(SPOILERS)

I've heard a few different people, on different occasions, say they feel bad for not voting after watching this, so that far transcends any critique of the filmmaking and would be exactly what MLK would hope for.

But having said that, as a movie, this is pretty straight-down-the-middle biopic. It checks all the boxes of an historical period drama and ends up just feeling sterile and generic. The horrible Malcolm X cameo just serves as a reminder of how bloodless and personality-free this film is in comparison to Spike's X biopic.

The only moment that rang true was the scene at the morgue with the grandfather of the slain protestor. That was, by far, the best performance in the movie. He wasn't fumbling with a terrible southern accent or portraying some super-human archetype or reciting stilted, unbelievable dialogue. That was an 80-year-old black man who's been through some shit and speaking from his heart.

As always, the southern accents were pretty horrendous throughout. Not sure why we always have to fill southern roles with british actors, but it's almost unanimously terrible and distracting. Love me some Tom Wilkinson, but on several occasions, his accent drifted from northern American to British lilt to cartoon Texan in the same sentence. He never sounded like Lyndon Johnson. And why the hell is Oprah in this movie? Or Giovanni Ribisi in a Tyler Perry-quality hairpiece? Unnecessary and distracting.

And that brings me to probably the worst part of the film - Olewoyo's King. I guess it was a creative choice on his part to not event attempt to sound like MLK, but to ignore one of King's most powerful weapons - his booming, lyrical/musical speech patterns - is not only distracting, it kills the power of the (numerous) public speaking scenes. I get that it could have very easily become a bad parody, but portraying one of the most powerful public speakers of all time requires that you at least attempt to nail his speaking voice.

Again, nothing wrong with the movie, but aside from the opening bombing scene, there's no personal touch to this thing...no artistic flag in the ground...nothing that kept me thinking about it after I left the theater.