Last Flight To Abuja
Omotola Jolade Ekehinde, Hakeem Kae Kazim, Jim Iyke, Uru Eke, Ali Nuhu, Jide Kosoko, Anthony Monjaro, Jennifer Oguzie, Celine Loader, Uche Odoputa
A set of everyday Nigerian travelers’s board the last Flamingo Airways flight scheduled to fly from Lagos to Abuja on a fateful Friday night in 2006. The plane cruises at 30,000 feet, tranquil and on schedule. But like a bolt out of the blue, through a mixture of human error, technical failure and sheer bad luck, the plane rapidly develops major difficulties that sends it teetering on the brink of disaster.
"Our determination to survive can often be outweighed by our willingness to accept our fate"
Obi Emelonye
Obi Emelonye, Charles Thompson
Obi Emelonye
2012
Storyline and development
Graphics and anachronism
After what seemed like an endless wait, viewers in the diaspora have finally been treated to the Obi Emelonye thriller, Last Flight To Abuja. Now available online at http://muvi.es/w3968/19948
The movie, Last Flight to Abuja, tells the story of a set of everyday Nigerian travelers’s who board the last Flamingo Airways flight scheduled to fly from Lagos to Abuja on a fateful Friday night in 2006. The plane cruises at 30,000 feet, tranquil and on schedule. But like a bolt out of the blue, through a mixture of human error, technical failure and sheer bad luck, the plane rapidly develops major difficulties that sends it teetering on the brink of disaster.
The movie was met with high expectations for most especially with its post June-23rd-Crash Release and its celebrity cast. The question of whether it lived up to expectations is yet another thing.
Watching so many Nollywood movies has taught me one thing: “go in with as little expectations as possible if you intend to leave happy” and that’s exactly what I did, and I did leave happy thank you very much.
The story was executed well enough and gave more than I would have originally expected. It wasn’t simply an interplay of events/daily activities leading up to a big crash, it also mixed in some love drama, crime and thrills in mostly unexpected ways. That is to say that I went in expecting to see a bunch of people die in a plane crash (no, I’m not a sadist) and it gave me a lot more than that. I must commend Mr. Emelonye on being able to develop each character well enough so much so that the audience can at least relate to them before the crash.
Omotola definitely brought it in this movie but that’s not to say that everyone else did poorly. Most of the other major actors carried their roles well except for those who didn’t. A few actors seemed to be spotting a glaringly unnecessary accent, from the fake hair, fake eyelashes colleague to the newly-signed-never-been-out-of-Nigeria-before future Arsenal player. Some of the extras seemed to be reciting their lines and I cannot but mention the female co-pilot who seemed a little too calm during the plane crash. Besides Omotola, Hakeem, Jim and Anthony Monjaro were definitely actors one cannot ignore in this movie. Hakeem and Anthony were especially convincing in their roles.
Before going into the things done wrong, let’s mention the things done right. The progression of the story and the directing itself was good, even though it seemed like at the end we all got tired and stopped rolling. There were some angles, especially the ‘first take off scene’ that I nearly deemed too good to be Nollywood. The cinematography cannot be ignored and the musical score was simply inspiring.
Last Flight to Abuja was on a smooth run until someone decided to use what looked like a shuttle as a full plane. I’ve been told that Nigerian local flights can get very tiny from the inside but that 4 by 4 looking space can’t possibly be all there is to the airplane? That can’t possibly be the same airplane we see from the outside? It doesn’t connect.
Obviously a green screen or something of the sorts simulates the outside environment of the plane mid-flight, but from the pilots cabin it seemed a little too obvious.
Many have pointed out the anachronism within this movie and at the risk of sounding like an echo I will repeat that some of the cars, phones and technology within this movie doesn’t exactly fit into the 2006 set. That is if it is a 2006 set?
Call me a sadist if you will but I expected more people to die in the crash. Maybe I approached it from a Hollywood perspective but no major life was lost. The movie came up with a total body count of 2, one due to the crash and another totally unrelated. Both completely deserving of death, if you ask me, therefore nobody really died in the movie. And the message seems entirely lost if there’s no significant loss of life to drive it home.
All in all, Last Flight to Abuja was an entertaining attempt at a Nollywood first.
