Title: PRETTY QUEEN (1 & 2)

Sequel: NONE

Starring:  Jackie Appiah, Majid Michel, Nikki Samonas, Ecow Smith Asante

Synopsis:  

A prince is betrothed to a beautiful woman that he doesn’t love while he can’t seem to make progress with the woman that his heart really yearns for.  

Review:

Prince Nabiya (Majid Michel) returned from London to his royal palace in Ghana. His father threw a celebratory party for him and its here that he was to meet Empress (Jackie Appiah), the beautiful bride his father had chosen for him.  After a flirtatious dance with another woman at the event, Prince Nabiya had little to no interest in Empress.

The mysterious woman the prince shared a dance with was a local girl by the name of   Vanessa (Nikki Samonas). Animosity instantly brewed between Vanessa and Empress as they both took a liking to the prince. Empress’ mother was adamant that her daughter married into a royal family and the two hatched a plan to eliminate Vanessa.

The backdrop to the story is about Kay (Ecow Smith Asante), a guy that recently lost his mother to an illness. He coincidently met Vanessa’s twin sister in Kumasi. She introduced herself to him as Naomi and the two became acquainted and eventually a couple.

When Naomi discovered that her sister, Vanessa was missing she put the pieces of the puzzle together and realized that Vanessa’s disappearance was related to Empress. She visited the palace with Kay and the truth and other surprises came to light.

Let’s Talk. This is another royal saga with all the bells and whistles. The story is a really simple one that evokes the vibe of a royal soap opera – a bad one. Empress and Vanessa are adversaries that want the same man. How pathetic that a mother and daughter set out to harm Vanessa just because she had the prince’s heart. Surely Prince Nabiya wasn’t the only prince in all of Africa and Empress could have pursued someone else. Ridiculous.

The one thing that Empress and Vanessa had in common was the fact that they were never without their girlfriends. How convenient that on the day Vanessa was kidnapped was the one time her friends were nowhere to be seen.  Sigh… 

The fact that Empress was so determined to have a man that she knows doesn’t want her is confusing and embarrassing. She’s from a wealthy family so she’s not after money. She wants to marry the prince solely for royal status, which she doesn’t really need.

In terms of acting, it wasn’t the greatest. The women who played the girlfriends to Empress and Vanessa were “acting.” Even Jackie Appiah overacted in some scenes. Speaking of Jackie Appiah, I didn’t quite understand the character she was playing. One minute she was the daughter of a wealthy family and the next she was a ghetto chick. I think her character needed to be fleshed out a bit more for clarity.

The movie ends with several subtitles that convey the outcome of the characters. This is a cop-out. A filmmakers job is to show us not tell us. A few more scenes would have conveyed all that the writer wanted the audience to know. Overall the story was second rate. Despite all of the royal trimmings, “Pretty Queen” was a complete bust. EJECT

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