After a seven year hiatus since the musical thriller Hoodrush was released, Dimeji Ajibola‘s new project is robust as it is quite unprecedented in Nollywood. A dystopian action thriller titled Ratnik and from the teaser recently released, Ajibola has given us his best work yet. Basically, it’s worth the wait. Ratnik is arriving at a time where the film landscape is flooded with comedies and popcorn fare, and movie variety is getting depleted ever since filmmakers discovered the comedy genre as the industry’s next cash cow.
Ratnik is dizzyingly ambitious, and a peak into the film via the teaser shows the heavy, almost clinical use of CGI as a selling point. And that, I’d have to say, is impressive. The plot details has been kept close to the vest, though. ”Things changed after you left you know,” a smoking Meg Otanwa says to someone whom we can’t see. She’s agitated, stressed. The scene cuts to helicopters flying overheard. Rust-coloured landscapes, the kind from post-apocalyptic movies, are sparingly shown and then we see Bolanle Ninalowo briefly. Upon seeing him, I realise that he is the kind of actor that the movie suits, all that machismo put in good use. Also in the teaser: dogs, explosions, laser-beam guns and a sound track that will invade your bloodstream.
And there’s Osas Ighodaro-Ajibade, who is one of the movie’s lead stars. Her character, at the end of the teaser, is consumed by strange, darkish pebbles that coats her body with a tech-powered suit. It took two years to make Ratnik, and it’s believed to be inspired by the Russian Ratnik Program. The movie also stars Tope Todela, Zikky Alloy, and Karibi Fubara. I really can’t wait to see an extended trailer of this movie. Why? Because it is what we deserve in 2019. Here’s the teaser below.
When Bernard Dayo isn’t writing about pop culture, he’s watching horror movies and reading comics and trying to pretend his addiction to Netflix isn’t a serious condition.
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