Trailer:
Full Movie:
Flawsome Season 2 Premieres on Showmax On February 12
“Shanty Town”: This Miniseries Teeters Due to Over-Ambition and a Lack of Story Focus
I enjoyed the movie,quite commendable. The standout performance is by Hakeem,the pilot and Omotola. Jim Iyke was just there and that girl with the fake contact lens irritated me with her acting.
Great job obi. I must commend on ur guts to dare and also try a sensitive kind of movie such as dis one. I dont know what u used for shooting the plane scenes, but their are lost of advanced flight simulators, u could have used that should have given u a better movie that can contend with american flight(air borne) movies. Dis movie was produced in 2012, the year 2012 had lots of technology in display which u could have borrowed or paid for, from a producer in a developed country. am sad that wit all the technolgy in 2012, u made a movie that took us back to 60s. I watch an american documentary, seconds b4 disasters, a True live story also acted. I felt tension right where i was seated, bcos of the tension in the plane not bcos of d music they played in the background, the sound of the wind outside the air craft can also b terrifying. This movie was also acted by humans not Gods. U can do better
Nollywoodreinvented,
you are doing a great job here.Please where can i find this movie on internet?
Hey Angel, thanks a lot. The movie is available online at http://muvi.es/w3968
Thank you Nollywood Reinvented for your honest and objective review.
I am grateful too for all the comments of your readers; positive or negative. It takes sheer guts to raise our heads above the parapet and risk both finances and reputation by making a film like this. The reactions have been encouraging. We will take the accolades with humility and the criticisms with an open mind.
God bless you all.
Thank you sir! 🙂
Well done Mr Emeloye. You are indeed doing a good job putting the industry on the World map. Your Cinematography is absolutely lovely, but believe me when I say your story telling(awards or not) need a lot more work to be done. LFTA had so much potential in the beginning but it ended so poorly. Please review your stories more. Thanks
I watched this movie yesterday, was not as impressed as you. It was OK, the score really helped the movie, but the acting was flat for most of the actors, and the graphics whack. I’ll say better than average over all.
Definitely better than average but there was much that could have been done to make it a better movie
only 2 people died? What i got from the trailer was that it was based on a true event, and that crash had only about 6 or 7 survivors. I mean i hope it’s not your typical nollywood movie with a great script then a flat ending because they want a happy ending?
Hey dear,
yes o, only two people died grand total. In reality only one died on the plane and he really doesn’t count (if you watch the movie you’ll know why I said that).
Uhm the movie is not based on that crash it’s more like it was inspired by the ‘group of crashes in 2006’ than any one specific crash. Even at that, I am not making excuses for the movie. More people had died.
To be honest, here’s what I thought would happen in the movie. I thought their plane would crash in the middle of nowhere. Some people would survive others would die on the spot, it would take the authorities a while to find them because afterall this is 9ja. In the meanwhile, they’d have no food and feed off of deadbodies lol…. ok maybe I’m a sadist (but in my head, that’s a much better film)
NR, what we’re saying is that with all the noise Obi and his team make, this was not up to it. if he is upcoming, then he should stop proping himself up. I don’t know about ije blowing any minds. I’ll take LFTA over Ije any day. But Izu. Izu does not blow one trumpet. But his work is perfect. imagine just the teaser for lion of 76. Obit focused too much on the availability of technology to him instead of telling a story. Music should not be the reason you feel an emotion. think of a movie like the artist. the emotion should in composition and in performance, story, not music.
Hakeem’s death felt very staged and cliche. Jim with the explosion behind him should have been hurt, maybe omotola finds him hurt and drags him away on the ground away from little grass fires. why was Omotola’s boyfriend watching that moment on TV? how realistic is that? was it recorded or live.
the movie was all about CG, camera equipment and colorization. there was no story development.
Ehen ok well now that you’ve put it this way, I understand where you’re coming from. I won’t say there was absolutely no storyline in the movie but the use of technology did seem to overwhelm the story at some points.
About all the hype prior to the movie, I try not to take them into consideration with reviews nowadays. Like I said, go in with no expectations, makes it easier to leave happy.
