The last 20 minutes or so of the film try desperately to create drama out of an ending we all already know, milking every moment for maximum ominousness.
All Eyez on Me is one of the most useless music biopics ever made-it'll be too confusing for newcomers and too underwhelming for those familiar with the work and the life of rap prophet Tupac Shakur.
Under Knight, Shakur is propelled down a path of consumer commercialism. From there, All Eyez becomes less the story of a troubled revolutionary and more the tale of a brilliant black man whose talents are squandered by those close enough to do so.
All Eyez on Me is rarely more than a faithful adaptation of the rapper's Wikipedia entry, so fixated on name-checking every footnote of Shakur's public life that there is no space to explore the experience of the man himself.
There is a sincerity in the film's performed characterizations that is able to carry entire scenes, but also a confusion in what it insists are the moments that were the most meaningful to the man.
All Eyez could have been a much more powerful portrait of the artist who died far too young a man -- Tupac's own Straight Outta Compton, if you will -- if only it trusted viewers enough to give us the whole person.
