Last Flight to Abuja (2012) User Reviews

Short changed!

[nigelsmithson · 5/10 · 20 June 2020]

This film was clearly mis-sold. It is in no way based on true events. And that explains why the ending is so abrupt; no mention of casualties/survivors; no mention of the cause of the crash (only limited speculation); and no attempt to pursue the issues raised in the aftermath.

Prior to the crash the film was OK; not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination but watchable. And then it ended.......so disappointing.

I feel totally short changed.

What a Mess

[AJ_McAninch · 3/10 · 20 June 2020]

This film was thrown together in 14 days and looks it. Scrambled narration, little character development, and completely different from the actual plane crashes the film claims to represent, not least of which are only a handful to no survivors in the actual tragedies. Have no idea why this film was even made.

I had hope for this in the begining, but it quickly faded away.

[TV-MOVIEaddict · 3/10 · 22 August 2020]

The plot is simple, a group of people each with his or her own story get on a plane which crashes eventually, I will just get to the point this movie is horrible, this movie isn't just terrible because it had a terrible budget and awful vfx, yes they failed to use their resources, and I would have enjoyed this movie if they didn't mess everything else up, 90% of the plot had nothing to do with the movie's name, the acting is horrendous, how is this acting? if they call themselves legitimate actors, then i will get an Oscar when i start my career. As for the cinematography, with my phone and a tripod I would have made a better looking movie. I grew up on Hollywood movies, and i won't lie for a long time I only wanted to watch big blockbuster American movies like avatar, Iron-man,inception, the dark knight. But lately i started trying different genres, I watched low-budget independents and some of them are my all-time favorites, and i watched foreign cinema for the first time a few months ago when i saw parasite and train to busan which were masterpieces in their respective genres. and i wanted to give nollywood a shot, but i don't think I'll be doing it again any time soon, but i hope they evolve to eventually produce quality movies like Bollywood is doing right now.

Soap opera

[wvfempwolford · 1/10 · 26 June 2020]

This is a bad soap opera pretending to be an air flight disaster thriller. Don't waste your time.

Dreadful

[mjdk2 · 1/10 · 21 June 2020]

I am baffled that Netflix would subject its audience to this kind of low budget rubbish.

The script is boring and without substance, the main theme of the movie doesn't start until the last 20 minutes of the film. The main theme, i.e. the crash and events leading up to it, were rushed and offered no details on how the crew handled the issue - I certainly hope that the Dana crew were a little more proactive than these two. The pilot uniforms looked like they were made by a toddler, the epaulets looked were yellow tape glued on top of black tape - really?, the director couldn't be bothered to borrow some epaulets or even a uniform from a line pilot. The whole thing is amateurish. Any High School film student or Youtuber would make a better film than this abhorrent junk.

Interesting premise, terrible script

[carguychris · 2/10 · 23 June 2020]

Netflix has recently been airing interesting foreign films, but they're really scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one. The obviously low-rent execution of this film doesn't bother me very much, but the horrid script and wildly uneven acting does.

This film is ostensibly about an airplane crash, but aside from the first 5 minutes and the last 20, it's actually a badly scripted and unevenly acted chamber drama with serious pacing problems. The plot aimlessly meanders between the personal lives of various characters, most of which are so uninteresting that the film feels far longer than its brief 75 minutes (a problem compounded by too many pointless establishing shots of aircraft taxiing - we already know we're at an airport!). The main actors do a good job, but the script often has them prattling aimlessly; minor characters are mere sketches, and many of the performances are cringe-worthy. Speaking of cringing, the attempts at comic relief are so unfunny that I'm unsure whether to even describe them as such, and it's obvious that the filmmakers knew almost nothing about how airliners actually operate.

This film would have been much better had it focused on the crash and on the embezzlement subplot. Attention low-budget filmmakers: in most cases, it's best to choose one interesting idea and focus on that.

Dont plan your evening around this

[robdrummond · 3/10 · 11 September 2022]

I was relieved to see the film was in English language although it was not an Anglo-Saxon film.

I found the film very misogynistic to be honest - to the point of being very embarrassing. It is true that Women are routinely treated like this and everyone is happy with it?

The acting was what Brits would call "Ham acting" (no idea why) which means kind of amateur or not great acting.

All in all I have seen worse films. Dont plan your night around this - but if you cant be bothered looking for something else then this may fill a gap in your schedule.

I have to add this last sentence for IMDB to accept my entry. I hope its now over 600 chts.

Confused

[ricknav-06475 · 1/10 · 6 April 2021]

Was this what a good movie looked like in Africa in 2012? If so then ... it was great! I have to wonder (in that case) if it's gotten any better in 2021? Guess I've been so spoiled with American crappy movies that my expectations have been skewed. Perhaps the two cultures are permanently unique.

