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Aaliyah Biopic Is So Bad, Twitter Sounds Off — And Much Hilarity Ensues

By Toni Matthews
Published on: 02:27 PST, Nov 16, 2014

The Lifetime biopic about R&B singer Aaliyah is proof-positive that sometimes a great idea should stay an idea.

Ordinarily, the strong objections of the surviving family members of a deceased music star like Aaliyah would have been enough to make a network back off.

But Lifetime has all the grace of an elephant on roller skates when it comes respecting the dead. Casting Lindsay Lohan as the iconic Elizabeth Taylor alone would be enough to send up red flags.

Aaliyah was originally meant to be played by Zendaya Coleman, who opted to jump ship. Coleman’s casting was heavily criticized, mainly because she looked nothing like Aaliyah.

Lifetime practically lucked its way into casting Alexandra Shipp, who by all accounts tried her best to make a messy script work. But that doesn’t change the fact that the script was a mess, the casting was a mess, and that Lifetime messed up big time in their failed tribute to a once promising star.

The final consensus about the biopic Aaliyah: Princess of R&B is that it simply did not need to happen. We did not need to see Aaliyah in a romantic relationship with a predator. We certainly didn’t need to see that heavily speculated about situation handled in such a clumsy, disrespectful, and disturbing manner.

But leave it to Lifetime rub salt on the wounds of anyone and everyone still missing Aaliyah nearly a decade and a half after her untimely death. Although Lifetime scored a minor victory in getting Aaliyah: Princess of R&B on the air, the internet was quick to make them pay for it.

If the network somehow remained unaware of the mounting contempt for this picture, social media feedback which followed the airing made such sentiments painfully clear. The hashtag #LifetimeBiopics was created in an effort to poke fun at the fact that Lifetime went through so much trouble to make such a horribly miscast movie.

Though some opted for humor, others simply elected to pay tribute to Aaliyah herself:

Whether you found the Aaliyah film to be a particularly awful experience or you passed on watching it in order spare your eyeballs, you can still enjoy the merciless wit featured in these tweets. Even though the inevitable social media backlash cannot undo Lifetime’s visual faux pas, it’s certainly made a sad situation a little better.

Did you watch the Aaliyah biopic on Lifetime? If so, what did you think?

[Image Credit: JWill95Rare]

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