Film Review: The Last Flight To Abuja: May Day!

On Friday, August 3, 2012 when my friend Atoke buzzed me to invite me to the premiere of the Nollywood movie The Last Flight To Abuja holding at the Genesis Deluxe Cinemas I was a bit hesitant. You seeI am not a fan of Nigerian movies (there have been the odd few that I have really enjoyed.... Guilty Pleasures, Mortal Inheritance, Rattlesnake, Out of Bounds, Thunderbolt... to mention a few)...but since it was a chance to share a few laughs and hang out with a friend and see the movie at no real cost to me I decided to give it a go.

The pre-premiere opinion of the movie shared by quite a number of people was that the movie should not have been made and that it was rather insensitive of the makers of the film to “cash in” on the events of the fatal June 3 Dana Airways air crash. This impression was corrected by Mr. Alex Otti, MD/CEO of Diamond Bank the main sponsors of the movie at the premiere. The Last Flight To Abuja, written and directed by Obi Emelonye (The Mirror Boy), which was loosely based around the Bellview Airlines crash of 2006 had been in production for months and was scheduled for release when the Dana plane crashed -  a case of a very bad coincidence.

So I “crossed” my mind and decided to be as objective as possible as I watched the movie. And what can I say? Although it was a commendable attempt, The Last Flight To Abuja crashed both literally and figuratively! Now where do I begin? Armed with a good but cliché ridden and predictable plot and storyline, The Last Flight To Abuja would have been a good movie if it had had a good script and dialogue, any decent acting and passable video effects.

The dialogue was abysmal to say the least; the conversations were alternately stilted and rushed like they were in a race or something. And when did the word “some” become a definitive article? e.g. “Let’s watch some Titanic”, “You have some temperature”. This wrong usage was rife throughout the entire movie with no one finding it fit to correct it!

Wardrobe and realism as is with many of our Nollywood productions was questionable particularly the uniforms, couldn’t the producers get authentic pilot and police uniforms? What was with the plastic tape used to make the pilots’ stripes?  The pilot’s wife also did not have a wedding ring on as she spoke to him on the phone. Were tablets available for use in 2006? Just one air hostess/cabin crew member on a plane? Are we to believe that the airport’s control tower is just one room, closely resembling my BQ room at the university? And the CGI? Hmm, definitely not 2012 stuff, no scratch that, definitely not 2001 stuff!! And the realisation that a scene from another movie was used to depict the air crash scene!! Shame!

The acting? Ever present were the shifting accents and affectations that are more in line with stage performances. However, I did enjoy Hakeem Kae-Kazim’s acting as well as Jim Iyke’s (sorry o but for some funny reason I like his acting *big grin*). The pilots played by Anthony Monjaro and Celine Loader effectively portrayed the distress and panic that any pilot in their positions would feel. Everyone else? Average.

However, the movie was not all bad! I wholeheartedly welcomed and commended Obi Emelonye’s cinematography and use of non-linear sequencing in telling his story, reminiscent of Chris Nolan’s Memento (2000). It showed a certain amount of ambitiousness that I liked. However, the downside was that there were too many flashes between scenes alternating between Abuja and Lagos which was a bit disorienting. His attempt to tell a story from different points of view and perspectives of the characters where they all converge on the plane is also worthy of note. The sound and sound effects were not bad either and the score was very very good! I particularly liked the use of radio commentary featuring a few of our OAPs as background sound as it helped the scenes. There was plenty of comic relief especially by Hakeem Kae-Kazim and his wanna-be philanderer friend. So we had loads of good laughs.

In the end The Last Flight To Abuja is a good attempt but is still beset with the basic challenges to good film making in Nigeria – scripting, acting and realism. The movie might take off with you but I am not so sure of where it would land you. Enjoy!

NB: The Last Flight to Abuja is dedicated to the memories of those that lost their lives in the June 3, 2012 Dana Airways plane crash. Written and directed by Obi Emelonye, it stars Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Jim Iyke, Ali Nuhu, Uru Eke, Celine Loader, Anthony Manjaro and Jide Kosoko.