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.
