Title: BEYOND CONSPIRACY (1 & 2)

Sequel: DUST & ASHES (1 & 2)

Starring: Van Vicker, Tonto Dikeh, Ini Edo, Amaechi Muonagor, Joyce Kalu

Synopsis:

A conniving woman worms her way into marrying a prince but it’s not long before her ulterior motive surfaces.

Synopsis:

Michael (Van Vicker) had his life all planned when he proposed to Manari (Ini Edo). She was the woman he loved but the one thing she lacked was the prominence that his parents desired for him. Manari was poor and his parents vehemently disapproved of her. They actually had someone else in mind for him – Ugo (Tonto Dikeh). 

Ugo was the daughter of a prime minister and she seemed to be better suited for Michael in terms of status. The problem was that Michael didn’t love her and unbeknownst to his parents, she didn’t love him either – she was only after power. 

Michael continuously argued that he had a right to pick his own wife but his father had Manari thrown out of the kingdom to be certain a marriage didn’t happen. 

Meanwhile, Ugo pretended to be a well-mannered woman and Michael eventually buckled to his parents’ wishes and married her. She quickly became acclimated to royal life and began ruling the palace with no regard for tradition. Her ego and utter cruelty materialized to the point where the King and Queen realized their mistake in choosing her for a daughter-in-law. 

The last straw came when Ugo redesigned the palace to her taste and set the Kings’ stool on fire in the process. The stool was sacred and had ancestral powers embedded in it and without it, the King was just a powerless, ordinary, man.  

The destruction of the stool caused the King to be at his wits end and he then sought advice from a spiritual cult that directed him on how to finally get rid of Ugo. 

Let’s Talk. Here we go – another royal saga where love was intercepted by status. We’ve seen this storyline a thousand times and honestly, this movie failed to present anything new. There was no twist or anything relevant to justify making another one of these type stories.   

The king and queen were stuck in ancient traditions whereas their son was very modern. This is where they clashed and it served as the story conflict but there weren’t too many hurdles to overcome other than this one. 

The fact that Ugo (Tonto Dikeh) was willing to marry a man that didn’t even like her made no sense. Forget about love; he didn’t like her. If she was supposed to be a better caliber of woman as Michael’s parents believed, then where was her self-esteem? She had more than enough ego to run the palace but where was her pride when it came to her personal life? Why would she have to settle for a man that didn’t give a damn about her? Why would she want to be married to a man that she knew loved someone else? 

The one thing that wasn’t touched on was whether Michael and Ugo slept together as a married couple. Sorry, had to go there but it’s a valid question. He married a woman that he despised so how far did it go? 

As for the love between Michael and Manari, they were sooo boring together. Where was the passion? Their relationship was so bland that there was no reason to root for them. 

As much as this was another run of the mill drama, Tonto Dikeh rocked it out as the egomaniac that thrived on power while Van Vicker expressed believable emotion as a man that lost the love of his life. The sequel, “Dust and Ashes” picked up the pace and I actually enjoyed watching Tonto’s character tear up the palace. 

Audio, video and direction were satisfactory although there were a few instances where it was hard to hear the dialogue. 

Honestly, “Beyond Conspiracy” didn’t have to be made. It wasn’t a burden to watch; it’s just that the filmmakers didn’t offer any creativity to an overused storyline. EJECT