Scorned

Story: 2
There’s a quote many people say (and frighteningly enough many of them actually believe it) and it’s that “practice makes perfect”, which I think is the biggest dish of BS the world can ever serve you because no matter how many times you do a thing you can never be perfect at it. I believe practice makes better and this holds true with Shirley Frimpong. The movie Scorned was done in 2008, Checkmate in 2010 and Adams Apples in 2011/2, and that, in a nutshell, is my succession of toleration for Shirley movies. I loved the Adams Apples series but it took me 2 years to watch Checkmate. Finally finished the movie mid-2012 and was feeling very accomplished because that was one of the most boring movies I had ever seen (or so I thought then). But Scorned makes Checkmate look like “The Dark Knight”. This movie! Now, this movie is the epitome of boring. It doesn’t mean it’s a bad storyline it doesn’t necessarily mean the actors couldn’t act it just means that it was very very boring.
I first pressed play on this movie in February and I have watched this movie every month since then (which is 11 months, by my calculations) and everytime I’ve pressed play I have fallen asleep.
The movie starts off well, then it looses focus somewhere in the middle, in the end and in the beginning and continues to drag on and on and on.

Originality: 3
You can argue originality for this movie on some grounds (i.e year of production and country of production). Year of production meaning that in 2008 there weren’t many similar storylines floating around. Now we have more similarly themed movies. And country of production meaning that if we were to judge this movie on a worldwide basis then similarities can be drawn between this and Tyler Perry’s “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” to a certain extent (to a very small extent because I was in no way bored by DOMBW) thereby making the movie not so original.

Predictability: 1
Yes there are a couple twists here and there but after an hour or so of intense boredom, the movie ended exactly as I had presumed it would. Your presumptions might defer from mine hence the 3.

Directing/Editing 2
Scorned is not exactly the best of Shirley Frimpong (we see that in her later movies) regardless it was not torturous and one must consider the year of production.

Acting quality: 2
…and now on to the actors. Let me start off by pointing out the people that made me pull out my hairs in this movie. In fact… there would be only one person and it was the actress that played the role of Dea’s sister. Jesus Christ! What on God’s earth do you call that thing you were doing on the screen, cause the Lord knows that that is not acting. It’s the farthest thing from acting. If acting is London, then you my darling are Sydney, Australia.
Chris Attoh, whom I usually love (although in retrospect that was probably a love for his body more than for his skill), was very weak in this movie. He could not pull off the role. Could not pull off the character, lacked conviction and his inability to carry the role helped to further my irritation towards his character.
I like Ecow, I don’t know why many people dislike him but I like Ecow Smith Asante. I think he’s a pretty decent actor.
Most of the other actors in this movie could hold their weight. Were not magnificent but succeeded in doing enough to float.
Now on to Lydia Forson. If any good thing came out of this movie, I’d say it was her discovery (I’m not sure, but I’m under the impression that this was her first movie… so let’s roll with that philosophy). Her acting was weak, especially in comparison to the Lydia Forson of “The Perfect Picture“. The Lydia of Perfect Picture was on fire so I assume practice makes better because her rendition of this character was overly dramatic at times and really boring at others (and I’m not sure if it’s her that’s boring or the movie as a whole that’s boring, that’s open to argument).
Now none of this is to say that none of the actors in this movie were capable of acting, in fact they were and they still are. It’s just looking back at the actors they were, knowing fully well the actors they currently are and thinking “what a piece of crap you used to be in comparison with the genius you are today“

Setting: 4
I absolutely loved the hospital set, I think it’s one of the best hospital sets I’ve seen in an African movie. And I think this movie helps to further this idea that has been growing in my head which is that Ghana has prettier houses than Nigeria. What say you?

Costume/Make-Up: 2
Were generally on point although I don’t understand how he pours hot water on her skin but they are no noticeable burns on her.

Props and Graphics 4
Loved the props for the hospital

Video Quality 3
Fair

Audio Quality 2
Highly inconsistent (goes up and down)

Soundtrack: 4
Lovely soundtrack even though I had no clue what they were saying most of the time.

Musical Score 3
Nicely done

Trailer: