what's going on it's all my movie fans out there and welcome back to my channel today we are back
discussing the new historical epic film by the name of the woman king starring viola davis and
coming to theaters on september 16th now i did get a chance to see this a little bit early and
i'm very excited to share my thoughts with you all and let you know by the end of this review
if i believe this film is worth your time we're gonna be breaking it all down in today's spoiler
free breakdown but before we get into it if you haven't already consider subscribing to the
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giving the video a thumbs up as well as sharing the review it would really mean a lot to me and
i appreciate the support but more importantly i want to know your thoughts yeah that's right yeah
you right there once you've seen the woman king let me know your pros your cons what you think
of the direction the story the performances what worked what resonated with you in the story what
didn't work for you in the film let's talk about it in the comments below so a couple things i want
to address before we actually get into the review i'm gonna leave descriptions and time codes and
chapters all below in this video but i want to be on my little soapbox for a minute or two first
thing i want to address i'm not a historian and i'm not going to pretend to be one in this review
my knowledge about the group that we're following in this film is very limited now when it comes to
this all-female warrior unit who protected west africa in the kingdom of the homemade in the 19th
century growing up i knew a lot of women that kind of put me on game that gave me the information
i wasn't getting this information in school now you all know that's another conversation
for another day but i know a little bit about him growing up now as i got a little bit older
being a fan of dc and marvel i'm a big black panther fan and knowing that if you all may or
may not know the dora melange is inspired by the group that we're following in this film so again
i say all that to say this review is not meant to be a review about this was historically accurate
this was wrong this was right no i'm talking about what worked in the film what didn't work it also
me if it's worth your time second thing i want to address i pride myself on kind of having my ears
to the ground when it comes to movie and tv news we cover a lot here on this channel and i already
know the game listen i already know there's people out there that saw the title of this film
saw the trailer all black female warriors man this film is walking man there's an agenda
they're pandering this then the third listen i'm not here to change your mind that's your personal
thoughts and perspective on things ah you know that's you talk to your mom brother sister lawyer
you know therapist i'm not here to change your mind i say that to say i'm here to talk about this
movie i'm not here to be talking about toxicity and pandering and woke and this that and third
we're talking about a movie and i want to talk about it with all you all that want to have that
discussion so with that being said let's talk about the direction and what i liked about gina
pierce i would now i've been following gina's career since 2000's love and basketball
secret life of bees and even more recently the old guard now i think in my personal opinion
haven't seen her previous work to me this is her best direction today and i say that because this
this is the biggest kind of as far as scope and scale and kind of the the story that we have at
hand i just thought that she did such a good job of bringing all the pieces to the puzzle together
whether it was her leading this amazing group of women as far as the performances that we get here
whether it is navigating through the narrative there's a lot of stuff going on a lot of politics
i wasn't expecting dive into the slave trade a lot of different things in regards to what
it means to be a warrior strength and strength in your weakness which we'll talk a little bit about
the themes a little bit later but i just thought gina the passion is there the the confidence is
there and we'll talk about it because i mentioned the old guard it's not one of my favorite films of
hers you might have seen it on netflix starring charlie steroids it's probably one of her first
big blockbuster action films that she has tackled and there was some shortcomings in the story but i
didn't think the action was handled all that well but i bring that up because we're going to talk
about a little bit later the action was shot very well by gina like she did a such a great
job of really just putting you in the trenches and just making you feel the the brutality and
the savage nature of those fight sequences so i thought from a directional standpoint
absolutely fantastic you all know i like to appreciate good production when it comes
to the hair and makeup the costuming all that stuff to me was absolutely beautiful to look at
especially when it comes to capturing the score in this film capturing the essence and capturing
the authenticity of the african tribes and just feeling like you're there in africa during
that time i just thought that all that stuff really came together well so from productional
standpoint absolutely knocked it out of the park getting back into those performances here
supporting cast let's talk about them first because there's some two mvps for me i want
to talk about john boyega who's the king of this film now we're going to talk about some of the
likes the controversy a little bit later in the review but i want to say this john bowega he's
a king that demands your attention he's a king of equality he's a king that just has such great
confidence on screen and i just really enjoyed his performance there very believable in his role also
lashana lynch who has just proven time over time that she is a mega star on the rise she plea she
brings a little a little bit more of levity to this very heavy kind of dense subject matter that
we have in this film there's some dark moments in this movie again i mentioned the slave trade
there's some battle sequences that's very dark there's some sexual assault that happens in
