This movie follows the story of King Kator, a top Afrobeats artiste navigating life in Lagos. He falls in love with his concierge in less than five days.
Did I like this movie? No.
Was it a terrible film, generally speaking? No.
So what was the problem? That’s exactly what I want us to discuss today. This isn’t really a review, I just want us to discuss why Nollywood seems to struggle with telling truly great romance stories.
I’m going to apologize in advance to those who’ll say, “It’s a romance film, don’t write think pieces about it. Just watch, cheese, bask in the delusion of love and move on.” But here’s the thing, there was nothing to cheese about. No awwwwwwn moments. No butterflies. Not even a decent build-up.
A Lagos Love Story had all the elements of a classic romance starter pack: two attractive leads from different worlds, opposing personalities, the meet-cute, the fast-paced falling in love, the conflict, and the final resolution. But stilllllllll. I felt like rinsing my eyes afterward. I had to find something—anything—to watch immediately after, just to balance my mood and help me forget what I had just seen. And I couldn’t stop asking myself why?
So shall we?
The storyline wasn’t bad. The idea of a rich, popular musician falling in love with a regular babe is the kind of thing romance movies are made of. We’ve all seen movies with similar stories, and the thing about romance is, people rarely get tired of watching the same concept. If it’s two people falling in love, it usually works.
The acting wasn’t bad either. Jemima Osunde gave a decent performance as the lead actress, Promise Quest (if you don’t mind her one-size-fits-all style of acting, then you should be fine).
Mike Afolarin worked as King Kator, and despite the ridiculous hair, clothes, and sagging trousers (which, to be fair, is very representative of a lot of Afrobeats artists), he still looked pretty good and that surprised me for some reason. He also gave a convincing performance. Susan Pwajok, who played Favour, nailed the role of the naughty younger sister.
IK Osakioduwa showed up as himself.
Linda Ejiofor – honestly, I’m not sure what was going on there, but I didn’t like it. The performance, the character… it just didn’t land.
Costume design was good, especially ALL favour’s pieces. I appreciated the fact that they even organized some concerts, it made the whole music industry thing realistic.
Personally,
I had an issue with their “not so cute” meet cute. I understood what they were going for, I’ve seen that type of scene in so many Korean movies, I knew exactly what they were trying to achieve. But in this movie? Unfortunately, King Kator was wearing his sunglasses, so they couldn’t look into each other’s eyes and that’s what defines the moment, the eyes!!I couldn’t be in the moment with them or appreciate it because I was just wondering, “baby girl, what are you staring at???”
I also had a problem with Promise’s problem. The issue that was supposedly driving her character—the tax debt and house matter—was just so poorly explained. I genuinely didn’t get it. What tax debt exactly had they been paying off for years, and somehow still had 20 million naira left? How did it even happen? I understand that the government can place a lien due to unpaid land use charges or other statutory fees, and yes, interests can pile up, but even with all that… the math wasn’t mathing. It just sounded like a made-up problem and they were calling millions up and down with no real foundation.
And then… the love story. I didn’t see how their love evolved. People fall in love in 24 hours in movies all the time, but you watch it happen. The bonding, the tension, the shared experience, that moment where one of them pauses and you can see it on their face: “I like this person.” But Promise and King Kator? They barely had any personal time together. I don’t even think they ever sat down to just talk. The only personal conversation I remember was King Kator telling her he wasn’t actually a university dropout. Is that all it took for Promise to fall hopelessly in love? Is the bar really that low?
Let’s talk chemistry. You know when you watch two people and the sparks are insane from the first scene? Or even better, when there’s that slow-burn tension that just builds and builds and pulls you in? This movie didn’t give either. They didn’t look bad together (they’re both fine people), and they didn’t do terribly as a pair… but it gave “friends.” It didn’t sell “a couple experiencing intense, crazy love in less than 5 days.”
There were so many scenes I didn’t like. Vee just popping up out of nowhere every single time! Uche Montana’s boat cruise. The random party on the mainland. The scene where King Kator jumped off stage to fight someone….like, why? It was cringe. It was chaotic. It was unrealistic. And every scene where Promise Quest talked about “the house” and how it was their mother’s legacy? I rolled my eyes so hard.
Which brings me to the dialogue—sigh.
“This house is our legacy.”
“This house holds so many memories.”
Okay? Then show us! All we saw was the parlour (and I intentionally didn’t say ‘sitting room’). Show us the spots where those memories were made. If you’re going to use that trope, commit to it! Let us feel the history. Don’t just repeat lines with nothing to back them up.
Now, let’s address the songs. The songs were not nice. I was ashamed of King Kator. (Bad As Fontaine wasn’t terrible sha.) When you watch movies like this, sometimes the songs are so catchy they stay with you. You even go on Apple Music to look for them. In this case, not even the one inspired by his “great love” was good. Thank God for Ayra Starr and Chike’s songs in the background. Every other song was an ear sore. Could they not have gotten actual songwriters to write proper Afrobeats tracks?
Also, it felt like so many scenes were missing. How did King Kator even find out about the house and tax debt, enough to call the government and pay it off? The last time we saw him, he was still reeling from what he thought was a betrayal. And then suddenly he’s contacting the Lagos State government, accessing another person’s tax records, and clearing a multi-million-naira debt without a letter of authorization signed by Promise’s family and other relevant documents? How? Please be serious.
Finallyyyyy, the last scene. Oh Lord.
That final performance on stage with that off-key singing was the final straw. It was the icing on the cake, the peak of peakness, the mountain of mess. I would have loved to see someone chase all of them off that stage. Because what in the world was that?!
I’m saying: A Lagos Love Story could have been good. It could have been a cute, feel-good romance movie. But instead, it was just a frustrating mess. I was disappointed after watching. It showed an embarrassing lack of effort. Even though it had all the right romance movie tropes, it failed to stick the landing.
P:S – I’m tired “A Lagos something something movies” there are 36 states in Nigeria incase Nollywood is not aware.
That’s my side of the story. Have you seen it? What did you think? I really want to hear your thoughts on why Nollywood keeps struggling to get romance films right.
My Rating: 3/10
Have you seen the movie, please share your thoughts with us in the comments below
Read the review of I Am Anis.
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