Filmmaker Jade Osiberu, has been making some waves in Nollywood since she produced the hit movie Sugar Rush. Not a newcomer to the movie industry, the 37 year old University of Manchester Alumnus and founder of Greoh studios has accomplished a lot for herself in her industry.

From an African Magic Viewers Choice Award(AMVCA) winner in 2018 for Isoken (best director) to bagging 11 AMVCA nominations for the movie, Brotherhood. Jade has shot herself up the ranks and is fast becoming a fan favourite for her works.

Her new movie, Gangs of Lagos, premiered on the 7th of April, exclusively to Prime Video. Just like her previous works, it has been making waves on social media and has been receiving serious raves.

However, did these gangs really find their marks? Let’s do a quick analysis.

COSTUMING

From the styles of the past, to the current street fashion. The movie made good work on the costumes. The apparels used by the cast helped to accentuate their characters and bring to life the plot of the movie, it showed a wide range from old Nigeria to how the country currently looks. Although there was a wardrobe malfunction with the character “Gift”, on the costumes, 7/10.

SETTING AND LOCATION

Ofcourse, if you’re going to have a movie on gangs in Lagos, you want to go down into the streets. And that, this movie did. It takes you on a journey in Isale Eko. The dark corners, the market squares and the city hubs. It shows you Lagos at its heart. It scores a good 7/10 for setting and location.

CAST

As you would imagine, the movie is packed with some serious firepower. The likes of Tobi Bakre, Adesua Etomi-Wellington, Bimbo Ademoye, Chioma Chukwuka Akpotha to mention a few and the addition of some new faces such as music sensation Chike, brought the diversity in characters the film needed. As usual, these top actors were able to embody their characters. This cast would get an 8/10.

CINEMATOGRAPHY AND EFFECTS

Although the location and setting for this movie was ideal, based on the plot, the cinematography could have been much better. I’m some scenes, the cinematographer seemed to be trying to achieve too much with angles and sort of lost that “it” factor. There were also several scenes where some things couldn’t be explained away. The effects in some of the scenes were still giving old Nollywood and a little bit of Bollywood. So we don’t spill too much, you should check it out for yourself. On these fonts, 5/10.

ACTING

While most of the cast were accomplished and experienced actors, the acting in this movie wasn’t extraordinary. Firstly, the kid scenes were somewhat cringe and could have been done better. Some of the other scenes kind of felt a bit much from the actors and all In all only a few characters were able to truly act out their roles. A lot of the fight scenes looked extra and showed fight styles that are not typically common in Nigeria, not to talk of Lagos. Shout out to Chioma Chukwuka who was truly outstanding. On acting, a stiff 5/10.

PLOT/ STORY DEVELOPMENT

It was refreshing to see more action in Nollywood, but can we really start to find new storylines ? Honestly, this Governor of Lagos storyline is starting to be tiring. There are several other untapped stories in Nigeria that could be brought to life. Other than the over flogged storyline, the film was very predictable and you could guess what was going to happen over the span of the movie. There were only a few “Wow” moments and it felt lacking in vigour. For plot and story development, 4/10.

Gangs of Lagos has great potential, and is a good step in the right direction for Nollywood, it could have been a lot better. Of course a new shiny toy would always get attention, but it doesn’t last for long. There is a lot of room for improvement and if anyone can do this, it’s Jade Osiberu. On a whole, Gangs of Lagos would rate a 6/10.