Aubrie Rakus
Woman King delivered everything that it promised: Africa-centered story, dope fight scenes, beautiful cinematography, and Viola Davis. But it also gave so much more: luscious costuming, fantastic performances from Thuso Mbedu and Lashana Lynch and Sheila Atim, and INCREDIBLY DOPE fight scenes. And while I understand the controversies, I don't think that they are fair to the film, which really does examine Dahomey's role in the slave trade. It's not a documentary, but it also never claimed to be.
Grime 2.0
Terribly inaccurate film that completely rewrites history and claims I’m the trailer that it’s based off true events when in fact the Dahomey tribe were some of the most prolific slave traders in history who very much supported and condoned slavery. The film might be about black female empowerment on the backs of enslaved Africans and that just doesn’t sit right with me. Several cast members claimed this was a true story.
Fernando Gonzalez (Jay)
Viola is amazing and she does an amazing job in this movie and so do the other actors especially the young daughter. But the story, albeit one I never knew of before and great way to teach folks about it, feels novela/melodramatic sorta. Like the elements in the story make it hard to believe when this is based on a real life character. The love story ugh and then the lost daughter element - it makes it feel too fake and made me lose interest in it. It would’ve been a good limited series! TooLong