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.

The movie should be story of real life events as per description. However nothing that's presented here is real. Not only that but the kingdom of Dahomey's were actually a slave traders and they sold others to slavery. If nothing else this movie is idolizing slave traders.

The movie should be story of real life events as per description. However nothing that's presented here is real. Not only that but the kingdom of Dahomey's were actually a slave traders and they sold others to slavery. If nothing else this movie is idolizing slave traders.

The movie should be story of real life events as per description. However nothing that's presented here is real. Not only that but the kingdom of Dahomey's were actually a slave traders and they sold others to slavery. If nothing else this movie is idolizing slave traders.

A female empowerment movie based on a real life tribe that conquered other tribes adn then enslaved the defeated and sold them to the Atlantic slave trade.

This movie attempts to water down or re-write history, as the Nanisca were fictional. While palm oil was looked at, it wasn't as lucrative as slave trading, so it never changed.

And the title is just stupid.

But, I do have to say the sets/costumes and background were well shot and looked authentic. The acting was decent as well, but the re-writing of history is a peeve of mine, so I can't in good conscience rate this movie very highly. Movie could benefit from editing and a shorter run time.

I didn't enjoy it and if I hadn't seen it for free, I'd not have seen it at all.

The Dahomey in real life fueled the slave trade and got smacked the two battles they fought against the French. This movie tries to make the Dahomey heroes fighting against slavery even though they had slave of their own.

In real life the Dahomey barely killed any of the French and instead only raided other smaller tribes to steal women and children in order to sell them into slavery or keep them to work as slaves on their own plantation.

Imagine a movie where the confederacy fought to free slave a from the Union. Sounds crazy right? That is what this movie does takes a group like the Nazis and tries to make them hero's.

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.