A sui generis beautiful piece of art was added to our limited Nollywood pop culture in 2018, King Of Boys (KOB) 1 emerged from the abyss of mostly disappointing and vastly comical collection in our nation’s gallery. Kemi Adetiba gave us a film that would rival the works of the crème de la crème directors such as Kunle Afolayan and I dare mention Legend Tunde Kilani in our history.
Ergo, It is understandable the hype that followed the official teaser trailer of the King Of Boys 2 in 2020 (or was that a trailer to another movie?). If you haven’t watched King Of Boys: The return of the king, I strongly suggest you stop reading now because there are major Spoilers ahead as we explore through my review of the movie.
King Of Boys: The return of the king, now showing on Netflix, in a 7 episodes series format.
Is King Of Boys: The return of the king worth the current noise its generating in the entertainment industry? Well, let’s go through what I consider the strengths and weaknesses of the film.
THE CAST
The movie boasts of a robust cast starting with The King, Sola Sobowale with whom nobody does it better except for Toni Tones who as of the last time killed the role of the young King Of Boys: The return of the king.
Pros – Sola and Toni should be considered as the soul of this franchise, their embodiment of the Oba character, the chemistry of the alter egos they both portrayed with Sola being the Alt who is guilt driven and in dire need of repentance and seeking forgiveness (the Angel), while Toni maintained the fire driven Alt with the continuous need for vengeance and retribution (the Devil). Both alter egos fight for dominance throughout the series, until episode 6 when they merged and The King truly returned.
Cons – Toni was missing for almost an entire episode if not two, she had more to offer than she was given the opportunity to.
Titi Kuti
Pros – is a living embodiment of an “Alpha male” which fits in perfectly to the character “Ade Tiger” who is loyal no matter the personal consequences he might face.
Cons – His role was pretty basic, with little character development and a shabby backstory. We didn’t get to see him be creative with his acting, all he had to do was be “fine” on screen and read his script with some level of gesticulations.
Every other cast, both old and new did what they were meant to do or directed to do, except for Taiwo Ajayi-Lycett who was given such a short screen time as “Chief”. She was magnificent in that role; she didn’t need to be violent, brash and melodramatic to pull off a sophisticated, calm, powerful yet dangerous character. I loved every minute we got to spend with her and wanted more.
PLOT/STORY/DIRECTING
Alhaja Eniola Salami best referred to as Oba returns from the US where she was exiled to after being exonerated of all her crimes by the court due to her case being re-investigated.
Now free of all charges, she announced to the nation that she intends to run for the Governor’s office, while her spot as the King Of Boys at the organized crime table of Elders is been challenged by a new player Odubariba leaving the table divided.
Oba with Ade tiger and her new campaign manager are left with the task of making her governor, while she faces multiple threats from Odubariba, The sitting Governor’s wife, Aare (her mentor turned enemy), the resurrected villain Makanaki and the journalist Dapo Banjo – who just wants to expose the truth no matter the consequences.
Lest I forget, she has the President in her pocket because she somehow helped the President win his first election while she was in exile.
PROS
The Dialogue was top notch at many points in the movie, both well-established and newly made creative proverbs were executed nicely, we had some powerful moments in the scene. I love the Lagos that was portrayed in the movie, the beauty in our chaotic city, even the slums felt serene. I would love to live in this K.O.B’s Lagos. By the way, I currently live in Lagos.
The picture quality was quite the same with the last movie (Forgive me, I’m terrible at camera angles, filters and cuts), the costume, cosmetology and CGI were definitely better. Some of the action scenes were awesome from a Nollywood point of view, my favorite being Makanaki’s ambush on Oba after her gubernatorial debate, which was quite decent before the explosion.
Plot twists – Well, for many fans, they were adequately entertained. For me, I give C for the effort put into executing the idea and concept.
CONS
The movie time was unnecessarily elongated into 7 episodes, episode 1-4 could be easily made into one episode. The whole series should have been made into a 3-hour movie like the first one and many would still find it dragging. The dialogues were mostly exhausting, characters kept repeating the same point in different words and hiding under the use of adages. The scene transitions were even worse than the last movie, which I blame on the poorly executed plot fillers.
There were too many inessential suspense for too many characters introduction with little to No character developments or backstories, the worst was for the lady under the black hat who was blackmailing Ade Tiger. She was killed just after we finally got to see her face without truly understanding who she was or how she was related to the whole plot.
Aunty Kemi fell into the trap of westernizing parts of her plot or characters to suit her narrative, one that stood out to me was The Reporter’s ex-wife chasing the husband out of the house and restricting his access to their son with nothing but the threat of the law. That felt like a plot out of a Hollywood movie and wasn’t relatable, we would likely get to that point in our nation but we are not there yet.
When it comes to loopholes the movie left me with more questions than answers, I’d like to highlight my most important few of the many.
How was Oba able to manipulate the president’s election from the USA with her depleted influence and man power, when she couldn’t even keep herself out of prison at the peak of her power in the last movie?
At the end of K.O.B 1, Ade Tiger was running things for Oba at the table. However, in this movie it was implied that Ade Tiger and some of his cohorts at some point had to find work, to the extent of working for her mortal enemy. At what point in time was this? And how come as resourceful as Ade Tiger is, he didn’t know who he was working for?
Why did Ade Tiger and Oba have to kill and frame a very loyal servant, when they could have easily faked his death or was Boxer truly a traitor?
How did Makanaki survive a close range gunshot straight to the head? Did he die and was resurrected (as per the movie genre has transcended from Crime Political film to Supernatural and mystical)? Or he survived and had some ophthalmology/Neurosurgery by some secret medical practitioners he has on his payroll? Who is his new Sidekick, where did she sprout from and what kind of sword is she wielding?
How was Oba able to walk away from being at the center that last firefight without a scratch, Jazz, luck or both?
Oh! There was a teaser trailer I saw on YouTube for K.O.B2 September 2020 or was that for a different movie with the same title? None of the trailer scenes appeared in this movie.
The questions are just too many… but I’d stop here for now.
As for the plot twists, personally they were predictable, Ade Tiger was not very convincing at his betrayal. Taking a clue from the previous movie where Gobir was betrayed by his boss, it was quite obvious Dapo was threading the same line. Seun’s name kept coming up which made him quite visible. For someone who came back from the dead just to exact revenge on his killers, Makanaki was quick to let bygones be bygones with Oba which is in contrast to the character’s buildup across 1 movie + a 7 episode series.
Well, after reading this review I can see I am nothing but a bad belle, as per “Do am if e easy”.
But for someone who fell in love with Kemi Adetiba’s directing from Olamide’s video that year to wedding party and then King Of Boys 1, I know she can do way much better. I hope she continues to evolve in filmmaking and doesn’t become comfortable like many of her predecessors.
King Of Boys; The return of the king (rating – 6.5/10)
Make sure you watch the movie and share your own opinions at the comment sections.
About Author:
Dr. Ayinde Tegzi Olawale is a Medical Officer who actively DJs, writes and interested in Mental Health.
