Review of Queen of Katwe (2016) by Legitsalt — 18 Apr 2018

This is certainly a film with potential. There are visually stunning aspects that truly are a delight to the eye, and several of the performances were, at times, quite stellar. My praise ends here, however, as I didn't find the story very compelling, nor did I find it very original, for it is a generic story that has been done ad nauseam.

I did not enjoy the vast majority of the child actors, for they were not only unconvincing, but there were several times that they looked directly into the camera, thus breaking the immersion. The lead was decent, but she too was unconvincing at times.

The pacing was also very confusing and made the movie very choppy. I am not sure if it the condition in which I watched the movie, but I felt very unimmersed. I also felt that it made the wealthier Ugandans out to be bad people, which sure, maybe they were, but it cast them in such a negative light, and didn't in any way make them seem like people, just like plot devices implemented to show how awesome the poor main characters really are, and how good they are.