the audience applauded

How sad is this?

Don't listen to the negative reviews

The acting in this movie is really good.

Even Chadwick Boseman's has had a clunker or 2 in his closet before hitting it big as the go to leading man he's become so one will forgive this effort for giving him a decent starring role only to have it squandered by a 'been there, done that' plot chronicling a foreigner's journey to find his lost sister. A game cast can't save this tripe but just by the law of averages, Chadwick will do better.

Just finished the movie, and wanted to jump straight on here to leave a review. Normally I don't bother but this was excellent. Excellent pacing, excellent action and fight scenes, excellent acting. The storyline, while not terrible original, is executed tremendously well and we were kept on the edge of our seats. Highly recommended if you enjoy movies like Taken, John Wick etc.

I don't know how anyone could consider this a good movie. The plot made no sense. The dialogue was terrible. The lighting was too dark, even if it was going for a pseudo-noir effect. The camera had trouble following the action in the fight scenes, and the director must have been asleep to let all of this take place. It started out okay, but why did he have to lie about being a cab driver, and not tell customs he was a detective? He didn't know that his sister was dead yet. Why did he only bring $600? Why couldn't he involve the LAPD if he was a detective? The second half was so convoluted, it made no sense whatsoever. Terrible movie!

When it comes to films with black leads, I try to never let representation cloud my judgement and always hope they have the ideal writing and direction working for the leads in their favor. I've been excited to see Chadwick Boseman raise from the TV show Lincoln Heights to playing T'Challa as Black Panther. After learning about this film Message from the King, I thought this film would at least be a good prelude to the few months waiting for Black Panther, however, I left severely underwhelmed that the Message brings.Chadwick Boseman plays Jacob King, a man traveling back from South Africa to search for his sister Bianca had gone missing and goes on a chase through those she knew personally for answers of her whereabouts and even resulting in violent acts in the process. Chadwick himself does fine in the role, as most of the time he is spent stoic and a man of few words. Luke Evans makes a surprise role connected to the antagonists, and while his cool persona helps the role, his character gets really annoying fast as a dentist where literally no character doesn't talk about their teeth while their around him. "You can really learn about a man when you see his teeth." That is a real line. In a movie that's supposed to be a action thriller.Another big issue is the pacing of this movie. Even at a 103 minute runtime, it takes entirely too long for any engaging action to occur (there's only 2 action scenes in the whole movie), and the plot and writing isn't engaging enough to warrant it's slow burn storytelling. But the film really flies off the rails in the third act with the main antagonist and you find out about his shady business involving someone young, it felt disgusting and really out of place for what the films main motivation.Message from the King was one I had hope for, but I found out halfway, this wouldn't leave a good impact. The direction and writing is choppy, despite some decent performances from Chadwick and Luke. I just feel King deserved better and I'm hoping I'm right in February.