I already knew that the Lifetime "biopic" "Aaliyah the Princess of R&B" was going to be trash. I knew it when her family objected. I knew it when the original actress Zendaya Coleman dropped out. And, I especially knew it when Wendy Williams was brought in as a producer. I knew it when Aaliyah's music wasn't allowed to be used. I actually had no intention of watching it. But, I was with friends who insisted on watching the travesty. So, I joined in. Lo and behold, it was even worse than I imagined. It was awful. There wasn't one redeeming quality about the biopic. I wish I could say something nice about it. But there isn't anything to say. The casting was like picking the most random people. The actors hired to play Missy Elliott, R. Kelly, Timbaland, Dame Dash looked nothing like the real people. The also did not speak or act like them. Aside from skin tone, Alexandra Shipp had nothing in common with Aaliyah either. She did not speak, dance, sing, or walk like Aaliyah. The only thing she had sorta right was the hair and it wasn't Aaliyah-esque. This was just a mess from beginning to end. Everyone involved should be ashamed.
The casting was terrible as was the acting. But, what was the absolute worst was the fact that Lifetime, the producers, and the writers spent an hour of a two hour movie romanticizing the "relationship" between R. Kelly and Aaliyah. I am still disgusted by it. Let us not forget that Aaliyah was a child (15) when she was working with R. Kelly. Everything about that situation was the work of a pedophile. Everything from the naming of her debut cd "Age Ain't Nuttin But A Number" to him being in the background of the cd cover just feels gross in hindsight. At the time, none of us really knew what was going on. Someone tweeting from the Lifetime Twitter account found nothing wrong with it. The ridiculous tweets are below. The movie was universally panned via Twitter. No one on my timeline liked it. The reviews were just as bad. No one liked it. The ratings were high because we all watched it. But, reading the tweets about the #AaliyahMovie has all the shade you can handle. Also, #LifetimeBeLike & #LifetimeBiopic are golden trending topics this weekend. If you did not see it, do yourself a favor and avoid it. I'm still mad I watched. This biopic was a complete and total fail.
