Throwback Movie Review: "Is this your King?" - King of Boys 2 review

The 7-part miniseries ‘King of Boys: The Return of the King’ is a sequel to the original franchise; ‘King of Boys’.

Written and directed by Kemi Adetiba, part one is a great success -at least, where surface-level deception is allowed.

The announcement of a sequel rented the air over a year ago and Kemi Adetiba undoubtedly pulled a lot of stops -marketing-wise- to keep us—the audience— on our toes.

It is more than safe to say that Kemi Adetiba kept us more hooked with her marketing gimmicks and stunts than she did with the actual series.

Eniola Salami (Sola Sobowale), with her return, remains the head of the table; THE KING OF BOYS, but now, she wants more; she wants to be Governor of Lagos state.

The announcement of this ambition comes off as forced, especially when one marries it with the series of events that occurred before and after the announcement.

Before the announcement, she had —from abroad—single-handedly, delivered MuMusa as President of Nigeria. Coming home, she now seeks to be a saint, to be forgiven of all her sins.

As predicted by many, Makanaki returns but not in the badass way. His return is poorly executed-with the use of slow motion, smoke effect, and a poor silhouette shot.

Well, it doesn't matter how he returns. He achieves one of his aims: He kills Odogwu Malay and his family (wife and two kids) He now has to focus on killing Eniola. He even swears an oath not to give birth to a child to achieve that.

All of these added to the plot, but did they drive it? Yes! But backward.

KOB 2 's plot is unnecessarily bland, slow, and not in any way a successful political thriller.

Even a blind man can see that the film wasn't originally conceived to be a series but due to the excessive length of the script, they had to find a way for the audience to see it —by fire, by force.

Charley Boy convincingly plays Odudubariba, the one who manages to divide the table and proclaims himself as the new King of the table. You guessed right; a battle ensues between him and Eniola because of this. Another distracting, aimless, plot story.

'King of Boys'

Perhaps, this should have been the entire spine story: POWERPLAY AND POWER TUSSLE. But, we were distracted by too many irrelevant plot twists and turns.

While we complain about the sour taste of the series, the design department of the film is one to be applauded. The costume and production design—where there isn't overstretched use of color and smoke effect—sits well with the film and makes it –at least— a less tasteless meal to down. Well, nothing less should be expected from the industry at this age, and time.

The series could have been at least 3 episodes shorter,—if devoid of all the unnecessary scenes, thoughtless twists, snail speed execution, and less dramatic dialogues.

How did Makanaki come back? How did Eniola know of the plot against her with Ade Tiger? What's the need for flogging at the beginning? NOTHING ADDS UP!

There is no spine story to properly connect the plot points. Leaving us with a poorly executed series.

"IS THIS YOUR KING?" This line by Odudubariba (Charley Boy), is what best defines the story. Is this our King (Of boys)? the highly anticipated political thriller? A king who delivers the presidential seat from outside the country comes back home and has to beg a shitty Pastor for an endorsement to become Governor?

KOB 2 is nothing short of a disappointment as the only things enjoyable in the series are the efforts of the actors, costume design, and the OST.

Storywise, KOB is nothing to write home about. Nothing thrills. Eniola Salami returns to Nigeria, but the highly awaited Laburu, The King of Boys, remains in New York.

Notable Mentions: Sola Sobowale, Toni Tones, Charley Boy, Taiwo Aiayi-Lycet, Nse Ikpe-Etim.

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Disclaimer: This article is the opinion of a Pulse Contributor, it doesn't reflect the opinions of the company.