Despite this movie having a basic plot description for what happens in this movie, trust me when I say the story for this movie is incredible. The story of this movie doesn't just tell this story of a female-led army but serves up two different purposes. The first purpose of the story of this movie is to help bring light to this piece of history. Before this movie came out or even the trailer how many people actually knew about this kingdom and army? Probably not many people who aren't from that area of the world or from the culture. This is why this story is so incredible because even though most of what you're seeing is false it still makes you want to look up and learn more about the Dahomey and the Agojie. The movie's story does a great job of hocking the audience along for this journey and showing just how badass these women were. This brings me to the second purpose of this movie's story which is to show and empower women to be warriors. Recently Hollywood has been getting better at showing stories of women as more than just a side character and The Woman King thankfully joins those ranks. This movie does not hold back when showing how tough these women are in comparison to the men and it's amazing. Due to this movie having a majority female cast it wasn't the hardest task to show how strong women are and especially show younger girls how strong they can be. Another part of this movie's story I really enjoyed was the African culture it included. I have to admit I'm not the right person to talk about African culture so I can't say how accurate it is but it was still interesting to see it included in this movie during the downtime between action scenes.
But despite the incredible story of this movie the pacing for this movie is kind of weird. From the beginning of the movie to the end there is no clear passage of time so it's hard to tell how much time has passed. One second they're training the new recruits and the next it's the final test for the new recruits. This really isn't a big deal and doesn't take away from the movie as a whole but it kind of irks me. I would've loved to have seen them training more and seeing how they become to be these mighty warriors instead of some of the other scenes in this movie that easily could've been cut down or out of the movie and nothing would've changed. But it was hard to tell there were pacing issues when the acting for this movie was spectacular. Obviously one of the biggest names that's in this movie is Viola Davis, who plays Nanisca, and man does she steal the show. Viola Davis plays this no-nonsense leader who just cares about the people in her army while still showing some vulnerability. It's incredible to see her switch between being this serious leader and then showing vulnerability when she's around her closest friend. Another actress who stood out to me was Lashana Lynch, who plays Izogie. Lashana Lynch at first appears like she's going to be the comedic relief for this movie and in some ways she is but she also brings some humanity to this movie as well. With Izogie she shows how somebody can be this tough person on the outside but still be caring to those close to her. The last person I want to shout out is Sheila Atim, who plays Amenza. She doesn't get much screen time unfortunately but whenever she was on screen she was great. All of the actors in this movie did amazing jobs and helped bring the audience into this compound. I just want to quickly say if you ever get bored while watching this movie and Hero Fiennes Tiffin, who plays Santo Ferreira, is ever on the screen keep count of how many times he breaks his accent because trust me it happens quite often.
With this movie being an action movie the pressure is on for the action scenes to be good and thankfully the action scenes in this movie kickass. All of the fighting in this movie is so well choreographed and knows how best to show off the strengths of each character in combat. The most impressive part of the action scenes is the knowledge that the actors all did their own stunts which helps bring the audience into the fights as well. What also helps with fight scenes is the framing and directing of the scenes to make sure they're easy to follow and Gina Prince-Bythewood, the director, did just that. The action scenes still had some edits put in to change the camera angle but you can tell that the directing for those scenes was to make them as clean and in focus as possible. But it wasn't just the fight scenes the directing was great during but the movie as a whole was directed so well. You can see how much passion Gina Prince-Bythewood had for this project and how she wanted to make sure the story was told and seen. Before I wrap this up I just want to rapid-fire shout out some other elements I loved from this movie due to how much it dived into African culture which are the costume designs, production design and the music, done by Terence Blanchard. In the end, The Woman King might not be fully truthful to the real Agojie army but this movie does an incredible job of making people want to learn about them. This is an important movie to check out, especially for women and probably will be an award-season favourite.
But despite the incredible story of this movie the pacing for this movie is kind of weird. From the beginning of the movie to the end there is no clear passage of time so it's hard to tell how much time has passed. One second they're training the new recruits and the next it's the final test for the new recruits. This really isn't a big deal and doesn't take away from the movie as a whole but it kind of irks me. I would've loved to have seen them training more and seeing how they become to be these mighty warriors instead of some of the other scenes in this movie that easily could've been cut down or out of the movie and nothing would've changed. But it was hard to tell there were pacing issues when the acting for this movie was spectacular. Obviously one of the biggest names that's in this movie is Viola Davis, who plays Nanisca, and man does she steal the show. Viola Davis plays this no-nonsense leader who just cares about the people in her army while still showing some vulnerability. It's incredible to see her switch between being this serious leader and then showing vulnerability when she's around her closest friend. Another actress who stood out to me was Lashana Lynch, who plays Izogie. Lashana Lynch at first appears like she's going to be the comedic relief for this movie and in some ways she is but she also brings some humanity to this movie as well. With Izogie she shows how somebody can be this tough person on the outside but still be caring to those close to her. The last person I want to shout out is Sheila Atim, who plays Amenza. She doesn't get much screen time unfortunately but whenever she was on screen she was great. All of the actors in this movie did amazing jobs and helped bring the audience into this compound. I just want to quickly say if you ever get bored while watching this movie and Hero Fiennes Tiffin, who plays Santo Ferreira, is ever on the screen keep count of how many times he breaks his accent because trust me it happens quite often.
With this movie being an action movie the pressure is on for the action scenes to be good and thankfully the action scenes in this movie kickass. All of the fighting in this movie is so well choreographed and knows how best to show off the strengths of each character in combat. The most impressive part of the action scenes is the knowledge that the actors all did their own stunts which helps bring the audience into the fights as well. What also helps with fight scenes is the framing and directing of the scenes to make sure they're easy to follow and Gina Prince-Bythewood, the director, did just that. The action scenes still had some edits put in to change the camera angle but you can tell that the directing for those scenes was to make them as clean and in focus as possible. But it wasn't just the fight scenes the directing was great during but the movie as a whole was directed so well. You can see how much passion Gina Prince-Bythewood had for this project and how she wanted to make sure the story was told and seen. Before I wrap this up I just want to rapid-fire shout out some other elements I loved from this movie due to how much it dived into African culture which are the costume designs, production design and the music, done by Terence Blanchard. In the end, The Woman King might not be fully truthful to the real Agojie army but this movie does an incredible job of making people want to learn about them. This is an important movie to check out, especially for women and probably will be an award-season favourite.