While the music in Sparkle is nothing short of spectacular, the narrative itself feels like a missed opportunity. Despite the powerhouse vocals, the film ultimately plays out as a serviceable but paint-by-numbers rags-to-riches story that sticks a bit too closely to the standard musical biopic tropes. Given the obvious parallels to Motown history, I found myself wishing we had simply gotten a definitive movie about the actual Supremes instead of this fictionalized, predictable gloss on their legacy.