The movie tells the story of a young man named Samuel (played by Akah Nnani) who was brought up in a very strict Christian household. He finally escapes to the university and vows never to go back home. He gets involved in so many ungodly acts but he finally finds his way back home.
Don’t be fooled by my summary, this is not a story of redemption.
The movie started well, I really liked the performance at the beginning and I was really excited. Even though it would have been a nice touch for Samuel to actually sing some part of the song, I was looking forward to the rest of the movie. But after a while, I found myself wondering; why is this movie turning up and down?
I’ll start with the storyline, the storyline was not clear because they tried to address too many things at the same time. We saw a bit of the biblical samuel (a voice called Samuel’s name and told him he was a covenant child), we saw a bit of the prodigal son, we saw corruption in the house of God, sexual immorality, drug trafficking, money laundering, revenge. Too many things were happening at the same time.
From this movie, it is apparent that someone has been observing all the church drama going in Nigeria and this movie is an ill conceived attempt to address everything at the same time. It was too much.
For a Netflix original, this movie had too many errors and inconsistencies.
First issue, why did they not clearly state the dates and time frame covered in this movie? When the movie started, what year was it? When they got to the university what year was it? So many times they just jumped from one year to another. I believe it was intentional on their part in order to avoid the responsibility of properly depicting the different periods with the right costumes and props. They took the easy way out and decided to confuse us. We were expected to connect the dots by ourselves and if we could not figure it out, we should forget abourrit.
In the first half of the movie, the characters only communicated through letters because they did not have phones, meaning it was a really long time ago (maybe year 2000 or below), but the students dressed like present day university students, the cars in the school premises did not look old, their hair, their dialogues and the general atmosphere looked very recent.
Pastor Josiah’s church did not look like an old apostolic church, the building looked new with white paint and proper aluminum windows. The church had long blue curtains on the altar and mummy pastor sat on an executive chair. The university fellowship did not look like an old school fellowship, their pastors they did not look the part either, I could go on and on but you will agree with me that the director and production team made no attempt to authentically represent the different decades covered in this movie.
Let’s address the plot progression. There was something fundamentally wrong with the story telling in this movie. For example, when Samuel met Joy, she knew he had a girlfriend/fuck buddy, but this sister of God did not seem to mind, he told her “let’s be friends” but fast forward to the next scene they were already dating, how?? It would have been nice to actually watch the friendship/love grow. I thought she was going to be the one to help him heal and build a better relationship with God but that was not the case.
Joy left school and four months later she was already married, how can a sister in Christ do that?? She was supposed to be serving (NYSC) so when and how did she meet pastor Zack again?
Only Sam got an extra year so why did Teju not graduate? Why was she still in school with Sam? Who is pastor BJ? A permanent student?
In one scene we can see Sam and Teju praying, the next scene, they are married. When did they get married? How long have they been married? No idea. Did Sam eventually graduate? Was Teju the bread winner in the family? The sequence of the movie did not make sense.
Acting and Casting was good. Akah Nnani really tried, he had the charisma that was just perfect for the role. Eucharia Anunobi was however my favorite character in this movie. Osas Ighodalo did very well too. Although Dorcas Sola Fapson (DSF) struggled with the pidgin and she repeated the word “Guy” like 2000 times in this movie, I was quite impressed with her delivery.
So acting and casting was not bad but character development was poor.
1. Rekya (played by Dorcas) as a university babe had vibes. 9 years later, Rekya is back in Nigeria, we should see a character update, she should be more worldly, more jaded more mature and sophisticated, but no, she still came back and was jumping up and down shouting “Guuuuuy”. Nothing changed, not even her false lashes. She had the same lashes from her university days till she came back form “the abroad”.
2. How about the lady Samuel impregnated? We did not get to know her, she just died like that. We saw her sister about two times but nothing eventually came out of it.
3. His brother? That one just suddenly appeared out of the blues, no build up.
4. How about his father? That man traumatized his son. Over the years, we should have seen his remorse and his admission that he did not treat his son well, that he played a part in pushing his son away, but there was nothing.
5. I don’t think Shawn Faqua spoke more than 3 times in this movie, the only thing I remember about Mawuli Gavor from this movie is that his suit was too tight.
6. How did Samuel get into music? They probably should have shown his love for music even as a child, he should have been sneaking away to listen to music and not just playing, that would better explain the beatings he received from his father. This would also have been a good backdrop for his love for music. All in all, the time that should have been devoted to developing these characters was wasted on irrelevant scenes.
Towards the end, they started rushing. The last scene made me cringe, I am sure they were trying to achieve an emotional scene but it did not work for me. I guess it is a befitting ending for a movie where so many things did not work.
I’ll round up by saying some things occurred to me while I was watching:
- Whatever you do, don’t try to change a man. You know he does not like you, keep it moving. If you decide to settle, you will suffer.
- Know God by yourself and leave all these pastors alone. So many pastors are running their churches with just vibes. Only God knows those he called.
In conclusion, the movie Man of God clumsily relies on an assortment of relatable societal issues to get the buy in of the audience ,they tried to deceive us with bright colours and pretty faces but neglected the important aspect of making a great movie; Coherence.
I won’t call this a bad movie, I’ll just say it leaves a sour taste in your mouth after you watch.
So I ask, how is this a Netflix original??? At this point, do you think we might have placed Netflix on a pedestal that they don’t deserve? Or is this just a Nigerian issue?
Rating: 4.8/10
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