The Woman King

The Woman King (2022) is a movie my wife and I caught in theatres last night. The storyline follows an African kingdom with a new(er) king in 1823 who posses the only female army in Africa. The leader of the female Army has a past that haunts her but the respect of her king, enough to be on his council. She strongly urges him to avoid the slave trade and find alternative methods of riches. Meanwhile, those who do believe strongly in the slave trade look to march on the kingdom and bring them down. A new recruitment class to the female army brings brashness, new ideas to defend the kingdom, and the female leader's ghosts back to the forefront...

This movie is directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball) and stars Viola Davis (The Help), Thuso Mbedu (The Underground Railroad), Lashana Lynch (No Time to Die), Sheila Atim (Doctor Strange: In the Mouth of Madness), John Boyega (Star Wars: Episode VII-IV) and Jimmy Odukoya (Mamba's Diamond).

This movie has so much depth and contains a great primary plot and even better sub plots. The writing is remarkable, thorough and very impressive. The character's inner demons are well portrayed as is their struggle to overcome them. The acting is out of this world across the board. You feel for every character; and if anything happens to anyone, you feel personally hurt. The villains were also excellent as is the outcome of each of them. The settings and cinematography is outstanding and there is impressive use of lighting. The action scenes are remarkable and the fight choreography is award winning caliber. My only complaint is an awkward love story that is obviously in here to show maturity and self discovery but I could have done without it.

Overall, this movie has literally everything you'd want in a movie - tremendous action, great villains, self discovery and character triumph. I would strongly, strongly recommend seeing this movie and score it a 10/10. We loved it.

This is an insult on those people who were killed/enslaved, sold and used. History should not be rewritten and slavers should never be glorified! It completely baffles me how this movie is excused and celebrated by some people. (But I guess that's what happen when the education system fails people and children grow up learning their entire skillset from social media...)

Hollywood should have create a female empowerment movie about a different story, because this whole thing is just entirely infuriating.

I never would have imagine that one day I will see a movie come out about slavers being the good guys and somehow this should be about empowerment? What are you empowering? Betrayal? Slavery? The exploitation of people who are conquered, beaten, stolen from their homes? This is morally disgusting, no matter how well executed the movie is.

Just came back from seeing The Woman King and, sadly, it's a disappointment: slow, corny, diffused. Instead of exploring the roots and formation of the Dahomey Amazons, it follows the cliched template of military recruit training film: bring together trainees from divergent backgrounds, always including one who is a born leader but arrogant and reckless. Their leader is a tough taskmaster, played by the glowering, no-nonsense Viola Davis. Add in some soap opera elements: dark secrets from the past and a forbidden romance. Add two subplots--about slave traders on the Coast and a royal skullduggery, and pour onto the screen. There ARE several good fight scenes. But for the rest, it may as well be Drill Sgt RIchard Widmark in Take the High Ground.an.

"The Woman King" is a historical drama film that tells the story of a powerful all-female warrior army in 18th century West Africa. Despite its intriguing premise and star-studded cast, the film fails to deliver a compelling and engaging story.

The pacing is slow and uneven, with long stretches of time where nothing seems to happen, followed by sudden bursts of violence and action that feel out of place and disconnected from the plot. The characters are one-dimensional and poorly developed, making it difficult to care about their struggles and motivations.

The dialogue is also clunky and unnatural, making it hard to follow the conversations and understand the characters' relationships with each other. Additionally, the film's attempts at exploring themes of gender and power are heavy-handed and lack nuance, reducing complex issues to simplistic and cliched stereotypes.

Even the production values, which are usually a strength of historical dramas, are disappointing. The sets and costumes are uninspired and lack authenticity, with a noticeable lack of attention to detail that takes viewers out of the story.

Overall, "The Woman King" is a lackluster and forgettable film that fails to live up to its potential. It's a shame, given the talented cast and fascinating subject matter, but the weak script and direction leave little to recommend. Save your time and skip this one.

All I can say is wow Hollywood, talk about choosing the narrative.

This tribe portrayed so brilliantly on screen were renowned slavers, kidnapping other africans and either selling them or keeping them for servitude.

How the movie studio could think that it was okay to turn a very dark chapter of history into some female empowerment story I've no idea yet the blind are falling for it as usual, do your research folks and you'll be shocked with the truth of this ruthless and merciless tribe of cruel characters fighting only to oppress their own kind, the glorification of this films side of events tries to over shadow and hide the truth.