The Woman King movie review: A stirring, action-packed historical epic

The Woman King is a wallop of a movie — a historical action epic about the Agojie, a regiment of female warriors in the Kingdom of Dahomey that fascinatingly really did exist. Apart from the odd decision by director Gina Prince-Bythewood to drill exposition into our heads through something as inelegant as an opening crawl, The Woman King is a stirring and gripping costumed action film. The story, almost entirely fictional, revolves around General Nanisca (Viola Davis), a fierce, stoic West African warrior who has turned the women in her command into the deadliest weapons of war in the kingdom ruled by King Ghezo (John Boyega in a supporting role).

It's 1823. Dahomey has been afflicted by the transatlantic slave trade, though the young monarch Ghezo is not entirely averse to it. As it does bring profits from rich and powerful albeit rapacious European powers. He allows it, so long as the people he is selling are not from his own kingdom. The hypocrisy is not lost on Nanisca, who in the opening sequence rescues Dahomey women kidnapped by slavers from the Oyo Empire (modern-day Nigeria) and is not loyal a servant as the King would like.

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Nanisca begins training a new generation of the Agojie as the hostilities mount between Dahomey and Oyo. Among them is Nawi (Thuso Mbedu), a young but determined woman. Finding Nanisca remote and inapproachable, she befriends Izogie (Lashana Lynch). As Dahomey and Oyo come to war, the Agojie attack but General Oba (Jimmy Odukoya), who Nanisca has reasons to loathe (and kill), escapes. Going against the king's wishes, she launches a rescue attempt.

I have been told that apart from the existence of Agojie, the film takes certain historical liberties, and my response to that is: so fecking what? In case you did not notice, my dears,The Woman Kingis not a documentary. It's not its job to be accurate, but to entertain. Pray analyse every action film that is ever made, and all the inauthenticity will drown the world. Oh, and as a piece of entertainment, The Woman King works very well. The action is extremely well-staged and is visceral and brutal and endlessly fun.

There is some commentary on the nature of slavery and racism in the film, but it is half-hearted and quite pat. Dana Stevens, the screenwriter, recognises I think that there have been too many movies on slavery and how horrible and cruel it was, and not many show the enslaved taking up arms against their oppressors. You know, when the slavers get what they deserve. The kind of action we saw in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained. And The Woman King delivers on that BIG time.

It is not as if the film is all action and not character. It's just there is just enough depth to the characters in this film for the audience to care about them. And the film's excellent cast manages to sell that quite run-of-the-mill writing and dialogue. Davis, at 57, remains a force of nature. She gives a performance that is akin to a kick to the well, you know, and somehow still quite nuanced. She is one of the best actors in the world, so that does not come as a huge surprise. It is Mbedu as the young Agojie recruit Nawi whose work dazzles, serving as the beating heart of the movie. She serves as our perspective on this world and delivers an emotional, powerful performance.

However, it is Lynch who ends up being the film's MVP for me. I have said earlier that she should have been the next James Bond (or Jane Bond, whatever), because she is always multi-faceted, even when saddled with one-note roles. Here, playing against the type, she essays Izogie like a loveable goofball who is nevertheless one of the best warriors in the regiment. It is a small role, and yet I daresay the most impactful.

The violence in The Woman King can be unexpected, as it's not the battle scenes where most of the blood and gore flows. Rather, it is the quieter scenes that turn your stomach. In one scene the would-be Agojie warriors crawl through clumps of the thorny bush, and it made even somebody like me, who has no issues with exploding heads and entrails hanging out in zombie movies, look away.

Pardon the pun, but The Woman King rules.

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