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If there's one thing I love to do, it's to challenge myself. On of the most common challenges I put myself through is to gain some sort of decent knowledge, or maybe in expertise, in some obscure vein of art. I think I can safely assume that I know more about the history of grunge music than anyone of MoFo. But that's not gonna get me any cred as an aspiring film critic, so I think it's time I did something else very niche: explore cinema from other countries who are only just starting out. In this case, I have chosen Nigeria, as I have very few African movies under my belt and it was the first African country I thought of, other than South Africa for the namesake, and I didn't even count that anyway since most of the South African directors I looked up are white, which I think might be a little offensive if I started out with that first. I mean, my literal favorite music album was only created by breaking apartheid law (Graceland by Paul Simon), although that's not really why I love the album, but just saying.
My first venture into Nigerian cinema is this so-called disaster movie about a few employees about to board a flight to Abuja for a mandatory vacation. And before they leave, some of the employees have to deal with some personal issues. One woman isn't as dedicated to her romantic life as she is to her own career, and even drives her boyfriend to find other women. This one guy keeps having to put off things concerning his wife for the mandatory dates set by his boss, and another guy just so happens to be a criminal. And then they board the plain, something catches on fire, and there's an impending disaster.
Honestly, I should've made sure my first Nigerian movie was a little better. Maybe it's my fault for not checking the ratings because I just wanted a Nigerian director I could add to either my best directors or worst directors list, and for that to happen I needed a director who had enough movies in the public for me to watch, but not ones that were too long. So as soon as I saw that this movie was 75 minutes long, I figured, what the hey, right? Dumb move. Now Letterboxd's average rating for this movie is 2.3/5 out of 177 ratings. Heh, what a merciful bunch you are, explorers of Nigerian cinema. I'm not saying Nigeria can't make a good movie. I've only seen this one. But wow. Really, people? If you want a 2.3/5 disaster movie, you're better off with the TV movie The Horror at 37000 Feet. This is NOT good filmmaking.
First of all, I gotta say that the characters aren't going through anything that most average human beings haven't gone through, except maybe the criminal. And even then, the crime subplot is still, like all the others, so typical and done before that it's obvious that the writer couldn't think of anything better. Don't believe me? Get this. We get at least 50 out of 75 minutes of this pointless and generic drama, that any build up to the actual disaster takes half the remaining time, so we only get 10-15 minutes of the plan disaster actually happening.
On top of this, not only are the actors showing varying levels of acting quality among the extremely low character development, but the direction is Syfy original quality. Seriously. Sharknado has better direction than this. The camera is either too close, too far away or needlessly frantic in inappropriate times, and the CGI for the plan is just plan bad. One shot of the plan flying through the air almost looked like something from a Brett Kelly shark movie. So whether or not it's the acting or the CGI, the movie remains unconvincing for the most part.
Well, I chose a very poor choice for my first Nigerian movie. It's a generic and poorly-made disaster movie that can't handle anything it does well at all. Maybe there's a little merit in the relatable nature of a couple of the subplots, and it's not really an intolerable movie. But from an artistic perspective, this doesn't even qualify as art. The next Nigerian movie I pick is gonna be a lot better. And that might be on Netflix, as there's this one director who apparently has a few decently-received movies there.
= 11/100
Obi Emelonye needs 2 more movies for an average score.
Last Flight to Abuja
(2012) - Directed by Obi Emelonye
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Disaster / Drama
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"Our determination to survive can often be outweighed by our willingness to accept our fate."
(2012) - Directed by Obi Emelonye
--------------------------------------------
Disaster / Drama
-------------------------------------------------
"Our determination to survive can often be outweighed by our willingness to accept our fate."
If there's one thing I love to do, it's to challenge myself. On of the most common challenges I put myself through is to gain some sort of decent knowledge, or maybe in expertise, in some obscure vein of art. I think I can safely assume that I know more about the history of grunge music than anyone of MoFo. But that's not gonna get me any cred as an aspiring film critic, so I think it's time I did something else very niche: explore cinema from other countries who are only just starting out. In this case, I have chosen Nigeria, as I have very few African movies under my belt and it was the first African country I thought of, other than South Africa for the namesake, and I didn't even count that anyway since most of the South African directors I looked up are white, which I think might be a little offensive if I started out with that first. I mean, my literal favorite music album was only created by breaking apartheid law (Graceland by Paul Simon), although that's not really why I love the album, but just saying.
My first venture into Nigerian cinema is this so-called disaster movie about a few employees about to board a flight to Abuja for a mandatory vacation. And before they leave, some of the employees have to deal with some personal issues. One woman isn't as dedicated to her romantic life as she is to her own career, and even drives her boyfriend to find other women. This one guy keeps having to put off things concerning his wife for the mandatory dates set by his boss, and another guy just so happens to be a criminal. And then they board the plain, something catches on fire, and there's an impending disaster.
Honestly, I should've made sure my first Nigerian movie was a little better. Maybe it's my fault for not checking the ratings because I just wanted a Nigerian director I could add to either my best directors or worst directors list, and for that to happen I needed a director who had enough movies in the public for me to watch, but not ones that were too long. So as soon as I saw that this movie was 75 minutes long, I figured, what the hey, right? Dumb move. Now Letterboxd's average rating for this movie is 2.3/5 out of 177 ratings. Heh, what a merciful bunch you are, explorers of Nigerian cinema. I'm not saying Nigeria can't make a good movie. I've only seen this one. But wow. Really, people? If you want a 2.3/5 disaster movie, you're better off with the TV movie The Horror at 37000 Feet. This is NOT good filmmaking.
First of all, I gotta say that the characters aren't going through anything that most average human beings haven't gone through, except maybe the criminal. And even then, the crime subplot is still, like all the others, so typical and done before that it's obvious that the writer couldn't think of anything better. Don't believe me? Get this. We get at least 50 out of 75 minutes of this pointless and generic drama, that any build up to the actual disaster takes half the remaining time, so we only get 10-15 minutes of the plan disaster actually happening.
On top of this, not only are the actors showing varying levels of acting quality among the extremely low character development, but the direction is Syfy original quality. Seriously. Sharknado has better direction than this. The camera is either too close, too far away or needlessly frantic in inappropriate times, and the CGI for the plan is just plan bad. One shot of the plan flying through the air almost looked like something from a Brett Kelly shark movie. So whether or not it's the acting or the CGI, the movie remains unconvincing for the most part.
Well, I chose a very poor choice for my first Nigerian movie. It's a generic and poorly-made disaster movie that can't handle anything it does well at all. Maybe there's a little merit in the relatable nature of a couple of the subplots, and it's not really an intolerable movie. But from an artistic perspective, this doesn't even qualify as art. The next Nigerian movie I pick is gonna be a lot better. And that might be on Netflix, as there's this one director who apparently has a few decently-received movies there.
= 11/100
Obi Emelonye needs 2 more movies for an average score.