Lately, the new trend of Nollywood seems to be to remake old stories. Originally, this review would be to juxtapose between both productions, but again (just like with my review of Omo Ghetto), for the time difference between both productions and the change of preference in the target audience, this movie will be treated as an independent body of work.
Let’s start with the story. In my opinion, this storyline tilts a little farther from the regular one. Yes, it narrates how circumstances can influence the cause of one’s life from the point of view of an armed robber, yet it uses creative threads to pull together other pieces of details to enrich the story. This movie goes beyond telling the story of a group of individuals that regularly carry out heists, but starts to narrate from the point before the snake loses his innocence. That way, it provides subplots that engage the viewer as much as the main plot does, and you find yourself morally conflicted because are you to blame the protagonist or what happened to him?
Now to the execution of the story. This I would say was a little half-baked, especially with the heists and its planning. Somehow, there was always this omnipotent intervention because oh Armadas is an untouchable group that is as slippery as a snake yet we do not see sufficient evidence to back this up. There is a heist and boom, it is done! Even when execution details are provided, they are insufficient, especially in the museum heist. At what point did the swap happen before the artifact falls? and whoever thought that causing a commotion with a fall would be enough distraction for the object of interest to be stolen? If there is anything that does, it definitely is to get the attention of everyone. So when did the swap happen? Honestly, the script there was too shallow.
Characters: I believe this was my favourite feature of this movie. The fact that every character was so distinct and built independently, yet fit into the larger piece to put the story together. Characterization was rich! From Ahanna, to Nzenozo, to Amara, to Bala, to Sango, etc, each character detail was brilliant in my opinion. My favourite character was definitely Sango: the Internet God of Thunder.
Conflict resolution? uhhh, I’ll say was average. As much as a lot was going on in the script, the story tried to settle the dust in the air. My favourite technique used here has to be revenge and closure: when Amara takes out her own pound of flesh from Ahanna. And as odd as this may sound, I believe it was only fitting that Nzenozo died, and better off, due to the level of strength willed by his character, it had to be his decision, so yeah, that was a good move too.
The acting also was good! It felt like each role assigned to an actor was just them settling into their natural element. I totally loved Osas taking Amara and even speaking Igbo (the effort is really commendable).
The costuming in my opinion is a reflection of the great progress that the Nigerian entertainment industry is making. That alongside graphics was really impressive, we love to see it.
Attention to details? uhhhh, this I am not so sure about. Now I understand that a lot of effort was put into this, but there were still a few rough edges here and there. Like with how Ahanna and Adaugo’s relationship starts and flourishes, and how Ahanna sends a sum of 2 million dollars each to all 5 gang members in a deal that’s supposed to be worth just 6 million Dollars? There were literally splatters of such omissions all over the story.
Generally though, this production was really commendable and I rate it a 6.5/10.
Have you seen the movie? tell me what you think about it and about this review too. We have come to the end of this review. Until the next, stay jiggy!
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