Movie review: The God's Are Still Not To Blame

Maybe the producers of this twisted classic tale should have kept the original title of the book from which the movie was adapted - Ola Rotimi's The Gods Are Not To Blame.

That way, viewers wouldn't be divided over who takes the lion share of the blame because someone's got to take the rap for the tragedy that occurred in this movie directed by Funke Fayoyin.

Those familiar with the classic are in for more than a few pleasant surprises as it veers off the expected village locale, with the local hunters garlanded with amulets and the horsetail wielding king.

There's nothing simple or predictable about this movie. Instead of an Odewale, the tragic hero of the old classic attired in a hunter’s garb, we have a Captain Nicholas Payne, a thoroughbred military officer who is part of a contingent of ECOMOG soldiers transferred from Cameroon to Nigeria.

Instead of an Ojuola, a Queen Mother who would normally be attired in heavy aran material with waves of beads around her neck befitting a queen, we have  Niniola, a modern day queen, one who is obviously well educated, fashionable and gives speeches at conferences.

Instead of the lone Ifa priest who predicted the tragic fate of the child born to the King, we have a clergy man who goes into a trance and sees a vision.

Amazingly, his utterances of doom are backed by an Ifa priest - just the kind of scenario you will have in a typical Nigerian home. The combination of traditional beliefs and Christianity or Islam as the case may be.

Even though the plot is all too familiar, all too known, the movie displays plenty of surprising aplomb. For instance, Queen Niniola is wooed like a modern day woman by Nicholas Payne who is often referred to as her toyboy. From toasting her into giving him her cellphone number to them eating out, swimming together and Nicholas cooking her a special meal, the audience can draw a parallel with the everyday boy meets girl story.

Another laudable twist is the addition of characters that didn't exist in the original. Characters like Halima, Ireti and Guy. Halima is Nicholas's scorned girlfriend who threatens hell and has a coterie of friends who give bad advice. Ireti is Niniola's sounding board and friend, she appears single, likes to look good and owns a beauty parlour. Guy is a soldier as well as a friend and flat mate to Nicholas. All of them have their quirks: Halima is self- obsessed, Ireti has a problem with the bottle and Guy can't have enough of sweets, the only time he doesn't have one in his mouth is when we see him in uniform.


The God's Are Still Not To Blame has a few comic scenes and witty dialogue.

The scene where Halima storms into the house accusing Nicholas of sleeping with his mother and is stunned when Nicholas orders her to leave his house with a curt: 'make your exit as dramatic as your entry!'

Again, veteran Yoruba actor Kareem Adepoju, who acted as Otun the head Chief, also got the audience laughing on numerous occasions with his funny facial expressions and the part where he demanded to know who Nicholas Payne is. He kept mispronouncing the name, giving it an entirely different meaning.

With the language ranging from English, to Yoruba, French and Hausa, The God's Are Still Not To Blame is not without a few shortcomings.

For instance, the lead character Nicholas, played by Bayo Alawiye falls short of expectation. He didn't do justice to the fiery character he represents. There is no fire, not even when he is on the farm with the king whom he kills accidentally, not when he is confronted by Prince Adeyemi to leave his mother alone and not even when he is accused of sleeping with a woman old enough to be his mother.

Certainly, some scenes could have been done better, case in point: the hospital where the queen was sequestered, the location manager could have got a better looking environment fit for a queen instead of the poor arrangement of a clinic, there were not enough establishment shots, particularly when we see Nicholas in Cameroon. Simply wearing traditional dresses or even speaking a foreign language is not enough to not imply the characters actually exist in that environment.

The God's Are Still Not To Blame is a movie to watch. The audience can't but empathise with the unlucky messenger of the God's who is running from a fate he must fulfill.

The movie doesn't end the way we all expect, yet it delivers the gut punch that made the book a must read.