King Richard; Grade: B+
King Richard tells a story about a father named Richard Williams (Will Smith) whom is training his daughters Venus (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena (Demi Singleton) to become great Tennis players, as they perhaps have great potential. Richard Williams has a strict style of parenting and training his girls, as he makes sure they secure great grades and to practice hard rain or shine. Richard Williams will do whatever it takes to bring his girls an opportunity to find them a Tennis coach, so they can secure their tennis dreams.
Serena Williams and Venus Williams not only the greatest sister duo of Tennis or best doubles in women’s Tennis, but perhaps the greatest tennis players in the game of Tennis women and even men's Tennis. I was really looking forward to this sports film, to get a look of the sisters in their humble beginnings to Tennis royalty.
When the news broke out Will Smith was going to play the sisters father, believe it or not there was a lot of outrage coming from social media about this casting choice. The outrage wasn’t cause by Will Smith’s qualification to perform this role at the best it can be performed, the outrage was made because the pigment of Will Smith’s skin color was not a shade darker… I’m not making this up, this was trending on Twitter as I’ve witnessed countless amount of Tweets criticizing this choice for this sole reason. Listen I’m not a fan of Will Smith anymore, however the fact people really gave him and this film in general a hard time to take the role all because his skin tone wasn’t darker… Do these people have a life, other than being upset over things that aren’t worth being upset over?! I can find thousands upon thousands of other things to do in life or actually make a valid difference to make the world a better place, than to cry about something as truly ridiculous as this.
Speaking of Will Smith: The timing of this release has been actually poorly timed. I believe Will Smith dropped a book talking about his life, along with celebrity news has broken out about some really depressing details on Will Smith’s relationship with Jada Pikett Smith. For a good month maybe two, it’s been nonstop news about how Will Smith’s relationship is beyond dreadful as you question his integrity as a man, while also him talking about all this depressing details of his mentality and his life. If there is anyone to blame for the box office woes of King Richard: It’s the leading man himself, I really have no idea why Will Smith was doing all this before the release of his newest movie?! It didn’t help bring the attention Smith needed to lure people in full support of Smith as they run to the theater, it actually made things a lot worse… Whomever his PR is, they need to be fired immediately.
It’s a damn shame this film wasn’t brought box office success, King Richard actually surprised me as this is perhaps Will Smith’s best film in a long time. Will Smith makes everyone eat their words from all the slander he received upon the casting choice, as he delivered a great performance as Richard Williams, probably his best performance in years. Will Smith is locked in as this strict father, whom does have a vulnerable spirit as he’s not as tough as you think. He’s got a big heart for his girls and family, but when up against some people bigger more inferior than him… He’s honestly not as tough as you think, as the world treats him like shit other than his family. It makes sense why he pushes the Williams sisters harder on practicing and why he’s so hesitate to let them take on bigger challenges… He doesn’t want them in the same position as him, however he doesn’t want the challenge to over take the girls due to the fact challenges have over taken him to the point where the world got the best of him. I’d say Richard Williams is a very likable dad though has strict values, however he’s a good father as he loves his kids and wife dearly, you don’t see too many of these old school parenting now a days as it felt refreshing to see.
The story at hand t’was very well written and most certainly entertaining. The drama narrative and the sports content splendid perfectly, it’s honestly a thoroughly entertaining film that has me wanting to play Tennis right after it’s over… The sports coverage is something I’ve been wanting from a film for awhile now, as this film knocked it out of the park with it. I found the whole finale to be not only be entertaining and of course controversial as it does tick you off what happens, however it’s a very satisfying ending to where you feel inspired and uplifted in a way. It’s quite awesome watching Richard Williams do all he can to get the sisters to this point, even though you question the detour, how it develops to where the sisters are finally let loose is quite special, plus the dad delivers some heart warming cheesy moments as well.
Overall, King Richard was a great film. I highly recommend checking this one out, one of the better sports film in quite sometime. -Mitch Smietana