REVIEW: ‘MESSAGE FROM THE KING’ Delivers Serviceable Revenge Story!

Message from the King follows the story of Jacob King, a South African national who comes to Los Angeles to look for her troubled, missing sister, Bianca only to find her gruesome demise, Jacob sets out on a vengeful quest against the people behind her death.

This kind of plot sounds like your typical Liam Neesson action movie particularly the gritty, ominous urban settings with gangsters and exhilarating violence and intense stares but what sets it apart from a mystery thriller plot that it explores Jacob’s internal emotions as the film plays out.

Chadwick Boseman’s layered, intense and nuanced performance made a huge impact and overshadows the film’s problematic screenplay and instead focuses on Jacob’s character study. From the intense stares, every word he spoke echoed bluntness, movement conveys a lot of emotions and intimidating, terrifying presence when he goes on rampage towards his enemies.

At the same time, his tormented, vulnerable moments is where Boseman makes his performance unique and genuine he hits the audience hard and unsettled but in the most human way possible.

Now for the film’s structure started out as solid, the gutting cold open where Jacob is being interrogated by U.S. immigration on his travel to LA was brisk and when the story sets in motion for the search, there were some fine moments where the screenplay plays out the detective work midway fell short, it went sideways and didn’t seem to have any direction. The writers kept on throwing convenient, comfortable plot devices that favors the lead instead of setting the stakes or

The gangster angle seemed to be the most intriguing but were reduced into one-dimensional twirling moustache villains like Alfred Molina’s Mike Preston and Luke Evans’ Dr. Paul Wentworth, were both underwritten and is purpose to only serve as villains Chadwick Boseman’s Jacob.

Another plot point that the story and screenplay lacks is Jacob’s relationship with her sister, the dialogue expresses that Bianca is troubled, looking for money, ran into the wrong crowd but it show her motivations or let alone use flashbacks, If the filmmakers use that artsy, grainy shots flashbacks of her walking along the beach, it wouldn’t hurt showing a scene or two that would’ve had more depth on Jacob’s journey and his character as a whole

That being said, Message From The King is your usual revenge, mystery thriller story but it’s worth seeing for Chadwick Boseman’s phenomenal performance and this is the film where he showcases his acting chops and is capable enough to carry a film.

Message from the King is now showing in Cinemas. Special thanks to Solar Pictures and Black Maria Pictures for the invite!