this film so there is a there's some much needed levity and i thought latona shot on lynch who is
a badass don't get me wrong she's absolutely bad at this film when it comes to the fight sequences
but you also get more of like i said the the the the laughs and the levity and she brings a lot of
that to role i thought she was fantastic i also want to mention another great supporting actress
by the name of sheila adam who is a close friend to violas davis character and she to me sheila
brought a lot of the heart to the film and i really appreciated what she brought there but
let's talk about the mvps number one spoiler alert viola davis is incredible in this film water is
wet and viola davis is fantastic now i i won't go as far as to say cause i've been following her
career she's one of the best of our generation i've been following career for a very long time
i'm not saying this is her best performance that she's ever given but the commitment to the role
is is just absolutely fantastic stellar she is giving you everything in this role the blood
the sweat to tears i grew up in a household where you never reveal a woman's age and it's
public knowledge she's a mega star but she's in her later 50s you couldn't have told me
that watching this film i mean the commitment the the believability of her being this leader
of this group of women and there's so many great monologues and just moments of strength
but the one thing that i really enjoyed about viola davis character is she's a flawed character
and those are my favorite characters because it shows so many different layers and it's complexity
and she's not always right she doesn't always win every fight in this film she doesn't always have
the best intentions at points and i love the journey that we go on with viola davis like i
said might not be her best performance but one of the most comedic performances that she gives
in her career and absolutely great i wouldn't be surprised if you hear her name come oscar season
she might not win but i definitely anticipate her name to be mentioned transitioning to a
young lady that i have come across last year and i thought she was fantastic in a tv show by the name
of the underground railroad which was brought to us by barry jenkins and i'm talking about
the one and only tuso and beru now i again was brought on game put on game of her performance
last year and underground railroad as cora she was great and as are some might say might maybe
the lead of this film it is more viola davis but there's a lot of depth within tousso's role
you might have seen the trailer where it's it's a pretty simple premise you've seen it before she's
a young girl who has a little bit of arrogance she is someone that has a lot of pushback on
the traditions of this time and she's brought to these group of warriors she has to prove herself
to become a warrior and it's it was within that arc it's within that journey that i really found
the nuance in her performance and i really applaud too so because it takes confidence it takes
skill and talent to go toe-to-toe with viola davis to some of the more intense scenes and some of the
more bigger reveals as this film has offered i thought tucson did such a fantastic job so
production direction supporting cast leading role everyone honestly guys there's a lot of
other people in this film that has maybe a couple different scenes but everyone
the commitments there man the commitment is really there within this film and i really do applaud the
entire cast transitioning over a little bit into the story this film is about warriors
and these warriors aren't saints y'all now again the little bit that i know about the this is based
on true events a little bit i do know when it comes to this particular group of women
they flourished within capturing and selling slaves right and this film doesn't ignore it it
does not ignore it in this story instead they put a certain spin to it again they're taking creative
liberties to kind of enhance their story and the narrative they're telling and i thought it worked
again knowing the what really happened and how the film plays it off again we're talking about
the film here i really enjoyed how again this film shows these warriors were not saints and
they did not shy away from again the slavery and them being involved and selling and buying
different slaves but again the way the film handles that narrative and showing you again
the strength within weaknesses in enhancing yourself learning from mistakes and also doing
better by your people so i liked how the film kind of handled that transitioning into another thing
that really stood out to me and i really want to bring this up the impact and also my fear theater
experience number one the impact to me meant a lot because i go back to 2018 seeing black panther
and seeing it as a black man and growing up with this character t'challa and seeing all these black
beautiful incredible talented individuals give that performance that they did back in 2018 is
something i would never forget and i remember being in the theater with all my other brothers
and sisters black and brown young boys and girls dressed up and just taking all that in
this film i wouldn't say has that same impact for me but i go back to saying going in my audience
seeing the woman king and seeing little girls with their moms and seeing little boys with
their dads and vice versa and just seeing them seeing that on the big screen because this is a
subject matter this particular group i've only as far as pop culture goes i mentioned adorama lager
i also mentioned all i didn't i forgot to mention earlier hashtag this in the comments right now if
you're watching this restore lovecraft country there was an episode of lovecraft country that
shined a light on this group here there's not a lot of stories of this tribe but there's also not
a lot of stories of women in this position of power and i thought the impact there of seeing
again these boys and girls seeing black women and strong women and empowering that meant a lot to me
and also i want to talk a little bit of my theater experience
this is a crowd pleaser and there were moments and i have no shame if you've been a