Refreshingly different

[coolnoble04 · 6/10 · 9 July 2012]

To say the obvious, Last flight to Abuja was said to be based on true event – as referring to the air mishaps in Nigeria.However, in comparison,the only thing that matched the tag "true events" was that there was a plane crash. All characters in the movie are fictitious. More so, of all the commercial plane mishaps that occurred in Nigeria, there hasn't been any report of survivors as all passengers died. This is greatly in contrast with the movie's finale, as there were survivors. Multiple if i may add, which is quite unrealistic for a commercial airline's crash.

Must I add that this is the first African movie to be shot within the confines of an aeroplane. Minus, the originality, a huge thumbs up to Obi for giving us something new. in Previous Nigerian movies, we only see planes taking off, or landing when a character wants to be buttressed as travelling or just arriving.lol

The CGI (computer generated imagery) was nearly okay i.e the outside view of the plane in the skies, but I feel it could have been better though – definitely calls for more research for 'future like' projects. It looked more like a cartoon most times and thought the focus would have just been best if stayed in the inside of the plane/cockpit rather than a fake plane and sky.

Conversations on-board went smoothly, usual jokes and chitchats. The script in that note was awesome. Also the side discussions – we all know Nigerian gossip, so it was good incorporating that too in the movie, like when the flight crew were arriving at the check-point, we could see a would be passenger saying jealously ' I hate pilots. Lol.

There wasn't any wasted scene in the movie. Each scene begat another and explained it hitherto. I think that's what kept the movie going. Wonderful performance from the cast especially Omotola, hakeem, jide kosoko and Iyke. This does not still mean we aren't yearning for new faces in more major roles in flicks.

However, simple flaws that were left unoted was the application of Ipads and Iphones and recent automobiles in a movie that was set in 2006.

Last flight to Abuja. A good but just another forgettable movie. Its still definitely worth the while.

A film which captured a nation's hope for better cinema

[luke_corradine · 10/10 · 23 January 2013]

Its been almost a year since this film came out and an unbiased review is certainly easier to attempt now than ever before. Whoever watches this now or in the future have to understand that the film premiered a mere week after the Dana Air disaster which saw a Douglas MD-83 plunge into Lagos killing 150. Naturally the film was bound to face severe scrutiny in its homeland. A lot of those "vibe"s have settled and the film remains a landmark and one of a kind on its own right.

As of 2013, Nigeria is mostly producing films which are deeply rooted in a homemade video culture which is hard to grasp by the westerner. Although I personally believe this country, under the right political vision, can be made into a gold mine for film, it is more than realistic to say that all that we have, for now, is a very productive although sub-par industry which most of the times calls films, what are in fact just video productions.

In this climate, Last Flight to Abuja stands out for its quality, film-like screen presence and ambitious non-linear narrative as well as brilliant cinematography. It is also fair to say that Omotola, Kae-Kazim and Monjaro in particular, pull out some larger-than-life performances. I might as well add that these are actors who in all fairness, belong to a better industry, and its only a shame we don't get to see them at all in bigger productions.

Last Flight also boasts great camera work which truly sets it on a league of its own. I believe the producers truly took quality to the forefront by shipping two Arri Alexa from Los Angeles for the shoot. The script which sits at the core of the film, was considered for a BAFTA nomination, and although it failed to realise the part in the end, it nevertheless stands as tribute to the quality which was put into this production and how this was appreciated beyond Nigeria.

The film was shot in a mere 14 days which is next to nothing for a story of this scale. This certainly stops the film from building into a true epic size, which perhaps would have been needed taking into account the subject matter. Still to this day, its casualty-free ending (only affected by the loss of the film's one villain) , is going to leave more than one unsatisfied. Although with foresight, there's not knowing if a bloodier end would have ever seen the film out. Considering how close the release was to the Dana Air disaster, that would have certainly been too much an impact for anyone to watch.

My last word is for director Obi Emelonye, who grabbed, with this film, a phenomenal success, beating The Dark Knight Rises and other blockbusters, in most theatres in Nigeria and Ghana. It is difficult to put a mark on Obi's cinematic impact in his country and beyond. We will have to wait another few years for that and see how Nigeria's film industry grows from this experience. Let me underline here that Obi's true legacy is not only that of his film's artistic value but also that of having restored confidence of Nigerian audiences in their own films.

One can only wish that other Nigerian filmmakers will build on this same ground for a much brighter Nigerian film future.

not bad

[drnicasia · 7/10 · 28 June 2020]

A plane crash made around the fate and lives of different people. I would say it's not bad at all.