful. Aaliyah's closest friends, peers, and some colleagues were also not in support of the film. This would obviously make it difficult to create a film based on one's life without the support from the people that knew them best.
3. No Licensing to The Music. Lifetime was unsuccessful at receiving the licensing of Aaliyah's music, which did not give them permission to use her hit singles in the movie. If you've seen the movie, you noticed that instead of Alexandra Shipp lip-syncing over Aaliyah's music, she performed her own vocal arrangements of the selected pieces in the film. There were only about 2-3 Aaliyah songs used in the movie. This missing feature, may have been the #1 reason why the movie was a fail.
4. Lack of Adequate Research/No Connection to the Real Characters. This film seemed to have lacked research about the singer. From watching the movie, viewers were confused during several parts and questioned when certain events took place. Many of the scenes made the film seem like a fictional story about a girl trying to make it into the music business opposed to the true story of Aaliyah Haugton. Fans of Aaliyah saw no connection between Alexandra Shipp and Aaliyah. Viewers felt as if they knew Aaliyah better without the film. This was a result of a lack of preparation and proper research on the artist.
Since the majority of people that knew Aaliyah best had nothing to do with the film, the actors had no personal connection with the real characters they portrayed which made the acting very unbelievable. The producers and directors were incorrect their timing of events, when Aaliyah got the nickname "Baby girl" and how these individuals acted overall. Total misconception.
5. The Mispronunciation of Aaliyah's Name. This may have went over the heads of many, but this entire film failed to properly announce Aaliyah's name correctly. Everyone is guilty of calling Aaliyah the way we see it, but the singer was very adamant in which the way people pronounced her name. Her name is pronounced Aah-lee-yah. The film from start to finish did not do that and it was about her life.
What are you thoughts on the movie?
(Photo: Lifetime)
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