part of this family for a while you know that i have no problems emitting my emotion when i get
emotional films i didn't straight up bawl my eyes out but i got emotional hearing the crowd pleased
and seeing a particular emotional beats that resonates with black people and then particularly
i can't relate to this but i know there were women in that theater that appreciate the lines the
dialogue the monologues the moments that happen so it is definitely a proud pleaser for a broad
audience but in particularly from uh for my people out there you know what i'm referring to when you
see the film it really kind of hit on a lot of different levels especially when it comes to
abolishing certain things so i really enjoyed that experience but let's pivot over to the action i
mentioned how gina handled some shortcomings in the old guard i thought the action wasn't all was
it handled all that well graduation time because she is doing her thing man the action i was so
surprised when i found this pg13 because this film is brutal this film is savage man again it's not
we're not holding back the film does a really good job of not showing you what's happening but you
understand what's happening it's alluded to and it's done in such a great way but again i want to
stress from the opening scene that action sequence to the to the last few action sequences
were were edging my seat action man i thought the action was handled very well in this film
and last thing i want to touch on when it comes to the themes what i really took away from this
film what it means to be a leader but also what it means to be a warrior but more importantly
finding the strength within your weaknesses something that really stood out to me this film
and i really appreciate it so with all that being said the film is without a doubt it's not perfect
there's a lot of things i liked about the film but it's not perfect and i say that because there
are little little little little minor things i appreciate the commitment and the accents
but every now and then you could tell the actors were kind of dropping out of accents it's kind of
more noticeable in the beginning of the film and it kind of gets better as the film goes along this
little minor thing that came to mind but i do want to say as far as some major things this film is
missing some of the nuances in the story there are some moments that i found like it was very kind of
broad and very mainstream and some of the subject matters they were tackling this film in particular
when it comes to the slavery aspect and and the politics involved and some of the decisions the
king made and again john boyega is a male king and empowering these women and i know there was
there was some missed opportunity to really kind of touch on the significance of this man giving
the women the more empowerment because we all know the the you know from centuries men women and how
the power scales you know why would you call the woman the king and this that and the other which i
will address this now for those haters out there this film is not a story about men are terrible
the men in this film are terrible all the men are evil that's not the case and you'll see that with
john boyega and a various amount of other male figures in this film not to spoil anything but
the women warriors and the men fight side by side in this film and it's an equal amount of respect
and i'll just say that but going back to what i was just mentioning in regards to some of my
criticisms there's a lot of broad strokes and it's missing some of the nuances and more of the deeper
conversations that the film had to offer and also too there are some stereotypical characters the
quote-unquote bad guy the good guy and this that there's some stereotypical things that i wish was
a little bit more expandable and again the nuance was kind of missing some of those moments but
i will also mention one of the things i did not enjoy about this film it didn't completely take
me away but it's one of the more weaker elements in the story there is a subplot a romantic subplot
that i know what they were getting at and it does have a bit of a payoff to a particular character
but i could have went without it because i didn't find the chemistry to be all that great and also
it just kind of went against the idea of finding strength within your weaknesses and also these
warriors and i felt like it was a conflict of what the narrative was trying to give so that subplot
that romantic subplot didn't really work out for me at the end of the day do i recommend this film
what's my score should you see it in theaters before we get to that point i appreciate you
for sticking around to this point of video just a friendly reminder like share comment and subscribe
overall when it comes to the woman king my overall thoughts is this is a crowd-pleasing film that
has a very big impact on today's culture i thought that gina did a great job in direction viola davis
touso and the rest of supporting cast brought their a game i appreciate their commitment in
their performances and again focusing on the theme of finding the strength within your weaknesses and
not ignoring the more historical elements in the film and taking against some creative liberties
to tell this narrative i really enjoyed that aspect the action was handled well there are
some missed opportunities to really dive deeper into the subject matters and also some of those
subplots like i mentioned romance didn't work for me but in the day go see this film
go support this film it's something that i think a lot of us need to go support and again woke
agenda pandering this isn't that film this is a film you all y'all need to go check out september
16th and with that being said i'm gonna give the women king a four out of five that's my thoughts
my pros my cons go see this film when you do let me know what you all thought of it anymore pros
let's talk cons what worked what didn't work let's have those conversations in the comments
section thank you thank you thank you for the support for watching this video again if you're
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reviews check out my most recent breakdown and we'll catch you all on the next video
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