Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B

I had to rewrite this review because I wasn't allowed to use all caps to express how furious I am about this biopic Lifetime movie of Aaliyah. This movie gets ONE star. If I could give it a zero, I would. The Biopic was poorly executed. The casts had me so confused. Alexandra Shipp acting was a joke. *sigh* I didn't know Missy Elliot was biracial; didn't know Timbaland was Puerto Rican, and R. Kelly, didn't know he was from Nigeria. No. I'm not being racist, because I am a black woman but you would think the cast would have some similarities with the actual artists. I know the beautiful Aaliyah just looking down from Heaven and wondering why they would do this...they only focused on her romantic life than her music. Terrible! I usually don't write reviews at all but I felt it was only right for me to do so and give you guys my honest opinion about this biopic. Don't waste an 1 1/2 of your life watching this movie that you can't get back. I'd rather for you to watch paint dry than to sit through this mess of a movie. Please!!! I beg! Don't watch it. You will be highly disappointed!! LOL!!! I've warned you!!!

If I could give this movie a zero star rating, I would. First of all, I assume the absence of her greatest hits was attributed to the fact that they failed to obtain the music rights, hence why they used music from soundtracks. Second of all, the acting... all around was pitiful. I have never seen a biographical movie done in such poor taste. I feel for the family. They didn't want the movie produced in the first place and then this is the best that lifetime could do in honour of her life? I found the movie to be so bad that it was actually disrespectful. There was very little thought put into the movie. I found out that Wendy Williams was one of the producers which I suppose makes sense... The movie was just about as great as her show. I respect Zendaya for stepping away from the role and in all honestly, she dodged a bullet. This movie did no favours for any of the actors in there. There was no real character development, everyone seemed to just be dropped in there for the mere purpose of name dropping, but there was no real need for their existence in the movie. Poor, poor, poor. I apologize to the family on behalf of everyone involved in this crap-storm catastrophe "movie". And by movie, I mean a bunch of random clips lumped together into about 85 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Don't waste your time on this one.

Why make a movie about Aaliyah and not do it right. The actress portraying Aaliyah has a singing style that sounds like "pop" while Aaliyah's style is way more Hip/Hop-R&B. The actor portraying R. Kelly looks nothing like him, not even close, and it really bothers when these movies are made about blacks that greater care is not made to find the right actors to more accurately represent the people being portrayed. This production is a massive fail. Aaliyah was a fabulous singer and dancer, how could Lifetime attempt to make a movie about her life and exclude her hits and not include more dancing and singing in it? Her greatest hits are not even in this movie. How can this be? It gets 2 stars simply for attempting to pay homage to the late songbird who deserves so much better than this.

I did not like this movie very much. First of all, none of the actors in this movie looked like the real people, in some instances, Alexandra Shipp almost looked like Aaliyah, but I still believe that Lifetime could have chosen a better actress for such a role. Don't even get me started about the guy they presumed as R. Kelly, not only did he looked too thick, the man looked like he was tired and he looked NOTHING like the King of R&B! Then you've got this tall brown pretty boy wannabe gangster look-a-like that they chose for Damon Dash, PLEASE! Your network needs to fire the casting director of this movie. This movie was poorly done and I believe it was rushed. They did not even portrayed the relationship that Aaliyah had with with DMX which was much more of a value than what she had with Damon Dash. Honestly Lifetime, if you could not have handled a story as Aaliyah's better than this, I think you should NOT have taken up the responsibility of doing a movie like this for the Princess of R&B! This was an UTTER insult!

I'm so mad at this movie. The transitions were terrible, she didn't perform her hit songs, they didn't show how much of an impact Timberland & Missy made on her career...... This movie was too small to portray her life. Also they needed to use her real voice. I'm a true fan of hers and if you didn't follow her very well then you would probably think this is a great movie. This truly disappoints me & I wish someone would redo her life. Don't bother watching it if you are a true fan because it will let you down. VH1, Debbie Allen , someone please, please don't let her legacy be minimized like this. The actress did not portray Aaliyah she should have really studied her, but she tried her best. Terrible production.