King: Uma História de Vingança

Ooh boy, here's a toughie.

Chadwick Boseman, we barely knew ye. Two seconds after you broke onto the A List, you left us all in shock when you departed this world, the consensus being that it was well before your time. While arguments can be made one way or the other about such things, one thing is certain:

You made an impact.

MESSAGE FROM THE KING is not the best movie I have ever seen, unfortunately. It has pacing issues, continuity problems, and questionable dialogue choices. All that being said, Chadwick steals every scene with his powerful performance, and at least that's worth something.

It's not all bad. A man from South Africa comes to Los Angeles, searching for what happened to his missing sister. Without spoiling too much of the film, he finds out, and then wants to settle scores for what has happened.

In an attempt to create an original plot, some things get lost. There is a scent of mystery here, well played by the creators... we don't know who Jacob King is, or WHAT he is, beyond being a loving sibling who's well beyond furious as to the events as they unfold, and that part of the film works fine. In an effort to keep the mystery going, we are given a seedy, not terribly friendly portrait of Los Angeles life, and the downfalls some who go looking for dreams fall into.

Teresa Palmer plays a kindly neighbor, one who is involved in doing whatever is necessary to keep the roof over her and her daughter's heads. There is chemistry here, at first easily dismissed, but I have to speak about a scene which is my favorite of the film, in which she surprises him in a diner, sits down with him, and thanks him for not being the same as everyone else she's met since she fell into the luring trap of Hollywood. The exchange between the two of them is touching, heartfelt, heart wrenching, and immediately breathes life into what could have been easily written off as a simple revenge movie.

The level of violence here is high, perhaps a bit too high in certain scenes. Violence done realistically is rarely a treat to the eyes... I remember a scene from DRIVE in which a woman's head is taken off with a shotgun blast and you can see every gory detail of brain, blood, and bone as her head explodes in slow motion, and I find it jarring every time I see the movie. It doesn't need to be there, and sometimes in this film the violence comes off in a similar fashion.

I also mentioned the dialogue before... there's a lot of empty words thrown in the usual manner of macho bull and cliched banter. Alfred Molina and Luke Evans, specifically, have the worst lines to spout here, as they have to shout pointless insults back and forth at each other that only serve to take up time, instead of entertain us or keep the plot moving.

There's also a few plot twists that seem overly heavy, once again done for the sake of originality but lacking in a real sense of logic or reasoning that you accept just because you don't really have any other choice once you get into the parts of the movie that really work... you kind of just have to roll with the punches.

All in all, it's not bad. If you love and miss Chadwick, give it a roll. It's not as good as PANTHER. I suppose, in the end, when we remember him, nothing he did is going to compare with that.

Godspeed, Mr. Boseman. You will be missed.

The story is nothing really special. Guy comes to LA to look for his sister and he gets tangled in the mess that she was in. He uses his tough South African skills to punish people. Liam Neeson did it with great success, Chadwick Boseman does it too.

It was the acting that was pretty decent, though, as well as the portrait of the city as a corrupt place that feeds on hope and takes it all away. The "message from the king" is that you may have a lot of money and live in a big rich place and still be just as rotten as the most crime ridden places in Africa.

Bottom line: a linear and predictable story that only highlighted the good acting and subtle message on the background.

I watch this last night to remember a fine actor Chadwick Boseman. He didn't disappoint. It was a fine performance by a great actor and it's sad that he is no longer with us. The movie itself was slow. I felt the pacing could've been faster and the fight scenes could be done better but otherwise it was entertaining. A good Netflix film given a lot them are absolute garbage.

Nice to see Chadwick in a role other than that of a superhero and/or a 'good guy'

The story could have done with being more refined, and with more substance

A simple story with a solid script with action and twists. When Jacob King from South Africa does not hear from his sister in America. He decides to visit and uncovers a pit of lies and betrayal.

I enjoyed this cracker. I knew, where the story was going and then the story takes a side step. Which leaves you like mmmm OK and then your back to where you thought the story was going.

Now my issues, the accent was too strong or low. Which stopped certain scenes from connecting. Also I'm not going to lie a car chase scene and some one liners would have made it Fire. And the action needed more multi angles (point of view shots). But this would add 1000s to budget and editing time. Modern film making is control by numbers, like most products today. So, I am not disappointed and I cant wait for this teams next project.

Apart from that very good watch. Casting and performances were strong. If you like films like taken with a touch of born identity. Then this is the Netflix title for you. One the best crime action dramas on Netflix today.