POSITIVES
It’s an awesome premise for a movie that’s based on true events. An African female warrior army fighting against slavers? Yes to that.
Along with the entertaining action beats, the good set locations, the engaging narrative, the historical significance, and the social dynamics, the main highlight and the best thing about this movie is the camaraderie and relationship between the main female leads. That carries this film and everything that comes with it.
Speaking of the female leads. Viola Davis is a powerful badass here as expected, Lashana Lynch is simply incredible, Sheila Atim is fantastic, and Thuso Mbedu as our actual lead protagonist Nawi that shows us how awesome and amazing she is.
I don’t know about you all, but I like watching good solid training sequences, and this movie has them.
Besides the obvious “slavery is bad” commentary, there are other themes this story focuses on that I think gave this movie a lot more heart and emotion than you might have expected.
NEGATIVES
Those expecting this to be an action-packed movie might be disappointed.
Plot conveniences. Manipulative plot devices. Plot tropes. This movie surprisingly has a rather derivative plot progression that doesn’t stray too far from what you’ve seen in other films.
Narrative could move a little faster. It didn’t need to be over two hours long.
Speaking of time… was there a longer cut to this movie, because there were some supporting actors who just didn’t get to do or say much at all, and yet they are framed like we’re supposed to know more about them.
I get why they went with the accents, but I either needed closed-captioning, or would have preferred them just try and speak in an African language with subtitles. The accents were too thick for me.
loveditenjoyedit LIKED IT itsokayitsmehitsterrible
