An interesting movie

Rating: 6/10 (30 October 2015)

The problem about a film on a child soldier in Africa is that child actors are hard to direct and are usually not good actors. That cannot be said for Abraham Attah who embodies his character and makes us feel all his pain as the movie progresses. The first part of the movie where everything is good is all the more heartbreaking when everyone gets shot down. We slowly see how a child's mentality can be twisted and controlled by a charismatic but ultimately shallow Idris Elba who as always kills it in his role. The action sequences remind me who directed the movie as the controlled chaos is very Fukunaga and he excels at those scenes. They all have emotional motive and impact and are very realistic. The problem that the movie has are too many minor plots and minor characters take too much screen time. The commander's second and command and Agu's foil/ friend are well utilized but extend the movies long screen time. The ending was a bit of a letdown as Agu and the army leaves the commander in the jungle without any real payoff.