I enjoyed this movie but there are a few problems I have with it.
I wish they wouldn't have tried to include so many scenes that are meant to explain the history of Nazi Germany and the controversy with the Berlin Olympics. There are scenes that take us far from Jesse and Ohio State track team into conferences with the international Olympic committee and meetings with German diplomats. I personally think that the history of the German Nazi Olympics is knowledge that most people are at least mildly aware of, but even if an audience knows nothing about it, you can tell a story that makes it clear without literally having to show the Olympic meetings. A story about Jesse Owens is a story about Jesse Owens. There are far too many and too long scenes that have nothing to do with him personally.
The other major problem I have is the accents. Jesse's accent changes constantly. It goes from general rural African American accent to 2016 Stephan James. Larry Snyder only ever sounds like 2016 Jason Sudekis. It's not right for the place nor the time. It distracts from the movie because all I can hear is funny guy SNL Jason.
The acting isn't phenomenal. There's a lot of unnatural dialogue moments. Far too many. But it's not terribly awful. Just awkward and a bit distracting.
Historical inaccuracies are a major complaint I see, and while I can understand that, I personally didn't find them to be obviously distracting (aside from Jason sounding like he's doing an SNL skit instead of even attempting any accent.) All other characters accents are random as well. Sometimes they fit, other times the don't. Sometimes it seems like they intentionally wanted to neutralize accents.
Overall it's just kinda meh. It's better than average, but they didn't do Jesse justice in forming an emotional connection with him. He's presented in a meh way. You're rooting for him of course but you're not really enthusiastic. i didn't form an emotional connection where I really cared about him. I wish they would've cut the diplomat meeting scenes and used that time to give us more backstory and emotion for Jesse.
Disappointing. Could've been great but it just didn't meet my expectation.
