One thing I like about The Artifact is that it doesn’t feature many popular Nollywood actors. I could only recognise two stars, while the rest of the cast were new to me.
The movie stars Adeoluwa Aimtoba, Callistus Akunaeziru, Gabriel Afolayan, Kunle Remi, Miracle Inyanda, and Ovy Godwin. Tolu Lordtanner directed it.
The Artifact is an adventurous story of the journey by some friends to recover precious stones stolen from an artefact. However, the friends never suspected that the item was also on the radar of a secret agency that recovers art. Also on the quest to take possession of the item was a politician and an art thief. The stones bring together a web of drama that all the parties involved never bargained for.
Even though The Artifact is a Nigerian film, I didn’t feel like the creators understood Nigerians and the kind of movies they like before they decided to set the cameras rolling. The Artifact is an adventure kind of film that borrows ideas from Hollywood’s playbook, something I’ve noticed a lot in Nollywood’s recent releases. To me, if your movie cannot sit well with a grandma, Genz and kids in Nigeria, then it was not made with them in mind.
The directors of this movie need to sit and watch Indiana Jones to understand what an adventure movie feels like. Adventure movies keep you looking ahead to see what will happen, keep you wondering how the main character would get out of danger and also wondering why the character loves to embark on journeys that risk his life. The Artifact lacks all of that. On top of it, the movie was too serious. It will bore you as a movie-savvy person, not to mention a grandma and Gen Zs with a short attention span.
I must, however, give kudos to the production team for the good job they did. Location scouting was top-notch because it showed certain parts of Nigeria I never knew existed or had forgotten about. For example, the Onitsha bridge was lovely to behold. At least, that’s better than seeing the Lekki-Ikoyi link bridge in every movie. The color grading is good, but still below the standards of Hollywood movies. The sound is good, but unsuitable for the movie because it fails to evoke that adventurous feeling.
I don’t have much to say about the acting because the actors didn’t deliver to my taste. And like I said earlier, the movie lacks the feel of an adventure movie. At times, it gave off the vibe of a spy thriller. Sometimes I felt like I was seeing a village movie. Kunle Remi and Gbenga Afoloayan did their best but I think the acting they delivered in this movie could have been delivered by anybody else. They were just included in the cast to sell the movie.
I cannot recommend this movie to anyone, and I rate it 5/10 simply because the production is good, but the story is not Nigerian. It is just like Nollywood making a movie about nuclear weapons. No Nigerian will be interested in such.
