Chike (Adesua Etomi Wellington) is now an Agent working for the US government as part of her jail term and she is forced to risk everything she holds dear once again to go after a criminal named Usi (Nancy Isime) who kidnaps Grace’s (Kehinde Bankole) daughter in order to blackmail Chike to do her bidding.
Chike and Grace must work together to take down Usi and save Grace’s daughter.
What if I told you that this movie was not really about getting back Grace’s daughter? The story about Grace’s daughter was just one sub plot out of many. What then was the crux of the movie you might ask? The truth is, I really cannot say because the storyline was not clear at all. If chasing shadows was a movie then it would be this one because what exactly were they chasing? What was the central conflict?We did not know what the actual problem was, the fights were pointless, the missions did not make any sense.
The Set up part 1 was not my cup of tea because there were too many unnecessary twists and I could not take Adesua’s wakanda moves seriously but at least, plot progression was clear and they were able to bring everything to a logical conclusion. This sequel unfortunately manages to fall short of the low standard set by part 1.
The movie did not start well, the beginning was very bland and unimpressive and it was at this point I knew there was a problem.
Acting and casting was not great. All the characters could have benefited from better direction. Even Kate Henshaw and Blossom Chukwujekwu who are fantastic actors on a normal day could not shine, with easily forgettable characters they did not have much to work with.
Let me talk about Adesua specifically, it just did not work. She did not make a convincing action hero, it was painful watching her struggle to deliver .Everytime she said “I will kill you” I could not believe her, I’m sure nobody believed her. It was giving low budget female James Bond. She just did not have the required panache to deliver this kind of role. Adesua needs to stick to her baby girl roles.
Nancy Isime on the other hand was my favorite performance. It was apparent that she could have given the role so much more but still, her delivery was gooooood. It was her walk for me, her sinister smile, the look in her eyes, the outfit and her attitude in general.
They did not even bother to properly build the characters of the new people introduced in the movie. Igwe Macintosh was supposed to be a mafia but Chike easily stole all his important and confidential files and there was no consequence, no war, no blood. Is that one a mafia lord? Director Teju, suddenly became the villian, what was her motivation? We should have seen interactions leading to this fact. Even Edem that was a disgraced man at the end of part 1 was suddenly introduced in part 2 as a powerful and influential man who had access to local and international government intelligence and facilities, how?
The original villain in part 1 (Madame) was weak and redundant in this part 2, they introduced new villians but we did not get to see much of them. We could not hate them, fear them or like them.
The time that should have been used for character development was wasted on unnecessary scenes.
Nothing stood out for me about the movie setting, the props used were just there. Attention to detail was bad, makeup was poor. Injuries looked fake, some injuries suddenly appeared and disappeared. At some point, a gun shot injury even miraculously changed position (Grace was shot on her shoulder but suddenly, the injury moved to her belly). So many loopholes in this movie but unfortunately, one of the disadvantages of seeing a movie in the cinema is that you can’t go back to reconfirm things. I would have loved to share the embarrassing continuity issues that I noticed.
Let’s talk about the choreography, I said choreography because what they were doing was not combat o, the action sequences were very stiff and failed to generate any excitement. The most ridiculous fight scene was the scene where Adesua fought with the boxer, I could not believe my eyes!
I think Nollywood should explore using people who do stunts for their action scenes because this thing they are doing is just embarrassing all of us.
This movie had no dramatic momentum, no suspense, nothing shocking happened, there was nothing to anticipate, we did not know what they were fighting for or what the big picture was so we were just looking and the movie went on and on.
I had so many questions:
- Why did Chike and her partner have to go by water in order to arrest the arms dealer (Mayowa Kuku) when they could just easily walk in and carry him out like they did at the end of the mission?.
- Who was pursuing them? Nobody
- They had to swim across a large expanse of water but their swim suits were not wet when they got to shore. Their hair, their faces were very dry and moisturized. No single drop of water. Chike even mysteriously found a whole beach attire and a nice wig on the shore and her makeup was popping even after the long swim. Why???
- Why did Usi not steal the documents from Macintosh by herself since she was stronger?. Why did she need Chike? Why did Usi not just collect the documents from Macintosh since they were both friends working undercover for Director Teju? Why did she have to wait so many years to rescue her mother
- Why did Chike and Grace sneak into the prison when they could just drive in? There were no security guys in the prison, for some reason, they all suddenly disappeared. After the mediocre attempt at a prison break, there was a lot of shooting going on and no prison warden came out to intervene, so what was the point of sneaking into the premises through an underground tunnel when there was nobody to stop them in the first place? Like I said, unnecessary drama.
The Cancer story did not make any sense either. Usi was undergoing chemotherapy in one small room in Benin republic with just one drip stand beside her? Who was the doctor treating her or can someone do self medication for Chemotherapy?
The end was even more annoying but I won’t bore you with the details. Grace’s death did not make any sense, Chike becoming the leader of a terrorist group did not make any sense. But you know what else does not make sense? The fact that they are working on Set up part 3, it’s the audacity for me!
Sequels are very tricky to execute and as such must be approached with care. Set up 1 did not warrant a sequel, we were not invested in any of the characters from part 1 so the audience did not have an character to watch out for, to love, hate or cheer for. Chike was not remarkable in part 1, so why bring her back in part 2? Why exactly did we need a part 2???
Overall, Set up 2 would leave you feeling very dissatisfied after watching. It’s not horrible but its not good. Scattered plot, weak acting, weak conflict, weak villians, weak hero, weak conclusion, featuring poor storytelling and poor directing. It makes several attempts to thrill but fails woefully. I should have waited for it to come to Netflix or Prime, my money would have bought me sharwama and a cold drink.
Have you seen it? Thoughts?
Rating: 4.5/10
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