Beast of Two Worlds (Ajakaju) – Movie Review

A desperate king will lose his throne if he is unable to produce an heir to the throne. He takes another bride who promises him a son. But her arrival does not solve his problem; instead, it leads to more trouble.

God have mercy on us. 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️

What worked? Nothing.

What did I like? Nothing.

The people that liked it should please share with us what they liked about it.

For those who would argue that it taught them important things, please share these nuggets of wisdom with us too.

What were the issues? Everything.

The moment the movie opened with those AI-generated images and detached English narration, I knew we had a problem on our hands.

The story was so silly, it seemed like a joke. When I was growing up, I used to read all those tiny storybooks, and one of them told the story of an animal that changed into a beautiful human. She met a hunter and promised to give him something he really wanted, and in exchange, he was to keep her secret and never tell people she was an animal. But one day, the hunter broke his promise, so she turned back into an animal and left him alone. Sounds ridiculous to you yea? Imagine my shock when I realized this was the storyline for a movie in 2024, to make matters worse, everything was poorly done. Nothing screams bankruptcy of imagination more than a poorly made tale by moonlight.

Acting and casting did not work at all. Eniola Ajao should not have been the lead; she was unable to deliver a convincing performance as Ajakaju. I’ll keep saying it: you don’t need to be the lead just because it is your film. Odunlade Adekola had a fairly decent performance and gave a decent monologue towards the end of the film, but it was not enough to make much difference. Sola Sobowale needs to stop screaming; it was cute initially, but now it’s just not working. She did not do justice to her role, and no amount of shouting can hide that fact. The people who annoyed me most were the three wives. There is obviously no such thing as being “too big” for a role in Nollywood. Some of them have even argued that turning down a role means you are behaving like you are too big for the industry that made you (a topic for another day) because Bimbo Akintola, Fathia Balogun, and Mercy Aigbe had no business being in this film. The lines were bad, and to make matters worse, the delivery was mediocre; it was actually painful to watch them. Their roles should have been given to three upcoming actresses; at least we would have been able to attribute the poor delivery to inexperience.

Acting and casting did not work at all. Eniola Ajao should not have been the lead; she was unable to deliver a convincing performance as Ajakaju. I’ll keep saying it: you don’t need to be the lead just because it is your film. While watching this film, I had so many questions. When Ajakaju went on a rampage killing humans to avenge her parents, why did she not start with the hunter (played by Femi Adebayo) who killed them? What eventually happened to Femi Adebayo? The first time Ajakaju threw her baby into the fire, I was convinced it was a dream because one minute they were congratulating the king, and suddenly we see her running alone on a farm with a baby in her arms. Her hairstyle was also different from the hairstyle she had in the previous scene when she was in labor, and the way everyone stood there looking at her, watching the baby burn… that’s the kind of stuff nightmares are made of. So imagine my shock when I realized it was actually real. The second time she threw her baby into the water also looked really awkward and unreal. So somebody was breastfeeding the babies in the spirit world and taking care of them. What was the point of Adedimeji Lateef’s role? The whole idea of complaining about having sons to show a contrast with the king’s situation was very simple-minded. Also, his delivery was exaggerated, but still, we never got to see what eventually happened to him. He just disappeared after the scene where the queen mother arrested him. I wondered about the significance of that subplot.

Let’s talk about the production of this film. Everything was really poor. The audio was bad; the soundtrack overshadowed their speaking voices several times, and we couldn’t hear them at all. The camera and lighting were also not great; some scenes were darker than others. The costume and makeup were bad. The outfit for Ajakaju was so poorly put together; the character looked mad.😭😭 The person who designed it must have been going through something because I did not understand the beards or the shoe covered with leather. The fight scenes were not great; I did not like the effects. Most importantly, like I said earlier, the AI-generated images were a turnoff. Don’t get me wrong, AI is great, and more people are using it, go on YouTube and you’ll see stories created with AI but the reason most serious minded filmmakers would be skeptical about using it in their body of work is the fact that they can be quite inaccurate. In the case of Ajakaju, they were telling a story about antelopes; I could see goats. I also saw something that looked like an Elk with its large branching antlers. They were talking about ancient men, and one of them was wearing a trendy gold chain. The humans had four to six fingers, and their eyes looked like they were melting into their heads. Also, the narration in a Yoruba epic movie was in English? How? Why? Everything screamed laziness! 

The way the movie ended was even more ridiculous. His wives were nowhere to be found. After his 10-year reign without an heir, he was still in the palace. The king’s mother suddenly turned out to be a witch, and why did her body disappear? They actually want us to believe he lived happily ever after with the woman, yeah?

Again, God have mercy on us.

When you look at it now, it makes sense—the cheap publicity stunts they pulled when the film was released.

Overall, Ajakaju was not a good watch. As far as epics go, this film is strictly mediocre stuff and joins the growing list of IQ-reducing Nollywood movies that I have seen recently.

My Rating: 0.8/10. 

Have you seen the movie, please share your thoughts with us in the comments below

Read the review of Christmas in Lagos here .

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