The King’s Search

-Originality: [2 out of 5] Once upon a time, I suppose the advent of the whole competition thing within movies was new and exciting, but after “Fulton Mansion” and such movies, you can’t deny that the originality is gone. It’s a concept that Uche Nancy has overused.

-Predictability: [4 out of 5] From the get-go, looking at the cast alone and reading the synopsis, everyone has a rough idea of who the king will end up with. During the course of the movie, all original predictions are challenged and you’re not so sure who will marry the king. All in all, it’s a fairly good movie and quite enjoyable four parts.

-Directing/Editing: [1 out of 5] So, the movie starts, the soundtrack’s playing, opening credits are rolling and I’m reading it and just thinking “damn, this is a very good cast”. Not once did I wonder who made the movie. I just thought it’d be a fair enough movie at worst. It says screenplay by Ruth Kadiri… and I’m thinking it’s time to pop some corn. And just right when I’m about to settle in, sipping my coconut (no, not really)… it says “Directed by Kensteve Anuka” and all the coconut water just comes splashing out. And that is how you ruin a perfect movie lol. But on a serious note though, I thought this guy only made movies in Ghana, why is he trying to further destroy the Nigerian movie industry? Lol, the movie was not that bad actually. I just wish it had a better director. Many of the angles were out of whack. There were too many overly prolonged scenes and such.

-Acting quality: [2 out of 5] Everybody in this movie, who I did not previously know (aka the newcomers), was torturous. And the bad thing is that the movie starts off with the fresh blood and I was more than tempted to ‘eject disc’. However, if you wait it out, the actual actors come in. Tonto Dikeh comes in in part two and the movie really doesn’t start till part two (but don’t try to watch the movie without part one). 

I liked Tonto’s character in this movie and I find that whenever I like her character, I have no complaints about her acting. I don’t know if it’s the good acting that influences the character’s appearance/likability. Or the character’s likability that makes it appear as though she’s a good actress. Whatever which way.

For some reason, when I say Jim Iyke and Nikki Samonas’ name on the cast line-up, I couldn’t stop thinking it’d be some repeat of the foolishness of “My first wife“. But Glory be to God, it wasn’t. Both Jim and Nikki carried their roles properly. I have come to the conclusion that if I am ever engaged in a battle of words, I’d more than love to have Jim Iyke on my side. I find that his insults usually lie on one or both of two sides, either they demoralize the opponent or they cause the opponent to actually start laughing alongside Jim.

It was great to see Esther and Ruth again on screen. These two seem to be very seasonal with their movies these days. Regardless, they did a good job with their roles. I’m still not a fan of Zubby Michael, but that’s fine because he didn’t have many lines in this movie 🙂

Remember Chinedu Okeke? aka okirika? (I didn’t even know he was called that) You might remember him as the usual gate man in all those old Nollywood movies. I can never forget his face because he had a striking resemblance to one of my parent’s old gatemen(and it so happened to be that that was the role he was popular for playing). Anywho, I hadn’t seen him in a movie for (what seems like) eons, prior to this movie. And the guy is now old… dragging age with Olu Jacobs, I might say. Still a very good actor though.

-Setting: [3 out of 5] Ok

-Costume/Make-Up: [3 out of 5] No major faults

-Video Quality: [3 out of 5] Fair

-Soundtrack: [3 out of 5] The first thing that struck me in this movie was definitely the soundtrack. Maxwell Leonard can like to mess up once in a while, but when he gets it together, he makes good music.