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Viola Davis. © 2022. TriStar Pictures/Sony, Entertainment One, and TSG Entertainment II. Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. Watched it in IMAX @ AMC Theaters
A Warrior Becomes A Legend. Hollywood loves to try out new things and sometimes, it doesn't work. But for this film, it does indeed work. It does so by minimalizing the clichés and focusing on story and drama while keeping up with the great action. But also not trying to piss off history students and telling them that society is destroyed. But why are we talking about history? It's because history can be rewritten in film but it has to have a purpose. Sometimes, they do it right or they do it to push their agenda to audiences. This film doesn't do that but it embraces it in a serious tone and giving us an actual purpose of why. That's why this film succeeds and it's awesome in its own way that many films tried in the past. Only a few films succeed and The Woman King is one of them. Click the link below to start reading my review of this film. Thank you for supporting my independent film website and check out my other content! Let's go in this review and explore the alternate history world of Africa. Plot: In the 1800s, a group of all-female warriors protects the African kingdom of Dahomey with skills and fierceness, unlike anything the world has ever seen. Faced with a new threat, Gen. Nanisca trains the next generation of recruits to fight against a foreign enemy that's determined to destroy their way of life. This film really delivered what the trailers promised. A drama-action packed film with an interesting alternate history that stars badass female actors. Now that's a great package and importantly, well done. The cast of this film is really great. Viola Davis really brought her character to life and she overtook every scene she is in. She's the main scene stealer and she was badass in every moment. Her character arc is strong and with the interesting twist between an important character, that's where her character really grabbed me. It made the film more intense and dramatic which leads to a great epic final battle. Viola Davis continues to show that she's badass in every film. The supporting cast also did a great job as well. Thuso Mbedu as Nawi did a great job being the true main character of the story and her arc is great. Her character connection with General Nanisca was natural and it really paid off in the end. The other leaders in the film like actresses Lashana Lynch and Sheila Atim are great in this film. I really enjoyed their performance and Lashana Lynch was my favorite of the leaders. Her scenes with Nawi worked very well. John Boyega as King Ghezo is also great in the film. His character was kind of a dick but I understood his purpose and his scenes with Viola Davis are just great. I'm glad that John Boyega gets to do more roles while Daisy Ridley is still trying to find the lightsaber of acting work. Overall, the cast is great with Viola Davis being the strongest one and potentially earning an academy award nomination for lead actress. Her performance felt Oscar-worthy or screamed Oscars and I feel like she's going to get nominated. But besides the characters, the plot is also pretty great. The pacing didn't drag that much and it is a suitable runtime for the type of story it's trying to tell. The plot thickens between the British arriving in Africa and Nawi investigating the area. There are some interesting racial story points that really went into a certain character since the film takes place in the 1800s. Plus, seeing female warriors beating men warriors really turned the tables and they did it right. The action sequences are intense and amazing. The sound design in this film is a potential Oscar-worthy nomination and the cinematography is very great. The costume design and production design are amazing and it felt like a $100 million dollar project but in reality, it was $50 million. That's dedication to utilizing production budgets well. The directing in this film is also great. Gina Prince-Bythewood continues to deliver great films and this is a great second action film from her. She makes the action sequences believable and brutal in many ways. The somewhat unexpected twists really worked for me and grabbed me emotionally which is a major plus. The production is amazing, the story is great and the cast really brought their character to life to make this film amazing. I still have some slight nitpicks still but it didn't ruin the entire film. When this film showed its first trailer, people were split and I really didn't care about it that much. But what really bothered me was some of the inaccurate facts or representations of events. I searched up some critical facts and while some of them were true to this film, some didn't and it could be for dramatic purposes. But I felt like some of it wasn't used that well, unfortunately. Another critique is the character Malik felt like his purpose in the movie was 50/50. It felt like he was there to make the racial problem more clear in the film and the other is a straight-up Disney channel-written character material. One of my buddies pointed it out and while having that thought during the film, I picked up the writing clichés and performance. That really ticked me off but I'm glad the final scene with him was well thought out, without saying any plot spoilers. It's a character decision between another character in the film. While there were some points the film felt very slow, the pacing picked back up and it became an action ride. This film is an action ride from start to finish. Amazing performances, crisp action sequences, and great directing from Gina Prince-Bythewood. I really enjoyed this film, especially watching it on IMAX with a couple of friends and I hope we can get more films like this. This is what female lead action films should be. The 355 didn't capture that but this film really captured it by focusing on a great story and well-written characters. But also utilizing them in many creative and dramatic ways. I cannot wait for more films like this. All thanks to Black Panther. Now Playing Only in Theaters. Vizeit Score: "A-" (Share this review with your film friends and on social media! Thank you for your continue support.) Copyright © 2022. Vizeit Studios. All Rights Reserved. Review Written By: Everardo Garcia Jr.
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