The Great & Frustrating Career of Will Smith 

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I had seriously never noticed how "safe" most of his acting choices tend to be.

There's a clip floating around of two little girls approaching Will Smith at an Aladdin red carpet event. They ask him where is his magic, and Smith responds wholesomely with how he has to hide his magic from everyone, but it's just their little secret that he's the genie. This made me realize the impact Will Smith has had on pop culture. I saw Will Smith as the Fresh Prince. Another generation may have saw him as a Men in Black agent or Muhammad Ali. But there's a whole new generation, right now, that see's him as the Genie of the lamp. I love the guy.

Glad smith didn't do Django. I can't see him bring the character in the way Jamie Foxx did.

Did you see Will Smith speak on Jimmy Kimmel saying exactly what you asked for? Its about him being older now so no longer wanting to be limited by his 'Will Smith persona' so hopefully your prayers will be answered.

He has the ability to not age.

Will Smith is on the record as saying that as early as the mid90s that he wanted to be "the biggest movie star in the world." He arguably pulled it off from the mid 90s through to the late 2000s. But once you reach the top it is hard to stay there, especially once you no longer have a goal.

Will Smith video but no Hancock? You're slipping, Cap. 9.9/10

Imagine if he was Doctor Strange. "Dormammu, it's rewind time."

*sees notification* “Ah that’s hot.”

I think his acting choice to never play truly evil or creepy characters stem from the fact that for a long time Will Smith was the only black leading man that execs were willing to give top billing. There used to be a saying in Hollywood that said that black leads don't make money except Will Smith.

MIB as agent J will always be my favorite Will Smith role next to Fresh Prince

I Am Legend originally had an ending very similar to the book, Will Smith even shot it but ultimately the studio wanted a more Hollywood ending. Will Smith took the role expecting the movie to end with that twist.

Never knew about the original ending of I Am Legend. Actually sounds a lot better than the movie's strange third act.

you should do more of these non comic book related topics. they're pretty engaging.

I really feel like you glossed over the work he did in movies like Pursuit if Happiness, Ali, and Seven Pounds. I get that a lot of movies fit with his persona but we saw a lot of range from him in those roles

Thanks for this. It's like you organized a bunch of thoughts that have been bouncing around my head for the last ten years or so.

To be fair, for 'I am Legend' I am curious about how much of the change was actually done by Will Smith. I mean, there was a deleted scene with him actually apologizing and accepting the new world. So it seems that change wasn't cause of Will Smith. I think the thing is, Will Smith won't play a bad guy. But he doesn't mind playing a man who did something wrong. Also, here is the thing... Will Smith is someone that even kids could watch. He's a family friendly actor. He's a role model. He plays someone who people can look up to. Be an example for.

Shark Tale is a masterpiece of all cinema, its is a great spiritual successor to The Godfather

Just imagine a movie with RDJ, Will Smith, and The Rock, that's charisma overload

Quick point. You mentioned that Will Smith "used" to be one of Hollywood's biggest actors. At an income of 42.5 million dollars, Will Smith was the sixth highest paid actor of 2018.

"Hollywood's most charismatic actor" didn't age so well lmao

RU-vid rewind is my favorite Will Smith movie.

I just watched King Richard and it was very interesting comparing this with his performance there. For the first time in a long time, Smith stretched himself as an actor and was willing to do things I didn’t think Smith would have normally been comfortable doing (break down emotionally, get beat up, be called out for bad sometimes even abusive behavior, etc). It’s still a sports biopic, not too dissimilar to Ali, but it was a welcome, refreshing change of pace for him and I hope it continues!

Can we get a 2022 update on him now 😁

People say Johnny Depp always plays the same character in every movie. Will Smith literally plays Will Smith in every movie.

I think this is one of your best analysis videos. Watching this, Ali was my only counter-argument and you even brought that up and your points still stand. I don't think you're harsh on him, just properly critical. I'm sure he has exceptional range in acting. Hopefully he takes more risks in the future.

I'll never forget watching "I am legend", at the time "I was around 12" it was my favorite movie and the dog scene will always stay with me 😭😭😭😭

Well said. It's just brand. Pity because the man can actually act. Cruise pushed a little. I think the blockbuster angle is still holding strong Pity

Irobot is so slept on. My favorite will Smith movie for sure!

I never noticed how safe the roles Will chooses, that was a very brilliant assessment. great job captainmidnight

The Will Smith of today is a far cry from the coolest person in the world, he once was. And that's the real slap in the face...

This reminds me of Kevin Hart. Kevin has one character he plays in all movies and it’s the exact same every time, he’s never really a character, he’s just the standard Kevin Hart

Will Smith in After Earth: I sleep Will Smith in Gemini: *! Ö___________Ø*

Incredible rundown of Will Smith's career and the choices he's made to further it. Acting to Will Smith certainly seems like it's more of a hobby for him and giving people what they want and that makes him happy. You've made it pretty clear he doesn't have the artistic passion for filmmaking of say, Leonardo DiCaprio, but he does his thing and he does it well, and tons of people love it. He's on top with the greatest when it comes to character acting.

