I was really looking forward to this movie for the longest time (since I heard about it last month), and I have mixed FEELINGS after watching it with 3 strangers in a darkened room on a summer Monday evening. Ultimately the movie is not very good, and I think that’s mostly due to the first time writing/directing “skills” of Marc Forby. What was meant to be big and ambitious did end up being just that – but more suited for TV movie of the week on any of the major networks than on the silver screen. The pluses are lead actress Q’orianka Kilcher who is quite ravvvvishing throughout in her role as the Princess, and she did an decent job with the material that was handed to her. As well the setting was especially beautiful to see during the second half of the movie (although the cinematography wasn’t anything special). In the end what gives this movie PROPS is that it does need to be given credit for even attempting to tell this particular story of Hawai’i in the first place- or ANY story of Hawai’i’s history really. Hawai’i has a long storied past even when it comes to just its political history over the past 130 years or so, but I guess it’s poetic in a way that it’s stories will continue to go unnoticed due to the quality of this movie – as hard as it tried to bring it to the rest of the world. Here’s hoping it will at least inspire a better production down the road some day. A+ for effort, C- for execution! Mahalo!
Comments