Suspicion- Movie Review

Voke has extraordinary powers, which run within his family. After his friend and goddaughter are killed by unknown assailants, he embarks on a journey of revenge against the killers.

Suspicion had so much potential. The storyline was really solid—it was something different. But its simple and solid premise quickly went off the rails towards the end, leading to a movie ending that was so confusing it should be a crime.

What did I like? 

Like I mentioned earlier, I liked the story. I liked how they positioned what Voke and his family had as powers. This story does not demonize juju in the way we are used to, because if we can watch Superman and Spiderman do their thing, we can watch Voke teleport too.

The acting and casting were not bad. I really enjoyed watching Tina Mba in this film. Recently, I have seen her in too many poorly made films, and I was starting to forget why I liked her in the first place, but she did well in this movie. Uzor Arukwe’s performance was not bad, but I must say his character was not properly developed, so he did not get the chance to really shine. As for Omowunmi Dada, I have mixed reactions. In some scenes, I totally did not like her delivery, but in others, it was manageable. For Stan Nze, his performance was just enough to make the character work. It was not outstanding, but it was not poor either. He could have done so much more with a little push from the director. I might have mentioned it before but I want to say it again that Stan Nze is one of my favorite Nollywood actors, and I don’t think he has any bad performances. Even when he does not give an outstanding performance (like his performance in this film), he manages to do just enough to make it work.

I liked the setting of this film. I liked the cinematography, I thought they had some really good shots. I liked the fight scenes; they looked properly choreographed. I liked the use of effects; they looked really clean, and there were some really interesting ones. I liked that scene with the flying chair. I liked the scene where that man revealed miniature images. I liked the scene with the boiling pot. I can actually give more examples—it was good.

What were the issues?

This storytelling was weird such that even the things I thought I liked at the beginning of the film ended up not making sense when I got to the end, because the questions I assumed would be answered later in the movie were never addressed. For example, I liked the beginning of the film—the whole kidnapping and all—but when Rogba pulled out a gun, I wondered why he had a gun. I assumed he was in some shady business and probably knew who the kidnappers were, and that it would be explained later. The fact that they kidnapped the child right in front of him seemed like they were making a statement to him. My assumption was further buttressed by the fact that Rogba never went to the police to complain about the kidnapping. Even when he could not reach Voke, he went to the mountain to clear his head. His reaction to his daughter’s kidnapping just did not seem like what a regular person would do in that situation. So, I thought there was more to him.

When I realized at the end that Rogba really did not have anything to do with the whole thing—he was just a regular guy taking his child to school—and that it was all Chisom’s doing, the beginning made even less sense. Again, why did Rogba have a gun? Chisom knew Lolu was with Voke and Rogba at that exact time, so why would she try to kidnap her then, when she could have sent her men to just pick her up when she was playing by herself or something? The bus that dropped the kidnappers drove off and I was wondering where are going? Then the other guy started running carrying the child, I’m like where is your bus?! I felt like the scene could have been better.

This was the case for most parts of the film—so many things/scenes in this movie did not seem to make sense. After they kidnapped Lolu and harvested her organs, why exactly would the kidnappers go back to drop her body in a mortuary in her area, on the same day she was kidnapped, when they could have just dumped her body somewhere for it to be discovered days or weeks later? Seeing her body lying on a mortuary slab covered in a crisp white cloth just looked off to me.

That Shaffy Bello’s scene also did nothing for me.

Moving on, attention to detail was not great. Sometimes the effects appeared and disappeared. For example, the scene where Rogba was beating up one of the kidnappers. He shot the guy multiple times, and you could see the blood splash effect, but a few seconds later, the splash disappeared from the wall behind him.

But the scenes that suffered from this the most was the teleportation scenes, let me explain; After teleportation, Voke probably lost 40 years, judging by his gray hair. Do you know what would have made that scene one of the best scenes in any Nollywood movie? If they actually aged him! I would have been on Tosin Igho’s page to hail him for giving me the best movie scene of 2024. But I guess I was expecting too much. They only rubbed something on his face and put white stuff on his beards but left everything else unattended. His bulky muscles were still intact, his lips were still full, his ears had no sign of aging, his nose, his eyes, his neck, his hands, he still had his full frame, and his voice did not even change. See, what is worth doing at all is worth doing well. They should have tried to shrink him so the aging looked realistic. Then he teleported again and lost even more years, but still everything looked the same. He should not even have been able to walk, dammit!