“Music should not be the reason you feel an emotion” <-- This is a line I'll probably never agree with. Granted the story and performance should be the base but without the music it could all fall flat.
i will have to say that I was totally disappointed with this movie, maybe it has to do with the fact that I just watched ije yesterday and my oh my was I blown away, last flight to Abuja simply doesn’t do it for me, yes it was an ambitious effort that has never been done in nollywood but that should not be a factor preventing it from getting scrutinized because that is what I am getting from this review. the writing, the directing, and even some of the acting were very poor, some scenes seemed like the were on stage reciting their lines. to drive my point home, the only difference between last flight to Abuja and above average nollywood movies is the fact that obi had both good resources and a sizeable budget, take away that and you will have an above average nollywood movie, if you doubt me go watch a couple of obi’s previous movies besides mirror boy(another one he had the luxury of both good resources and a sizeable budget) you will realize what am talking about. give frank, pascal,ifeanyi ikpoenyi, Daniel(these are directors I consider above average and make above average movies) etc this same reresources and budget obi had, they will do just as good as obi did with this movie, but give the same resources and budget to the likes of izu,kunle,chineze and they will blow your mind, now that’s what makes them standout. to be frank I think first time director lonzo nzekwe is a better director than obi, haven seen anchor baby I can say his directorial skills are much better than that of obi.
Hey flint,
I’m sorry, I just get a vibe of general negativity towards Obi from that comment. But I don’t know him personally so I will try and defend his work.
I do agree that maybe frank and the rest would have been able to do just as good a job with this movie as Obi did but for me the issue is not so much who made the movie but what the movie turned out to be.
And the poor acting that you’re mentioning was already mentioned in the review.
I really can’t address many of the things you said in your comment because as I said earlier it mostly sounds like negativity towards obi and a preference for certain other directors.
You’ve not pointed out anything besides how the movie would have been better if someone else did it to be honest. Sorry if I sound rude, not my intent
The truth is, not everyone can be Izu. We need to let upcoming directors with big dreams attempt what they will, permit them to make mistakes so they can eventually improve on them in their later films. You don’t go from on your mark to greatness
i know we are different and will have differences in opnions, i absolutely respect your opinion and I am glad since I have been commenting on your website here u have respected mine but I will like to clarify two things here, the first being that I in no way have any negativity towards anyone, for crying out loud can’t someone criticize a filmmaker’s work without that person being assumed a hater or in some cases a jealous fellow director(I believe u know about the particular incident am talking about), when I see a film that is good I praise it, when it isn’t good enough I criticize it, take for instance frank, I scrutinize him a lot but when he did somewhere in Africa I commended him, maybe not particularly on this website but I remember referencing how good a job he did on somewhere in Africa and then didn’t do the same quality of job with the groom’s bride(this was me commenting on ur review on the groom’s bride). secondly, I don’t have preferred directors, all I have are directors that are consistent and do a good job with their movies, however when they do a bad movie, believe me I will be the first to scrutinize them, so far most of the directors I commend as good directors have been consistent. you said I haven’t pointed out anything besides how good the movie would have been better had someone else helmed the movie, i don’t know if you read my comment very well but it’s ok i will point them out again and even add more points, well before I give my other points, I will have to echo and say yes that that is definitely a major point, now to give u other points, besides the writing which u already noted in the review, again in a movie of this standard it is surprising to see such glaring bad acting and directing. if this is a movie that the makers hyped as the one that will take nollywood to the next level or make it recognized across the world then it definitely deserves every bit of criticism it is getting, I know u were able to lower ur expectation but unfortunately most people can’t, I am willing to give people enough chance to get it right but when u hype a movie(actually this is his second time over hyping his movie, the first was the mirror boy) as the next big thing in nollywood and it falls way short of that then it is a total let down. anchor baby and ije were very much hyped but they did meet or even exceeded expectations, so if obi hypes his movies, I expect the movies to meet expectations.
My apologies Flint,
You know being that we in the diaspora get to see the movies so late, by the time we see them we tend to forget the hype surrounding the film But y’all in Nigeria who go to see the movie during the hype would definitely see a different movie.
I reread your comments and all the other comments again, then I went back to my COMING SOON post (now deleted though) where the LFTA reps were using my site to promo the movie via comments, and baring all that in mind then yes this was a pretty whack movie in comparison.
