Air

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Director: Ben Affleck

Starring: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Viola Davis

Air is a movie that has all of the right ingredients for an exceptional movie that is destined for success - the cast, the director, the financial backing, and the fact that it's the biopic of a man who is considered the greatest competitive athlete of all time.

So why was I so sceptical about seeing this movie after seeing the trailer for the first time?

Some could argue that it is the fact that the biopic is becoming too tired, too quick within the industry. Within the past 5 or 6 years, we have seen a dramatic increase in movies dedicated to celebrities or athletes, it's becoming slightly boring.

From Elton John all the way to the inventor of Tetris, we've almost seen it all.

But this is where I feel as though Air takes an exciting and alternate approach, and decides to create a movie, not about Michael Jordan himself, but how Nike managed to oversee and take part in one of the most successful sport/brand partnerships of all time, that would result in the creation of "Air Jordan".

One positive aspect about this movie that simply can't be argued, is how good the ensemble cast performances are. You could watch this film over and over again for weeks on end, and still struggle to find a singular fault with any of these performances.

I could spend days mentioning how good Matt Damon was as the leading role, being directed by Ben Affleck for the first time since Good Will Hunting. But the two performances that stood out and surprised me the most were Chris Messina as David Falk, the agent to Michael Jordan, and Jason Bateman as Rob Strasser.

Messina serves up an impressive and hilarious performance as Jordan's agent, leaving the audience in laughter several times throughout the movie's course.

And forget everything you thought Jason Bateman was as just a "comedic actor", as he has recently shown his range of acting in dramatic roles as well as comedic - and this movie is the purest example of that.

Bateman serves up a heartwarming and emotional performance as Rob Strasser, and delivers a small handful of moving monologues in this film.

Although there are minor weaknesses in the screenplay for this movie, it does all it needs to, and that is tell the story of how nike beat out various competitors to sign Michael Jordan to their brand.

The words behind this film were written by Alex Convery, heard of him? You haven't.

This is because this is actually the first official screenplay produced by Convery, and at the time of writing, wasn't commissioned to do so at all. It was only when Ben Affleck came across the script, that he felt it should be turned into a movie.

But despite these flaws in the film's screenplay, few and minor, Convery actually does a brilliant job of producing various heartwarming and inspiring monologues that are only transformed into greatness via the films cast.

Matt Damon's inspiring delivery of the monologue that would eventually convince the Jordan family to sign with Nike is nothing short of excellent acting.

To really do this responsibly, you need Michael to say yes. Ben said it in the first meeting, ‘We will not do the movie if Michael doesn’t want to do it.’ - Alex Convery

One bone in particular that I would feel the need to pick with director Ben Affleck would be his decision not to allow us to meet the character of Michael Jordan in this movie.

I understand it to an extent - if we meet Jordan, this film then becomes the Michael Jordan biopic, and that's not what this is.

And although we see Michael Jordan various times in the film, we never actually get to see the guy's face.

And the way that the production team behind this film go about handling this, and the desperate attempts they go to to prevent us from seeing his face stand out way too much for me.

If they don't want us to see him so badly, I feel as though they should have had no characters interactions with the him so badly. But there is a part in the film where we see Chris Tucker's character interact with the iconic athlete, and the lengths they go to in order to prevent us from seeing him, just come across as desperate.

All in all, Air is a very good movie that not only entices and impresses critics and general audiences, but also puts Affleck in the "good books" of filmlovers as he directs his first good film since Argo (2013).

Overall Rating: 7.5/10