Is “The Woman and King” worth a watch?

Amanda Waller is back! Viola Davis is back in another movie! This time she plays Nanisca (Davis), general of the all-female military unit known as the Amazons.

This movie was released on September 16th 2022. It starrs Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch (“James Bond: No Time To Die”), Sheila Atim again (“Pinocchio”). Jayme Lawson (“The Batman”) And Hero Fiennes Tiffin (“After Passion”).

This movie is an Action/Drama/History. It was directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (Netflix’s “The Old Guard”).

This movie was rated PG-13 for violence, language, some very disturbing material, graphic imagery and nudity.

Onto the premise: A historical epic that is based in alternate history of The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries.

This country was a despicable, slave-owning, slave-trading, totalitarian regime and its Amazon army, composed of girls who were themselves enslaved as children, were how the country captured its slaves.

Viola Davis is great as the fictional character she plays and the whole thing looks spectacular!

The strength of the movie is the cast. Viola Davis and John Boyega are great well established actors who also look great as General and King respectively. Nawi (Thosu Mbedu) and Lashana Lynch (Izogie) were also both great. So, casting is on point.

Also this movie has good production design and wardrobe as well.

But this movie falls flat on its face when it comes to it’s Cinematography- there’s nothing special about it… it’s basic coverage, no cool telling of the story through great cinematography.

For an epic movie with war/battle scenes, the action scenes are very underwhelming. No cool action set pieces or fight choreo at all…

I was really looking forward to watching this movie but after watching it, my expectations weren’t met, which is sad given the phenomenal performance by the cast.

In my opinion the direction failed in telling this epic story. There was no sense of scale or no sense of how economically and morally draining to the local people the slave trade was and has been!

It is just lacking emotion. The strongest moment comes from Boyega’s last speech. I think a different director could have done much better with the material of this film. Like James Cameron.

It doesn’t feel epic at all, when it really should feel epic and be epic…

Stay tuned for more reviews!