You notice I have readjusted the review, not simply because of what you said entirely. But I tried to step out of my THIS IS NOLLYWOOD mentality and see it as a film for what it is, stop ignoring the flaws because ‘oh yes it’s nollywood’ and I definitely see your point.
Thanks Flint
I actually live in the states and only got to watch the movie 2 days ago, and yes I noticed u have readjusted the review, one thing I noticed since u restructured(or should I say reinvented lol) ur website, u have been more stingy and harsh with review scores which is really nice, these filmmakers and the films the make should not be given an easy ride, they should be scrutinized more to keep them on their toes, however I feel u were too generous with LFTA, honestly if I were to review and score the movie, my score range would be in the 60s.
lol unfortunately or fortunately, I don’t think it can go any lower or higher than this.
i must disagree with you on this one.
Positives: the sheer attempt at doing a airport and airplane and air crash movie in nollywood is commendable. its brave.
the negatives: Omotola was in no way the soul of the movie. it was Hakeem Kazeem. I did not in any way believe after seeing fiance in bed with another woman, she’d let him drive her to the airport. if maybe she had vented, cried, gotten upset and he comforted her and begged and groveled. then she’d say. I want to to go back to Abuja. I didn’t believe Omotola. who is she supposed to be as a person?
Hakeem was the BEST. he nailed it, he floored it. he had the most drama as well.
none of the characters were developed. After watching Mirror boy and now this, what I’d say for Obi E is that he is very ambitious but he needs to learn how to be logical with his stories. he seems to be a lazy writer.
There was no suspense or tension because of how the film was edited. i did not believe the panic of the passengers.
the radio which was supposed to play voice over throughout was also underused. why were there no crowds rushing to the crash site? why was Omotola calling for David? the crash tried too hard and it failed. it should just have been honest. not try to be anything else but honest.
more time should have been spent in post production and also in the writing.
the only good thing about this film, is the attempt.
Hey pro,
You know what? I definitely give you that Omotola wasn’t the standout, that has been corrected. It’s definitely somewhere between Hakeem and Anthony. Now I can’t say that she wasn’t convincing because of what her character did in reaction to seeing a cheating fiance.
If she had broken glass or yelled or raised hell, would it change the fact that her fiance just cheated on her? Remember her personality type is a ‘TYPE A’ in this film, career driven goal oriented. So baring that in mind, her reaction to the entire thing is understandable.
I don’t know but I definitely felt the suspense and tension mostly due to the musical score. I didn’t actually think of it but now that you mention it maybe their panic wasn’t really realistic. But that was taken away as their inability to act and Obi was able to play it off by focusing on the one character who actually wanted to die so you don’t notice the passengers and their ‘lack of believable panic’ lol.
I did however mention the female pilot in the review and her lack of any sort of panic whatsoever
I disagree with dis ur review…u didn’t mention the fact that there was no chemistry between omotola and Jim Iyke… Omotola wasn’t the standout act in this movie. I’m not saying she’s not a wonderful actress ooo, but in this movie, she wasn’t all that impressive. The pilot guy and Hakeem were the stand out acts in this film. Also, maybe you didn’t notice but weren’t there about three Hostesses that entered the plane? We saw them holding hands with the pilot and Strutting down the airport at the beginning of the movie. How come we saw only one Hostess throughout the flight? Did the others faint or disappear during the flight? I enjoyed the movie but the directing and the whole plot could have been better, at least it would have made up for the poor graphics.
Hey Francis,
As regards Omotola and Jim, I don’t know how much chemistry someone is supposed to have with a man she just met in the plane and has been speaking to for under an hour. I don’t know, I didn’t expect chemistry so I wasn’t looking for it.
And on second thought, I think I agree with you on Omotola not being the standout, it’s definitely somewhere between Hakeem and Anthony, my apologies.
About the hostesses, I don’t know. I didn’t mention it because it could be excused ‘ie there are many excuses one can make for that’. Like they had all just come off a flight, and only two got on the next flight. And then the second had to leave, leaving only one. When excuses can be made and other possibilities are available, I try to ignore it.
Thanks for that link, now have something for the weekend 😉
Lol, you’re welcome Myne 🙂