Ben Affleck’s AIR Debuts With Rare Perfect Score on Rotten Tomatoes

AIR has a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes as critics are really happy with Ben Affleck’s origin story for Michael Jordan. In the Amazon Studios picture, the actor plays Nike head man Phil Knight. On Rotten Tomatoes, AIR has 12 reviews and a 100% on the Tomatometer. It will be interesting to see how people react to the larger release. Sneaker culture has exploded worldwide since the 2000s. It was already massive by the time Jordan made it to the league. However, as AIR makes it clear, things shifted into another stratosphere with the introduction of Nike’s Air Jordan line. One man and a marketing team is likely the reason that so many young athletes clamor for these kinds of endorsement deals now. 

How Much Was Michael Jordan Involved In AIR?

Affleck actually spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the upcoming film and how he talked to Jordan about the movie. Apparently, His Airness has a lot of input on AIR. But, he didn’t have complete veto power. Check out how he described it down below.

“I’ve never known anybody with that kind of charisma and power who walks into a room and it just reverberates,” he added. “And is it him or is it the way people treat him? Is it your memories of him? I don’t know, but it’s powerful. I said, ‘Please, can I come out?’ And he was great. ‘Yeah, no problem. Come to the golf course.’ Went out, met with him. I waited for him to finish playing. I don’t golf myself. Because I just feel like it eats people’s lives up.”

“I have to be very clear, this is not the authorized Michael Jordan story. He was not compensated in a way that would be appropriate if this were that. If you’re going to do a Michael Jordan story, they should back the fucking truck up. This was me saying, ‘Mike, I’m not going to make the movie if you’re not cool with something about it. I just won’t do it. I want to know what’s important to you.’ He was very clear,” Affleck recalled. “He was the one who told me about [Nike executive] Howard White, who wasn’t in the original script, who’s played by Chris Tucker. And I said, ‘Any anecdotes about your dad?’ And without going into any more detail, he actually talked about his mom, who wasn’t really in the script. That’s when I understood what the movie was. Talking to him about his mom was incredibly moving, and I realized, ‘Oh, this isn’t about Nike.’”

Here’s how Amazon Studios describes the new movie: “AIR reveals the unbelievable game-changing partnership between a then-rookie Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division which revolutionized the world of sports and contemporary culture with the Air Jordan brand. This moving story follows the career-defining gamble of an unconventional team with everything on the line, the uncompromising vision of a mother who knows the worth of her son’s immense talent, and the basketball phenom who would become the greatest of all time.”

Are you going to see AIR when it comes out? Let us know down in the comments!