Review: ‘All Eyez on Me’ isn’t worthy of Tupac

Rapper Tupac Shakur was a revolutionary artist cut down in his prime, and his life story has been overdue for the biopic treatment, especially in light of the films about his rivals and contemporaries such as “Notorious” and “Straight Outta Compton.”

However, “All Eyez on Me” isn’t quite worthy of Tupac’s remarkable life.

Playing the part of Tupac is newcomer Demetrius Shipp Jr., who looks eerily like the rapper, but the film surrounding Shipp is rough going. “All Eyez on Me” gets off to a bumpy start, as it skitters wildly around from life event to life event, with dates, locations and story-framing devices pummeling the screen. We’re given a flash forward to Tupac onstage in front of adoring fans, then a prison interview that serves to guide us through his childhood and early career. It’s just lazy screenwriting to plop in an interviewer to interject names and places rather than establishing these facts in the script.

The first 45 minutes never gels, with bizarre scene transitions and characters that are scarcely introduced. It feels like much was left on the editing room floor, though even more could have gone. The film only finds its legs in the second half, as Tupac becomes caught up in drama with Death Row Records, Suge Knight and the East Coast/West Coast rap beef.

The problem with biopics is knowing what — and what not — to include, and the writers of “All Eyez on Me,” Jeremy Haft, Eddie Gonzalez and Steven Bagatourian, erred on the side of more is more, rather than selectively choosing the events that would best express Tupac’s life story.

Director Boom never met a dramatic moment that he didn’t want to milk the life out of with an on-the-nose gospel song or a swirling steadi-cam movement circling Tupac as he comes to a revelation. Subtlety is not his strong suit, and he seems to have been telling his actors “bigger!” all the time. Danai Gurira, playing Tupac’s mother, Afeni, reaches especially operatic heights.

Tupac was a complicated, nuanced person, but that complexity is flattened out and comes off as inconsistent in this film. While it’s a delight to watch Shipp channel Tupac, ultimately, the imitation doesn’t come close to the real thing.

‘All Eyez on Me’

TWO STARS out of four stars

Rated R; language, drug use, violence, nudity, sexuality

2 hours, 20 minutes

Opens wide Friday; some screenings Thursday