Aye Cap. Can you do one on Dwayne Johnson and how his fame and legacy have developed overtime from professional wrestling to a movie star to a motivational speaker?

his career slaps

Never thought about it really, very interesting video

I absolutely LOVED Pursuit of Happyness, Irobot and Hitch. I can watch them million times.

It's nothing frustrating about his career. The guys been a mega star since the early 90s

Enemy of the State.. Never comes up. Seriously his best movie.

Now that I think about it, even his a**hole character Hancock becomes redemptive at the end.

Will Smith needs to play a villain like Denzel Washington did in Training Day.

Smith has played it safe to appease. He wants to reach the wider audience so he keep this persona in order to seem non threatening. Cosby did it too.

He probably continues to take "safe" roles because he feels no one would take him seriously in a role like "Django"

To say that Smith wanting to avoid violent roles in order to serve his brand is disengenious. If anything, I respect him more for his choices. He doesn't let his job effect his morals. That's commendable.

i disagree, Smith was clearly willing to forgo his persona in After Earth, instead of being charismatic, likeable, and quick witted, he's a piece of wood with no personality in that movie.

What I got from this video: "HE'S FIFTY YEARS OLD?!?!"

I just binged a shit ton of your videos and dude your videos are insanely well written and I really enjoy the toy commercial element.

The moment when hulk and Mace windu blank stared on will Smith thoughts on what Django unchained should be about XD

I love when creators go outside of their usual subject matter. I think it’s interesting that while he was talking about Will Smith not really going outside of his brand, this video IS a outside of Captain Midnight’s normal coverage points.

Damn, that version of django would have sucked.

Great video. I was intrigued by what you meant by 'frustrating' in the title, but having seen it, it does bother me.

MIB and Independance Day are absolute classics

the alternative ending of "i am legend" is closer to the book (actualy is the same in theme)

This is probably one of the most insightful videos you guys have done. Fantastic job

The Pursuit of Happiness is his best work and a really great movie.

Dont discredit his Muhammed Ali performance! That movie was both good and he acted superbly well in a dramatic biopic.

In the end, say what you want about him. But his movies slap.

I never thought about it that way. Explains why most of his roles feel too safe. I hope he finds a project that challenges his charismatic persona. It would be interesting for you to do a video like this for Ryan Gosling. As I think he's really versatile in the projects he chooses.

Everything you've said here applies to the rock

How could you not talk about his performance in The Pursuit of Happyness?! I thought he was amazing in that movie, and he didn’t seem very Will Smith in that role.

I mean this in the most complementary way possible.. I wish you posted more often....I literally wait for your videos 👍🏿

there is actually an alternate ending of I am Legend that is more similar to the Book

Dude great video you should do these videos on famous actors like pacino, de niro, streep etc

His music is also extremely wholesome. He just wants to use his fame to send out a positiv message.

Django Unchained: It's not me Aladdin: Why do I have to be me

For me, Tom Cruise is at his best in Born On The Fourth Of July. Seriously harrowing performance.

And now look where it got him 2 years later.

You did rather elide over one major, major thing-- that Will Smith is black. (Yeah, who knew?) And he has to be-- or, perhaps more accurately-- feels he needs to be always basically decent in some way, for many reasons, and not least of which is that he sees himself as a role model (and, of course, he indeed is one for many people). His image-- his persona-- his brand, if you really want to go that far-- runs into big problems if he seriously tests the limits of what both black and white audiences will tolerate, or what he imagines they will tolerate. How much of that is his perception of things and how much of that is a realistic assessment of audience limits and expectations is a very trick question. I don't think he wants to test that-- and I'm not sure it's fair to insist he have to. I suspect that, in many ways, he sees himself not that differently than Sidney Poitier saw himself (and had to, given the time period). And I think that's a pretty reasonable standard of a self, in terms of a public image/persona/brand, to set for oneself. But he can't quite play around with his image as much as, say, Tom Cruise could. Nobody really looked to Tom Cruise as a model for a community figure. Smith's had to play if safer, to some extent understandable. Because he's a bona-fide STAR, he also hasn't had quite the license as a Sam Jackson or a Laurence Fishburne or even a Jamie Foxx have to play around with their images. It's when you think about these things that you realize how much Smith hews closer to a Sidney Poitier sort of model of, well, being a role-model for a black movie star.

Please rant about I, Robot.... and more book/movie comparisons in general. Your I Am Legend discussion was really neat

7:20 I heard that Will Smith's initial rejection of the role of Django was due to the fact that he felt Christoph Waltz's character was the real star of the film, and that he would overshadow Django as a character. So to me, it sounded like it was more of an ego thing for Smith at first, and then he later came out talking about the relationship aspect of the role so it reflected better on his persona. I grew up with Will Smith, and I really like him as an actor, even when he doesn't do a good job because he just wants to play himself, but I think sometimes he gets too big for his britches. That being said, I definitely agree that Will Smith being in an ultra-violent film like Django would have been different and nothing like he'd done before, but he should've viewed that as an opportunity to break out rather continue on the path of Will Smith roles (imo). He's not the biggest fish in Hollywood anymore, and I think he really NEEDS to change things up if he wants to continue his career.

Yooo that sponsorship you slid it in so damn smooth like butter man god damn that was so good!!!

Great video and no this wasn't harsh at all. I think it's a legit overview of Will's career, the better role choices vs the safe not so great ones. This oddly made me appreciate Will a little more than what I have in recent years.

Excessive love inevitably turns to hate 🤷🏾‍♂️

Will Smith is a very highly calculated movie star. It's the reason he's a movie star, if you watch his interviews he explains that. He has the talent to take bigger risks, but ultimately being cool has gotten the job done.

Somewhere theres an alternate universe with Will Smith as Neo and Django.

such a thorough, well-documented analysis on the subject! watching this was super captivating and you definitely brought up some points I would have never thought of. thanks so much for making quality content :)

In 2013, he's said he wanted to take more artistic risks and you can kinda see that in the last 5 years of his career, because his recent movies are big budget action films that come out in the summer or the even the winter. And those recent roles aren't really Will Smith type of roles on paper. It's obvious that he has a that positive and motivational brand and I know he's really trying to take more different roles in different genres, but his problem is that he genuinely has a hard time being a villain in a film (although he is a douchebag in Hancock). His "mission statement" is literally to spread light and positivity, and honestly, I don't see him taking on any hardcore villainous role anytime soon. And he doesn't even really need to play a villain like a serial killer or psychopath, as much as I would like to see that, but he should take on roles where he's an alcoholic, corrupt lawyer, or hell, go the Denzel route and actually be a corrupt cop or something. And I do agree with the part about letting a director take full control and subvert his persona. I think the director of 'Happyness' and 'Seven Pounds' handled Will Smith the best, because of how well Will acted in those movie. Besides him wanting to maintain his brand, I think it's also a little bit of ego that's getting in his way, too. I'll still watch anything he's in though lol

Enemy Of The State was pretty amazing.

The Pursuit of Happiness and I am Legend still makes me cry to this day.

Will Smith: * exists * Captainmidnight: wHat CaNT hE Do?

showing the hitch poster while talking about brutal, remorseless murder is beautiful

No mention of Enemy of the State. Great movie.

ah, tarnished one.

The Slap.

Funny thing about I Am Legend - the original ending was a bit more in line with the book. While Smith's character does still manage to synthesize a cure, he realizes that the reason the infected are after him is because he has the lead infected's wife. There's a tense standoff where he revives her snd gives her back. Neville (Smith's character) looks thoroughly defeated and honestly disgusted with himself the whole scene. The lead infected and his wife share a moment before they all leave without harming anyone. The rest of the ending is pretty standard Hollywood - Smith, the woman and her daughter leave New York and it ends with a voice over from Neville talking about the future (and I think he even gets to leave with a cure), but the twist that the infected have been evolving and that Neville has actually been the antagonist is still there. There are shades of this in the final film - the infected start setting up traps for him and they mainly ramp up their aggression after Neville captures one of their own - but unfortunately the payoff isn't there. All this to say, in that instance, I don't know if it was Smith making a decision to not play a certain kind of character so much as it was executive medeling.

Still think 'Born on the 4th of July' is Cruise's best performance, and I LOVE his magnolia performance to no end. But 4th of july is absolutely incredible!

I waited 8mins for you to talk about the iconic "I am a legend" one of my favourites of will smith

Hello from 2023....It got much weirder.

The struggle between doing something that use to work and not boxing yourself into a corner as we currently see with will, Denzel said something interesting about actors, he said your value is determined by the role and your performance not by how much we see you in the public

I've been watching some of your videos and I have to say you're a very articulated man. I like your stuff, ergo I subscribed. Good job!

Captain Midnight grew up with Will Smith

will smith can never leave his fresh prince alter ego. its a blessing and a curse

He doesn't have to be anyone but himself..

How crazy is it that just this morning I was reminiscing about the awesome test scene from the first Men in Black movie. You made some very interesting points in this video, I will say

Anyone here hyped for Gemini Man, or just me?

LMAO turned down Django, but was happy af doing After Earth? Great choice there Will

Six Degrees of Separation. That was an acting breakthrough for him and it was a brave role. And that was 1992. What a classic. He never grew back into those roles.

You could replace Will Smith with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in this video and it would still be pretty accurate.