The Visitors

Believe it or not Nollywood is progressing. We are making changes and developing. With every year something different pops up in a movie: be it a new theme, a new style, a new agenda, a new topic or a new cast, regardless something new pops up. And I’m tempted to say it’s been a domino effect.

A very slow domino effect, but a domino effect nonetheless. Every new movie with a ‘new’ aspect encourages another new movie with a different ‘new’ aspect. For us the audience we have to come to the realization that because something is different doesn’t make it bad. A deviation from the usual shock-your-senses, bam-bam-boom formula is not necessarily a terrible thing. And just like “Journey to self” was an example of this, so is the visitors.

The Visitors was pleasing to me in more ways than one. It was simply delightful to see Aunty Joke on screen again, and call me weird or whatever I was almost as equally delighted to see Larry Koldsweat again. This, plus a cast that includes my sure fire actor, O.C. Ukeje, there was no way in my head that “The Visitors” would end up being poor.

It takes getting used to, I will admit. After a while, even I was like ‘na so? abegi’. It hits you with that ‘what are the odds’ feeling right from the beginning of the rising action. Eventually you realize that “the visitors” is simply an undercover Zion movie and from that point the perspective changes.

The promos and all the ads I saw prior to actually seeing the movie portrayed it as some graphic supernatural experience, which it is I guess but not in the manner I expected. I’m not certain whether it’s realizing that it’s a Zion movie that makes me think so, but after a while it really begins to take on that Zion movie role as well as the Zion movie problems. Eventually it begins to seem ‘cheap’, then it begins to seem ‘staged’,  and then everything becomes ‘all too convenient’.

To state it simply the movie starts off strong, it piques my curiosity and holds my interest. As the events progress I’m drawn and taken by it, but as soon as it reaches that point when it becomes a certified Zion movie it all becomes a little too “to God be the glory” for my liking.

As regards the performances, love O.C. as much as I may, I cannot deny that aunty Joke was the star of this movie. It was some balance between being ecstatic at seeing her on screen again and being reminded by her performance of why we all loved her initially. It’s her timing, it’s her grammar, its her look, its her carriage, whatever it is she does it very well.

OC Ukeje of course holds his own in this movie. I wouldn’t grade this as one of his best performances. Not to say that he was bad in this movie, O.C. is always at his best but this character didn’t seem to challenge him as much as his previous performances (read “Confusion Na Wa“).

At first I didn’t understand why the video was set up as so and was almost tempted to call it bad lighting but at the end I’ve relegated it to being all part of creating the desired Mise-En-Scene.

The Visitors is a movie that starts off strong with a couple minor problems here and there like a weak actor here and bad audio there but is still able to hold your attention. Eventually it wanes and embraces the Zion movie/happily ever after formula a little too strongly for my liking but that doesn’t take away from the fact that watching it was still an interesting experience and it creates the foundation for many more uniquely exciting Zion movies.