This movie has about as much in common with the Detroit riots as the rapper Krispy Cream has to the evolution of the hip hop industry. Quick disclaimer there were some racist cops involved in the Detroit riots but not comparable to the insanity in the south. 1) focuses on an incident at a motel rather than the riots as a whole. Keep in mind that horrible actions that these police officers took were in part true. Next look up the white girls in the motel they were both prostitutes and had a boat load of felony charges against them prior to the incident. Then look up the people being accused of shooting at the cops with a "toy gun" (starter gun which can be used as an actual weapon) one of the assaulted a teacher violently. 2) that horrible cartoon at the beginning. They might as well have started back in the 1400s with this one. Massive propaganda and promoting fear for whites. 3) over all just a smear towards the law enforcement of America. Absolute disappointment I could go on for hours. 1/10 if you found this movie appalling and horrific and that everything was true in this film then I've got another great suggestion for you it's called Lord of the Rings because the reality of the events portrayed in this film are borderline fiction.

My biggest gripe about "Detroit" is that the screenplay fails to fully develop its four characters featured on the movie poster. Instead the intersection of Melvin Dismukes (John Boyega), Greene (Anthony Mackie), Larry Reed (Algee Smith) and Philip Krauss (Will Poulter) occurs with little background information to flesh out any of the characters. Despite this, John Boyega turns in a solid performance, displaying flashes of Sidney Poitier (think Virgil Tibbs from "In the Heat of the Night") and Denzel Washington. Will Poulter is convincing as the dastardly horrific, torturous police officer Philip Krauss.

The story is compelling, scary, historical. It depicts very well the state of mind of the US. Violence is their way. They did not change much. Better than Alien, because true.

When I started seeing promotional material for "Detroit", I thought that it really had the chance to be something special. It is very timely in today's social/political climate, and director Kathryn Bigelow always takes such care in her films to portray the truth. While this seems to indeed be the case in "Detroit" as well, the film comes off as lacking a clear focus in terms of what it wanted to accomplish short of "showing the facts of what happened".For a basic plot summary, "Detroit" tells the story of the 1967 race riots that tore through the city of Detroit, MI. While the first half of the film looks at the riots as a whole, the second half focuses in on one specific incident where the Detroit PD roughs up a group of African American men (and two white women) in trying to find a weapon that was fired from that location. The shocking brutality and subsequent trial are all chronicled in the back half of the film.There are two things that I really wish "Detroit" would have done different:1. It almost seems to be two different movies, and I wish Bigelow would have stuck to the first one, so to speak. As I've mentioned, the first half is really gripping, showing the beginning of the riots and what they might mean for everyone. I was really "into" this movie, as it truly does parallel many similar themes and problems even today. When the film switches to the one Algiers Motel incident, however, I felt like it bogged down and never really recovered. Perhaps had the film focused on that single scene from the beginning it would not have been so jarring of a switch, but as it stands I didn't like the focus going from wide-angle to pretty strict zoom.2. I know that Bigelow likely wants to remain a-political in her filmmaking (from what I remember, a similar thing happened in "The Hurt Locker"), but I also feel like this isn't a story that can be told without taking a bit of a stand. That doesn't happen here, though, and the movie has less of an impact because of it. Instead, this is very much a "just the facts, ma'm" approach that, at nearly two and a half hours, becomes hard to get through.There is enough in "Detroit" to make it a watchable movie, as the acting performances are great and the general atmosphere of the whole piece is pretty chilling. Plus, Bigelow does a great job of subtly showing how similar race issues continue to plague black/police relationships. Basically, it does a great job of showing how the problems often remain even after the actors change.So, while not a bad movie by any stretch, "Detroit" is one that I was quite underwhelmed by. I wanted a more consistent storytelling approach and a bit more of an impactful, articulated message within it. It's worth a watch if you are interested in the type of topics it delves into, but it likely won't vault to the top of your best-of lists.