Character build-up and utilization were also really poor. This entire movie builds up to the reveal of the character behind the mask (I must mention that as soon as I saw the person’s stomach and walk, I knew it was Uzor Arukwe, I was just really anticipating how they would explain it) but the reveal was so underwhelming.

Rogba’s character was underutilized. His ending was so bleh. The easy defeat of who we thought was the main antagonist wasted the impact of the whole build-up. Because what do you mean ordinary Chisom’s urine on a bullet killed him? Is that not something to hurt mere men like we witnessed at the beginning of the film? If that was enough to kill him, you would wonder why Voke did not just pick up a gun, pee on it, and kill him the first time he met him or even as soon as he got to Chisom’s house. Because if you know what can kill your enemy why waste time???? I was so upset. Even though there was a greater villain like we later saw, Rogba’s character could have been more compelling. 

Let’s talk about Voke’s character. He was a very bland hero full stop and I won’t be explaining myself!  (Yes, I just had to write the full stop sorry 😂). 

Finally, the most problematic part of this film – the conclusion 😩.  I know the ending has been explained by so many people but my God, I was thoroughly confused! RMD is actually the evil god, the evil mind behind everything. He is the powerful force that blocked Voke’s mother’s vision when Lolu was kidnapped, RMD is also the one who disguised as Mr Pius. He paid someone to kill Rogba and also paid the people searching for his body to stop looking. Why? He did all this so he could get to Voke. 

Then the question is, get Voke for what? What is the bigger purpose? Even if they did not explain everything yet, they should have established the big picture and WHAT EXACTLY WAS AT STAKE!! I just could not understand why this random evil god that was randomly introduced, went through so much unnecessary trouble just to “get him”. It should not be this difficult to watch a movie o because what was all that about?

Did he really need to do all that to get Voke? If he stepped up to help Voke find his goddaughter and friend at that time, I dare say Voke would have given anything to him and actually owed him. In the end, Voke did the right thing by killing Chisom, so what? This evil god had to settle for giving Voke back his youth so Voke would still be indebted to him in some way. We even had to watch Boma’s terrible acting just because this “god” wanted to get Voke. Explain it and justify it however you like, but ko make any sense!

They did more telling than showing in this film. It was so annoying that they had to rely on multiple stories at the end of the film to connect the dots. Still, it was not dotting, it was not connecting, it was not exciting. Every new revelation was more confusing and disappointing than the first, earning them one long hiss after another from me while I was watching. None of the revelations made me cheer and say, “Oh my God, that’s crazy, that’s exciting!” For me, I was just like, “Ooh okay, that’s what happened.” I couldn’t believe I sat through that whole movie to get THAT kind of ending!

I wanted to like this film because I really needed a good one from Nollywood (it’s been a while). But unfortunately, Suspicion only left me frustrated and tired. But I guess this film is another win for team “only people that can think well will appreciate it, it’s not for everyone.”

I’ll round up my review by saying, when this film started, I liked how they positioned juju as powers. So what I hated the most was the fact that in the end, they still reduced the whole thing to the typical money ritual and sacrifice direction. I would have liked it if they maintained the tone they started with. I would have liked if this whole thing was for  something bigger and more sinister, something capable of affecting a larger demographic. After all, what’s a superhero movie or a superhero character without a bigger purpose?

I know some people will come and say, “all will be revealed in a sequel,” but since when has anything been revealed in a Nollywood sequel? Personally, I think it is only exciting to anticipate a sequel when it is an opportunity to see more of a character or characters that we have come to like, an opportunity to see more of the world that a movie created in the first installment, an opportunity to see them do more, and embark on other exciting adventures. In the case of Nollywood, sequels are always their excuse to explain and justify crooked plot points, an attempt to clean up their spilled milk and straighten out the knots they forgot to untie. And do you know the funny thing? They fail most times, but we’ll wait and see what happens with this one. God help us.

P.S. Why exactly was the title of this movie Suspicion? I couldn’t see it.

Overall, while Suspicion was not a terrible watch, it was a very, very, very unsatisfying experience. An engaging mystery that was ruined by one disappointing reveal after another.

My Rating: 4/10. 

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

Read the review of Beast of Two Worlds here.

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